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hinders communities’ abilities to make long-term plans in accordance with their own visionsand aspirations, compounding legal uncertainty with further marginalization.Lack of RecognitionOne Indigenous person from Suriname summed up the sentiment roused by the lack ofrecognition, stating that: “It is as if we simply do not count and exist; the animals have morerights than us.”The surge in land acquisition globally, and particularly in sub-Saharan Africa because of theweakness of local land rights, is rapidly intensifying pressure on the traditional territories ofpastoralists, small-scale and subsistence farmers, hunter-gatherers, forest-dependentcommunities, and others in rural areas. The recognition of land rights, perhaps above allothers, will determine the opportunities for ICCAs to contribute effectively to conservationand rural livelihoods.Lack of Land TenureIn Cameroon, as in many African countries, the state claims ownership over all unregistered(i.e. not formally titled) lands, including all lands claimed according to customary rights andheld through common property regimes. Thus, while local communities throughoutCameroon depend integrally on the forests in which they live, their customary rights are notrecognized or delineated by the law as real property interests. This situation extends to theentire forested landscape of the Congo Basin where statutory tenure regimes are almostuniformly centralized.In Namibia, the most significant threat to conservancies and community forests is the lack ofsecure and exclusive group land tenure to underpin the legal rights to the use andmanagement of natural resources. If communities cannot prevent other people from usingthe land they wish to set aside for wildlife and tourism, there remains little incentive tomaintain wild habitats. This issue is compounded by the fact that the government continuesto view communal land as state land, over which it can take decisions about how the land isused.In India, the government owns much of the lands within Indigenous peoples’ and localcommunities’ conserved territories and areas. Not only do they not have ownership rights,but they also have very limited or no recognized access rights. The government can decideto change the land-use or lease the land for any other purpose without consulting or eveninforming the conserving communities. This is beginning to change with new legislation onforest rights, though very slowly.c. No Rights Over Sub-soil ResourcesVery few countries provide Indigenous peoples any rights over their sub-soil resources; inthose that do, the rights are muted (such as in Bolivia and Canada). As previously discussed,where laws regulating access to natural resources (including sub-soil resources) areprejudicial to Indigenous peoples and local communities, laws that otherwise support theirrights to retain the integrity of their ICCAs are significantly disabled. This is particularlyevident in the context of laws relating to mining that are privileged by state agencies overthe rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Resource RightsThe Constitution of the State ofPanama ignores the rights ofIndigenous peoples to their naturalresources. According to theConstitution, the State has nationalsovereignty over all naturalresources in the country.Subsequent laws stipulate thatsubsoil resources and forests are allproperty of the State, disregardingIndigenous peoples’ rights to thesame resources. This has triggeredmany conflicts and cases of loss ofnatural resources due to both legaland illegal exploitation.Guna boats, Panama. © Jorge AndreveThe Constitution of Suriname states in Article 41 that natural riches and resources are theproperty of the nation and that the nation has the inalienable right to take full possession ofthem for the economic and social development of Suriname. The Constitution does notacknowledge the existence or rights of Indigenous or tribal peoples in Suriname.All sub-soil resources, including petroleum, are the property of the Fijian State as providedby Section 3 of the Mining Act. The Director of Mineral Resources has broad powers to issueprospecting licenses over land areas without owner consent and to declare a site less than250 ha a mining site if it has importance to the nation, even if it is in a gazetted protectedarea. Section 11 provides a narrow class of lands exempt from any prospector’s rights ormining tenement, including Fijian villages, burial land and reserved forests, amongst others.d. Marginal Rights-based Approach to <strong>Natural</strong> Resources and theEnvironmentIn many cases, laws relating to natural resources and the environment make no specialprovision for Indigenous peoples or local communities. This effectively criminalizes theircustomary livelihoods and resource use practices. At the same time, the legal frameworkscreate sectoral approaches to agriculture, forests, fisheries, water, wildlife, and othernatural resources. This not only fragments otherwise interconnected ecosystems, but it alsotends to mandate their overexploitation for short-term economic gains. In this light, newand emerging financial and market-based incentive schemes, for example, access andbenefit sharing (ABS) and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation(REDD), remain heavily contested. Indigenous peoples and local communities fear they willcause further marginalization, in addition to turning nature and natural resources purely intotradable commodities in the eyes of the state.<strong>Natural</strong> Resource ManagementIn Suriname, the Hunting Law 1954 (revised last in 1997), the Fish Protection Law 1965(revised last in 1981) and the Sea Fishing Law 1980 (revised last in 2001) similarly make noreference to Indigenous and tribal peoples, thus making their customary livelihood practices
Page 2 and 3: “First Nations have always practi
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTSEXECUTIVE SUMMARY1. THREATS
Page 6 and 7: Main RecommendationsTo recognize an
Page 9 and 10: 1. THREATS TO ICCAsThere are three
Page 11 and 12: constituted areas such as conservan
Page 13 and 14: 2.2 Non-legal Recognition and Suppo
Page 15: 3. LAWS AND STATE INSTITUTIONS CONT
Page 18 and 19: Despite this, however, national and
Page 22 and 23: illegal.In Senegal, the marine real
Page 24 and 25: In Namibia, support to conservancie
Page 26 and 27: 5. KEY RECOMMENDATIONS: RECOGNIZE A
Page 28 and 29: Human Rights and Constitutional Ref
Page 30 and 31: . Recommendations for Legislating f
Page 32 and 33: Reform Policies and Laws to Effecti
Page 34 and 35: Create an Enabling Environment for
Page 36 and 37: autonomy and self-determination wit
Page 38: This publication describes and anal

English - Natural Justice

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