1. Property Rights, Land Tenure and Access to Resources

This folder contains materials used in evaluating issues of property rights, land tenure issues, and access to resources.

World Bank Report - LAC Regional Integrated Ecosystem Management in Indigenous Communities in Central America Project, Vol. 1 — by webadmin — last modified 2006-09-21 16:13

The global objective of the Regional Integrated Ecosystem Management in Indigenous Communities in Central America Project is to achieve effective biodiversity conservation in Central America - Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama - by strengthening the capacity of indigenous communities to protect, and manage their natural and cultural resources, and, by recuperating and promoting their cultural values, and sustainable traditional land use practices, thereby preventing further land degradation that threatens environmental services, livelihoods, and economic well-being, and, conserving the region ' s high, though increasingly threatened, biodiversity resources. The components are : 1) Cultural and institutional strengthening, and capacity building of participating communities, which consists of a) generation and strengthening of the organizational, technical and administrative capacities of indigenous communities regarding the application of their cultural values to the management of their natural resources; b) standardization and criteria formation for traditional ecosystem management of indigenous communities, including a certification process for them to engage in effective ecosystem management, and; c) strengthening empowerment capacities of community organizations for traditional ecosystem management. 2) Promotion of sustainable cultural land use and traditional ecosystem management entails the development of a progressive series of community conservation, and sustainable cultural land use plans that together can form a network of land use areas, to yield greater collective conservation impacts, actually focused on actual planning and management of conservation areas. 3) Development of culturally appropriate products, markets, and services for environmental sustainability in indigenous communities will channel grant resources to develop financial mechanisms at the community level. Specifically, it will finance a progressive series of community biodiversity conservation, and sustainable use subprojects, compatible with the land use plans. Grant activities will focus on income-generating opportunities in four categories: a) traditional products; b) environmental services; c) eco/ethnotourism; and, d) traditional ecosystem management models. 4) Participatory project monitoring and evaluation will support training and capacity building on monitoring and evaluation of project impacts, and also progress in conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. It will finance scientifically sound monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity, to follow project implementation and biodiversity changes over time. Full report can be downloaded from this link.

Nature, Wealth, and Power: Emerging Best Practice for Revitalizing Rural Africa — by IGR — last modified 2007-06-27 19:30

This document - Nature, Wealth, and Power (NWP) - is about rural development in Africa. It is a preliminary statement of lessons learned from more than 20 years of natural resource–based development in rural Africa. Twenty years ago, natural resource management programs took a predominantly technical approach to getting rural development moving and responding to perceived environmental crises. The limitations of this approach were subsequently revealed as projects failed to meet their objectives and be sustainable. The originial source of this file is {http://www.frameweb.org/ev_en.php?ID=12186_201&ID2=DO_TOPIC}

Barren Ground Caribou Co-Management, Eastern Canadian Arctic — by Andrew Hurst — last modified 2007-06-27 19:39

ODI Widlife Policy Briefing entitled "Barren Ground Caribou Co-Management in the Eastern Canadian Arctic: lessons for bushmeat management" by Andrew Hurst; Wildlife Policy Number 5, April 2004. Introduction: Local communities have been involved in the conservation and management of caribou herds in the Canadian Arctic for 20 years. Attempts to address the bushmeat ‘crisis’ through management models would do well to consider this experience and draw lessons from it. This paper reviews the history of caribou co-management in the Canadian Arctic, looks at how it has evolved to satisfy both livelihoods and conservation goals, and discusses what this can tell us about the possibility of sustainable bushmeat management. Keywords: Barren Ground Caribou, Co-Management, Eastern Canadian Arctic, Bushmeat Management

Gestión Organizativa de las Agrupaciones Sociales del Lugar — by BOLFOR — last modified 2007-06-27 19:48

B O L F O R Proyecto de Manejo Forestal Sostenible Santa Cruz, Octubre, 2002 Es una publicación de la Unidad de Forestería Comunitaria CARTILLA FORESTERIA COMUNITARIA 1.pdf Keyword: es, espanol

ARD: Land Tenure and Property Rights Community of Practice — by USAID — last modified 2007-10-17 13:02

The demand to address property rights issues is increasing from both United States Agency for International Development (USAID) field missions and host country governments. The increase in demand is due, in part, to a growing awareness among development practitioners of the role played by property rights (and natural resources access and use) in economic growth, governance, and conflict and resource management. USAID and its partners have learned several important lessons from the last decade of research and policy work in regards to the relationship between property rights and economic growth, productivity, natural resource management and conflict....