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PDF
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Type:
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Conference Paper |
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Author:
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Larson, Anne |
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Conference:
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Governing Shared Resources: Connecting Local Experience to Global Challenges, the Twelfth Biennial Conference of the International Association for the Study of Commons |
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Location:
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Cheltenham, England |
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Conf. Date:
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July 14-18, 2008 |
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Date:
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2008 |
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URI:
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https://hdl.handle.net/10535/1562
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Sector:
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Social Organization
Forestry |
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Region:
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Central America & Caribbean |
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Subject(s):
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indigenous institutions
property rights
community participation
land tenure and use
forests
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Abstract:
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"Nicaraguan indigenous groups won property rights to their historic territories with the enactment of the Communal Lands Law in 2003. The law establishes mechanisms and institutions for land demarcation and titling, the extent and limits of third party rights, and procedures for natural resource exploitation designed to guarantee community consent. It also formally recognizes each communitys right to choose its own authorities and establishes mechanisms for their certification. This paper is based on research examining the extent to which new tenure rights have, in practice, resulted in increased access to forest benefits in two indigenous territories in Nicaragua's North Atlantic Autonomous Region (RAAN). The article explores concepts of rights, property, access and authority in the process of constructing the 'rules of the game' in the formalization of community property rights. The recognition of traditional lands is a highly political process that shapes the nature of rights through the act of formalization. It is forcing institutional changes at the community level in order to fit the model being imposed by the regional government. Based on conflicting priorities, actors at different scales pursue different configurations of territory that shape control over land and natural resources and over political power. The article argues that what is fundamentally at stake is the nature of the authority that will enforce the rules."
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