Indigenous Peoples

Confrontation in Bolivia over Agrarian Reform
Roger Burbach, CENSA
December 18, 2006 - The government of Evo Morales and the indigenous social movements of Bolivia have won an historic victory with the passage of an agrarian reform law that calls for the 'expropriation of lands' that 'do not serve a just social-economic function.' According to Miguel Urisote, the director of the Land Foundation, an independent research center in La Paz, 'this is a blow to the latifundios, the large estates where many Indians often work in slave-like conditions.'

Agrarian Reform in the Context of Food Sovereignty, the Right to Food and Cultural Diversity: “Land, Territory and Dignity”
Peter Rosset, Sofia Monsalve, Saúl Vicente Vázquez, Jill K. Carino,, LRAN, La Via Campesina, , FIAN International, International Indian Treaty Council, Cordillera Women’s Education and Resource Center (CWERC), West African Network of Peasant and Agricultural Producers' Organizations (ROP
February 13, 2006 - In this paper, which provides a civil society perspective on agrarian reform and rural development, we develop the concept of food sovereignty as an overarching framework or paradigm. Food sovereignty essentially defines the policy package that would be needed so that policies of agrarian reform and rural development might truly reduce poverty, protect the environment, and enhance broad-based, inclusive economic development. The most fundamental pillars of food sovereignty include the recognition and enforcement of the right to food and the right to land; the right of each nation or people to define their own agricultural and food policies, respecting the right of indigenous peoples to their territories, the rights of traditional fisherfolk to fishing areas, etc.; a retreat from free trade policies, with a concurrent greater prioritization of production of food for local and national markets, and an end to dumping; genuine agrarian reform; and peasant-based sustainable, or agroecological, agricultural practices.

Call to participate in the "Land, Territory and Dignity" Forum
ICCARD
February 13, 2006 - The Council of the FAO in its 128th session in June 2005 approved the proposal which called for an International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) to be held in 2006. This constitutes a critical element of the FAO program to fulfil commitments of the 1996 World Food Summit, the 2001 World Food Summit: five years later, the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the Millenniums Development Goals (MDG). The FAO Council welcomed the proposal of the Government of Brazil to host the Conference that will take place in Porto Alegre from 7 - 10 March, 2006. The "International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development - new challenges and options for revitalizing rural communities" (ICARRD), will be the 2nd international conference on this subject, following the World Conference held in 1979 (http://www.icarrd.org/).

Ancestral Land, Food Sovereignty and the Right to Self-Determination: Indigenous Peoples' Perspectives on Agrarian Reform
Jill K. Carino, Cordillera Women's Education and Resource Center (CWERC) - Philippines
January 31, 2006 - The Outline of this Paper:
1. Worldview of indigenous peoples on land, territory and resources
2. Internationlly Recognized Rights of Indigenous Peoples to Land
3. Agrarian Reform and the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

- Collective land rights, individual and communal ownership
- Right to self-determination and free prior informed consent
- Respect for Indigenous knowledge systems

4. Globalization and indigenous peoples' alternatives

Indigenous Peoples: An Essay on Land, Territory, Autonomy and Self-Determination
Rodolfo Stavenhagen
September 05, 2005 - While many analysts of land issues tend to treat land the way that farmers often see it — as a productive resource — indigenous peoples’ tend see land as part of something greater, called territory. Territory includes the productive function of land, but also encompasses the concepts of homeland, culture, religion, spiritual sites, ancestors, the natural environment, other resources like water, forests, below-ground minerals, etc. Agrarian reform directed at non-indigenous farmers in many cases may reasonably seek to redistribute “any and all” arable land to the landless, irrespective of where the landless come from. For example, the Landless Workers’ Movement (MST) of Brazil demands and occupies land all over the country, and the members of their land reform settlements sometimes come from states far away from the land the occupy. In contrast, indigenous peoples’ movements do not demand just any land, but rather their land, and they want control over their land and territories. Thus, closely linked to the concept of territory, are the demands by organizations and movements of indigenous people for autonomy and self-determination. This essay lays out the key issues and controversies associated with these concepts.