A survey of indigenous land tenure: a report for the Land Tenure Service of the FAO

This study provides a concise overview of the information available on the land rights of indigenous peoples, with a focus on those in developing countries and countries with economies in transition. Successive chapters summarise the rights of indigenous peoples in international law and then examine how these rights are being recognised, or not, in Latin America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific. A final chapter reviews the findings of the survey and identifies key issues to be considered in making policy decisions about indigenous land rights.A detailed list of recommendations of ways of promoting indigenous land rights is included, giving emphasis to the importance of giving indigenous peoples themselves a decisive voice in their own development. The report concludes by noting that there remain huge knowledge gaps about the relationships between tenure systems and food security and between indigenous rights and national laws.