This new video by LifeMosaic features communities explaining why their territory is important to them and why secure tenure and land rights are crucial. It’s another video in the series “Territories of Life“.
The benefits of land security extend not only to the communities involved, but also to the environment and wider society.
The narrator of the video explains that,
“Research around the world is increasingly showing that communities with secure tenure rights are often the most effective managers and protectors of forests and other natural resources on their territories. Communities that have secure tenure set their own rules, monitor their own forest and impose penalties when rules are broken.”
Territory is everything for the indigenous Misak people in Colombia. The video starts with four members of the community explaining what territory means to them:
Pesr Waira Velasco Tumiño: “Territory for me is life itself.”
Barbara Muelas: “The territory contains everything. Everything means everything!”
Jeremias Tunabala: “Territory is a living being where all our historical memory is stored.”
Javier Calambas: “If we have territory, we have control over our futures”
The video shows a Global Forest Watch map of tree loss in Brazil. The blue areas are indigenous territories and pink areas show areas that have lost tree cover:
Clearly, the vast majority of deforestation has taken place outside indigenous peoples’ land.
Resources on benefits of territories
LifeMosaic’s website includes a resources page, with links to the following reports on the benefits of territory:
- Indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories, and resources, International Land Coalition, 2013.
- Securing Rights, Combating Climate Change, Rights and Resoursces Initiative, 2014.
- Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Food Security, Evidence on Demand, 2013.
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