About LandMark

Who could use LandMark?

LandMark is designed for a variety of users:

• Indigenous Peoples, communities and civil society organizations can use LandMark to build a global picture of their populations and lands, supporting their engagement with one another and increasing their visibility to Governments and other actors. The tools built into LandMark, such as printing maps of indigenous and community land boundaries, can be used to help protect their lands.
• National governments can use the platform to better recognize indigenous and community land rights, enabling public officials to compare the situation in their country with that in other countries and encourage action based on the examples of other nations.
• Companies and private investors can use the information on LandMark to better understand the land rights situation in a particular country and respect the rights of Indigenous Peoples and communities.
• Development assistance agencies can use LandMark to better target their financial support and other resources by identifying countries and regions in which indigenous and community lands are insecure and under threat.
• Researchers and academia can use the information on LandMark to better understand the positions of Indigenous and community lands in local and national contexts and in global social and environmental matters.
• Citizens and civil society groups concerned about the loss of indigenous and community lands can use the platform to check if governments and companies are targeting community land for acquisition and investment.

Why was LandMark Developed?

LandMark was developed to fill a critical gap in information on indigenous and community land rights. In the absence of existing publicly available information, many indigenous and community lands are invisible and therefore vulnerable. Transparency reduces the likelihood that irregular acquisitions and expropriations go unnoticed, and shines a light on the vulnerability of indigenous and community lands.

Many governments today acknowledge customary and community land rights, but few have established the strong legal protections needed to secure these tenure systems. Even with supportive legislation, few governments have effectively implemented or enforced these laws. As a consequence, Indigenous Peoples and communities, especially in Africa, Asia and Latin America, are losing their land to governments and corporations for economic development and commercial investment purposes. Many rural people are also facing a growing number of restrictions on how they use their land, which can threaten livelihoods and trigger conflicts.

Today, more Indigenous Peoples and communities are taking action to protect their lands. In some countries, communities and their representatives have successfully lobbied for legal change to recognize their land rights and provide blanket national protection for unregistered community-based rights. Many are submitting the official paperwork needed to have their lands formally registered and to obtain a land certificate or title. A growing number are filing petitions to have their concerns heard in court, and still others are taking to the streets to voice their demands.

An increasing number of Indigenous Peoples and communities are also mapping their lands. Many have effectively used their maps, even if they are not formally recognized or endorsed by the State, to protect their lands from external threats. Information and communication technologies are providing new opportunities to address threats and secure land rights. Indigenous Peoples, communities and their partners around the world are now using hand-held Global Positioning Systems (GPS), unmanned aerial vehicles (e.g., drones), and other devices to map their lands with greater ease and precision. Some governments and civil society organizations have also developed national maps or online platforms of indigenous and community lands.

LandMark provides Indigenous Peoples and communities around the world with an online global platform to let governments, development assistance agencies and others know of the lands they hold and use. It provides them the opportunity to be proactive in their efforts to protect their lands and not just reactive to imminent threats that often emerge without warning and with little time to respond in effective ways. By shining a light on collectively-held lands around the world, it will be clear to all parties that these lands are not vacant, idle or necessarily available for outsiders.

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A Brief History of LandMark

In September 2013, the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), Oxfam, and the International Land Coalition (ILC) convened the international conference—Scaling-Up Global Efforts to Securing Community Land and Resource Rights—in Switzerland. The Instituto del Bien Común (IBC) in Peru, Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN) in Indonesia, and the World Resources Institute (WRI) co-led the conference’s “Mapping & Documentation” sessions which called for the development of a global map-based platform of Indigenous and community lands.

In February 2014, IBC, WRI and ILC convened a group of land rights organizations in Rome, Italy, to begin the process of developing LandMark. Participating groups included: AMAN, RRI, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) in India, Philippine Association for Intercultural Development (PAFID), Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), Rainforest Foundation United Kingdom (RFUK) and Liz Alden Wily, an independent land tenure specialist. The participants agreed to organize themselves into a Steering Group to provide advice and guide the effort.

In June 2014, the World Atlas of Indigenous Peoples' Territories (WAIPT) project joined the Steering Group (WAIPT is a collaborative effort between the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Survival International (France), and Sorbonne Nouvelle University with the support of the Ile-de-France region).

In July 2015, two additional organizations joined the Steering Group – The Union of Indigenous Nomadic Tribes of Iran (UNINOMAD) and Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georreferenciada (RAISG).

LandMark was launched to the public on November 10, 2015.

Who is involved in LandMark?

LandMark involves many collaborators from around the world. The following tabs provide a brief description of the organizations and individuals who are involved in LandMark and their primary role in the initiative. These roles include the Steering Group, Operations Team, and Supporters. A summary of Data Providers can be found in the Data section.

Steering Group

The Steering Group was established in 2013 to guide and advise on the development and management of LandMark. Steering Group members communicate and interact with each other regularly by email and conference calls, and convene in person one to two times per year. There are currently 12 members of the Steering Group:

Liz Alden Wily, Independent Land Tenure Specialist

Based: Kenya

Mission Statement: To see one billion poor customary landholders acknowledged as legal owners of family and community lands by 2030.

Interests: Liz is a political economist specialising in customary land tenure with a focus on legal securement of common properties and institutionalisation of inclusive and accountable community based land governance systems. She works independently as analyst, policy adviser and practitioner, mainly in Africa, and contributes to various global and regional initiatives.

Aliansi Masyarakat Adat Nusantara (AMAN)

Established: 1999

Headquarters: Jakarta, Indonesia

Mission Statement: Realization of justice and prosperity in Indigenous people’s lives; Political sovereignty, economic independence, and cultural dignity for Indigenous peoples.

Interests: AMAN is an independent organization of Indigenous peoples on the basis of membership are Indigenous communities that agree to and uphold the principles, vision, mission and goal lines struggle as contained in the decisions of the Congress of the Indigenous peoples and continuously engage actively fight enforcement of customary rights and the sovereignty of Indigenous peoples as a whole.

Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)

Established: 2001

Headquarters: Gajurat, India

Mission Statement: As ‘ecological security’ is the foundation of sustainable and equitable development, FES is committed to strengthening, reviving or restoring, where necessary, the process of ecological succession and the conservation of land, forest and water resources in the country.

Interests: FES presently works with 5,900 village institutions in 31 districts across 8 states, and assists the village communities in protecting more than 637,000 hectares of common lands including revenue wastelands, degraded forest lands and Panchayat grazing lands (Charagah lands). FES supports Panchayats and their subcommittees, Village Forest Committees, Gramya Jungle Committees, Water Users Associations and Watershed Committees in order to improve the governance of natural resources. 

Instituto del Bien Común (IBC)

Established: 1998

Headquarters: Lima, Peru

Mission Statement: To work with rural communities in Peru for the care of the commons (water bodies, forests, fisheries, protected areas and community lands), thus contributing to the welfare of these populations and of all Peruvians.

Interests: IBC works across landscapes of the central and northern Andean Amazon, on projects related to territorial planning, governance of the commons, preservation of the environment, sustainable development, respect for the rights and culture of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and promotion of scientific and local knowledge. IBC has been mapping community lands in Peru for 15 years and is a member of the RAISG mapping group for the Amazon Basin.

International Land Coalition (ILC)

Established: 1995

Headquarters: Rome,  Italy

Mission Statement: ILC is a global alliance of over 152 civil society and intergovernmental organisations working together across the globe to put people at the centre of land governance, responding to their needs and protecting the rights of those who live on and from the land.

Interests: As a global and united alliance, members of the ILC envision a just, equitable and inclusive world in which land rights are secure, and poverty is eradicated. The change we seek is defined in our 10 commitments to jointly realise people-centred land governance. All members individually and collectively contribute to the realisation of these commitments in policy, practice and agenda setting at their respective levels of action. 

Philippine Association for Intercultural Development, Inc. (PAFID)

Established: 1967

Headquarters: Quezon City, Philippines

Mission Statement: An association of people interested in the problems of cultural minority groups.

Interests: PAFID is engaged in the development of Indigenous social organizations, management of ancestral domains, community-based natural resources management planning, community mapping, agro-forestry, technical services, policy advocacy and more.

Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK)

Established: 1989

Headquarters: London, UK

Mission Statement: To support Indigenous peoples and traditional populations of the world’s rainforest in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfil their rights to land, life, and livelihood by assisting them with: 1) Securing and controlling the natural resources necessary for their long term well-being and managing these resources in ways which do not harm their environment, violate their culture or compromise their future; 2) Developing means to protect their individual and collective rights and obtain, shape and control basic services from the State.

Interests: RFUK promotes the establishment of community rights over rainforest lands, tackling the root of the problems related to deforestation and paving the way for local people to benefit fairly from the use and protection of forest resources.

Red Amazónica de Información Socioambiental Georreferenciada (RAISG)

Established: 2006

Coordinating Institution: Instituto Socioambiental (ISA), São Paulo, Brazil

Mission Statement: To generate georeferenced information regarding the socioenvironmental situation of Amazonia and make it publicly visible and available in ways that help all world citizens to value and take better care of this incredibly diverse assemblage of peoples and ecosystems.

Interests: The RAISG network has successfully brought together a multidisciplinary team from seven institutions around the Amazon Basin to develop maps and analyses that focus on the situation of the entire region. RAISG is coordinated by ISA in São Paulo Brazil.  Its member organizations include: Fundación Amigos de la Naturaleza (FAN) in Bolívia; Instituto do Homem e do Meio Ambiente da Amazônia (Imazon) and Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) in Brazil; Fundación Gaia Amazonas (Gaia) in Colombia; EcoCiencia in Ecuador; Instituto del Bién Común (IBC) in Peru; and Provita in Venezuela. Major products of RAISG include maps of Amazonia: Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas (2009, 2012); Atlas of Amazonia under Pressure (2012), a map of Carbon Density in Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas (2014), and Atlas of Historical Deforestation 1970-2013 (2015).

Rights and Resource Initiative (RRI)

Established: 2006

Headquarters: Washington, DC, USA

Mission Statement: To support local communities’ and Indigenous Peoples’ struggles against poverty and marginalization by promoting greater global commitment and action towards policy, market and legal reforms that secure their rights to own, control and benefit from natural resources, especially land and forests.

Interests: RRI works together with both Indigenous peoples' and community organizations, civil society, Governments, international institutions, and the private sector to promote and accelerate global efforts to improve local livelihoods, reform forest tenure and governance, combat poverty, mitigate the effects of climate change, and deliver sustainable development.

Union of Indigenous Nomadic Tribes of Iran (UNINOMAD) / Centre for Sustainable Development (CENESTA)

Established: 2010 (UNINOMAD); 1992 (CENESTA, Member & Secretariat of UNINOMAD)

Headquarters: Tehran, Iran

Mission Statement: Restoration of the rights and responsibilities of Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and traditional local communities (LCs) over their natural resources and customary territories and their conservation (preservation, sustainable use and restoration) in the context of ICCAs^*. Special emphasis is on working with the 700 indigenous nomadic tribes of Iran as well as farmers, fisher folks, forest peoples, and other traditional indigenous, rural and urban communities.

Interests:

• Defending and restoring the customary rights of indigenous peoples, including through the application of participatory GIS systems and advocacy for rights-based approaches.
• National and international policies and programmes for sustainable livelihoods and poverty eradication.
• Collaborative management of natural resources.
• Community based natural resource management.
• Community empowerment.
• Sustainable agriculture, food sovereignty and agro-ecology.
• Facilitating the self-organisation and federations of IPs and traditional communities through strengthening customary institutions of governance.

^(*) Indigenous peoples and community conserved territories and areas.

World Atlas of Indigenous Peoples' Territories (WAIPT)

Established: 2013

Headquarters: Paris, France

Mission Statement: To create and maintain a global collaborative database of geographic information related to indigenous lands, giving higher visibility to indigenous peoples and organizations, thus encouraging greater awareness of indigenous presence and territorial issues.

Interests: WAIPT is a collaborative project between Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Survival International (France), and the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris III, with the support of the Ile-de-France region. WAIPT aims to gather and analyse geographic information regarding indigenous lands and resources in order to present a global depiction of the political situation of indigenous territories and the threats they are facing.

World Resources Institute (WRI)

Established: 1982

Headquarters:  Washington, DC, USA

Mission Statement:  To move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Interests:  WRI’s Land and Resource Rights (LRR) project works with governments, civil society organizations, development agencies, and other actors to strengthen communities’ land, resource, and property rights as a path to poverty reduction, sustainable development, and environmental management. Operating across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, LRR’s work focuses on connections between land and equitable access to forests, food, and water.

Operations Team

The development of LandMark is co-led by IBC, WAIPT, Liz Alden Wily and WRI. These four groups are responsible for the conceptualization and design of the platform, with regular consultation from the Steering Group. Blue Raster, an external web design firm, provided technical support to build the platform.

Liz Alden Wily, Independent Land Tenure Specialist

Based: Kenya

Mission Statement: To see one billion poor customary landholders acknowledged as legal owners of family and community lands by 2030.

Interests: Liz is a political economist specialising in customary land tenure with a focus on legal securement of common properties and institutionalisation of inclusive and accountable community based land governance systems. She works independently as analyst, policy adviser and practitioner, mainly in Africa, and contributes to various global and regional initiatives.

Instituto del Bien Común (IBC)

Established: 1998

Headquarters: Lima, Peru

Mission Statement: To work with rural communities in Peru for the care of the commons (water bodies, forests, fisheries, protected areas and community lands), thus contributing to the welfare of these populations and of all Peruvians.

Interests: IBC works across landscapes of the central and northern Andean Amazon, on projects related to territorial planning, governance of the commons, preservation of the environment, sustainable development, respect for the rights and culture of indigenous and non-indigenous peoples and promotion of scientific and local knowledge. IBC has been mapping community lands in Peru for 15 years and is a member of the RAISG mapping group for the Amazon Basin.

World Atlas of Indigenous Peoples' Territories (WAIPT)

Established: 2013

Headquarters: Paris, France

Mission Statement: To create and maintain a global collaborative database of geographic information related to indigenous lands, giving higher visibility to indigenous peoples and organizations, thus encouraging greater awareness of indigenous presence and territorial issues.

Interests: WAIPT is a collaborative project between Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Survival International (France), and the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, Paris III, with the support of the Ile-de-France region. WAIPT aims to gather and analyse geographic information regarding indigenous lands and resources in order to present a global depiction of the political situation of indigenous territories and the threats they are facing.

World Resources Institute (WRI)

Established: 1982

Headquarters:  Washington, DC, USA

Mission Statement:  To move human society to live in ways that protect Earth’s environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations.

Interests:  WRI’s Land and Resource Rights (LRR) project works with governments, civil society organizations, development agencies, and other actors to strengthen communities’ land, resource, and property rights as a path to poverty reduction, sustainable development, and environmental management. Operating across Latin America, Africa, and Asia, LRR’s work focuses on connections between land and equitable access to forests, food, and water.

Supporters

Several organizations have supported LandMark with financial resources and other assistance.  These include:

 

What does it mean to have a map?

"More indigenous territory has been claimed by maps than by guns. This assertion has its corollary: more indigenous territory can be defended and reclaimed by maps than by guns."[1]

Maps are a powerful way of sharing information, shaping decisions and changing behavior. Cartography--the study and practice of making maps--builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively. This medium of representation is a tool to 'write the world'.[2] Geography and maps have had an important role in colonial contexts, largely used to affirm Terra Nullius - that lands and resources were idle and without a master.[3] Today, most Indigenous Peoples and local communities and their lands are not represented on official maps and as a consequence, are invisible to the world. An increasing number of communities, however, are now documenting the lands and resources they hold and occupy--using their maps to counter the frequent threats of dispossession that they face.

While some Indigenous Peoples and communities prefer to stay isolated, remaining invisible can have significant costs. Where governments may not have the capacity or the political will to map collectively-held lands, community-based mapping can be a political tool for advocacy. These mapping initiatives can help Indigenous Peoples and communities to self-define and self-represent their lands. This use of "spatial information technologies provides tools for telling alternative spatial stories, for offering voices to peoples located at the periphery of the developing world".[4]

Maps generated through bottom-up approaches can help protect indigenous and community land from threats, but there are political limitations. Some governments have banned the practice of community-based mapping while others have restricted their use in courts of law (recognizing only map that have been produced by officially-licensed and authorized surveyors).[5]

Nevertheless, community mapping initiatives have expanded significantly in the past few decades. The Americas have a long history of community land mapping, triggered by the progressiveness of many governments and of the Inter-American Human Rights System to begin formally recognizing Indigenous Peoples and local communities’ collective rights over their land and natural resources. Following the same pattern, community mapping initiatives can now be found in all regions of the world. With the support of numerous local and international NGOs, these initiatives are playing an important role in strengthening the tenure security of indigenous and community lands.

 "Mapping processes can be used to help secure access to land and natural resources, to facilitate the management of these resources and to support community advocacy on land-related issues. In other words, mapping is increasingly playing a role in the empowerment of people and communities."[6]

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References

[1] Nietschmann, B., 1995. "Defending the Miskito reefs with maps and GPS." Cultural Survival Quarterly 18 (4): 34-36.

[2] Wainwright, J., J. Brian, 2009. "Cartography, territory, property: postcolonial reflections on indigenous counter-mapping in Nicaragua and Belize." Cultural geographies 16: 153-178.

[3] Piper, K. 2002. "Cartographic Fictions." New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

[4] Fox, J., 1998. "Mapping the commons: the social context of spatial information technologies." The Common Property Resource Digest, no 45, p. 1-4.

[5] Mwanundu, S., IFAD, 2009. "Good practices in participatory mapping: A review prepared for the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)." Rome, IFAD. Bauer, K., 2009. "On the politics and the possibilities of participatory mapping and GIS: using spatial technologies to study common property and land use change among pastoralists in Central Tibet." Cultural Geographies 16: 229-252.

[6] Di Gessa, S., 2008. "Participatory mapping as a tool for empowerment: Experiences and lessons learned from the ILC network." International Land Coalition.