1.
COMMUNITY BASED GOVERNANCE AND
TENURE OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND OTHER
COMMUNITIES WITH CUSTOMARY TENURE
SYSTEMS
ILC and FAO
05.10.2017 - 11.00-12.30

2.
Key issues, challenges and opportunities
1. Only 10 percent of the 2.5 billion indigenous people who live on
community land have the rights to their lands recognized.
2. Recognition of rights in a context of competing interests and
overlapping claims.
3. Considering governance issues among groups and communities,
and with state institutions.
4. Ensure wide participation, including landless people, women and
youth.

3.
Main lessons learned
Implementation of VGGT with IPs & local communities requires a
specific approach as they are right-holders not only stakeholders
1. Collective rights prevails over individual rights.
2. Understand the holistic territorial dimension (no sectorial approach to
lands, forests, fisheries, and different values and understanding of
development- not only economic)
3. Ensuring inclusive approaches (capac. Dev., identification of right-
holders, participation at all level)

4.
Next steps – the way forward/ recommendations
1. Capacity development and communication
• Need for combined communication approaches, adapted to the different contexts: simplify the VGGT,
differentiate materials for the communities and also for authorities at all levels (information, education,
communication materials), and do translations, including to local languages. Then, proper dissemination,
starting from the governments (including in universities and general public)
• Strong link of VGGT with national legislation and international instruments in the capacity development
programmes (UNDRIP, CBD convention, etc)
2. Monitoring
- Link it with the SDGs monitoring process,
- include community monitoring processes, e.g. creation of land observatories (including women and
youth),
- Development of tools to use the VGGT as a benchmark to monitor.

5.
Next steps – the way forward/ recommendations
3. Effective use and implementation of the VGGT
- Incorporate VGGT into ongoing regional mechanisms and processes (e.g. REAF, Africa land policy
initiative) to encourage governments’ engagement.
- Ensure effective participation of communities in decision-making processes
- Facilitate dialogue among different stakeholders and strengthen existing partnerships, giving space to
communities that are often excluded.
- Support to VGGT processes should be provided with a medium to long-term perspective (no one-spot
projects).
4. Promote the respect and protection of indigenous and local
communities leaders working on land issues.