Biocultural Diversity
Territories of Life
The programme supports Indigenous Peoples and local communities to defend their Territories of Life and the diversity within them from external threats. When people have secure tenure rights over their land, enforced by an independent legal system, it empowers people to think and act with the long term in mind and it helps them to protect their land from destruction by industrial activities.
Insecure land tenure fuels poverty, social and gender inequalities, food insecurity, conflict and environmental degradation globally. Often this is driven by powerful economic and political interests.
Our programme aims to support Indigenous Peoples and local communities to:
Document and map biological and cultural information within their territories.
This information is for their own records, as well as to articulate to others the importance of their territories and to use this as part of the legal process to secure official land titles.
Undertake legal work to defend their territories from external threats and to obtain secure land titles.
When people have secure tenure rights over their land it helps to address many issues such as social and gender inequalities, food insecurity, and environmental degradation. It empowers people to think and act with the long-term in mind and it helps them to defend their land from external threats.