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Shifting cultivation, livelihood and food security

New and old challenges for indigenous peoples in Asia











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    Book (stand-alone)
    Women’s land rights and agrarian change: Evidence from indigenous communities in Cambodia 2019
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    Current changes in land tenure in Cambodia are reshaping indigenous communities agrarian and socio-economic systems. Customary laws that have determined land usage and rights, are now undergoing profound transformations. The commodification of land, influenced by processes of dispossession and alienation, is reshaping communities’ norms and customs. Land, before freely available to users, is now substantially a private asset and as such transferred from one generation to the next one like other assets. Customary laws derive their legitimacy from social systems that are context specific and change with time. This determines their ambiguous character as instruments for resistance and self-determination as well as generators of unequal social relations in rural communities. The experiences from other continents and countries have shown the contradictory and often conflicting linkage between customary land rights and women’s rights to own land. This study analysis the customary inheritance system of indigenous groups in Northern Cambodia, prevalently centred around matrilineal or bilateral kinship, where women used to inherit and own the principal family assets. The research questions focus on indigenous women’s inheritance and property rights as they apply to land, in the context of increasing land commoditization and scarcity. The aim of the enquiry is to contribute to the understanding of the gender implications of these changes, by gaining insight about women’s position vis-à-vis land property, inheritance and transfer to new generations. The changes in land tenure that have occurred in Ratanakiri province during the last decades have resulted in a substantial alienation of land and resources formerly available to indigenous people. Consequently, the area farmed under shifting cultivation has significantly decreased and been replaced by permanent commercial crops, while the increasing monetization of communities’ economy has triggered new processes of social differentiation. Little support has been given to indigenous farmers in order to manage this transition and adapt their farming system while maintaining its sustainability. The legal instruments deriving from the Land Law, which in theory should have contributed to provide formal legal protecting to indigenous land and allow communities to continue using land according to their traditional tenure system were impaired by delays and the obstacles in the practical implementation of the law. External actors, institutional as well as non-governmental, have been actively promoting agricultural practices centred on rapid gains, unsustainable exploitation of land and forest, carpet introduction of monocultures without creating the conditions for the establishment of favourable value chains and market conditions. The changes that have taken place have important implications in terms of women’s role and status within communities: not only because of the farming system transition, but also as a consequence of the increasing influence of the mainstream culture, in which gender norms are more hierarchical and constrictive then the ones in use among the indigenous peoples targeted by this study. Following the evidence presented here, strengthening indigenous women land rights may result from a multipurpose approach that embraces different areas of interventions and actors, detailed in the recommendations provided.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Labelling and certification schemes for Indigenous Peoples' foods
    Generating income while protecting and promoting Indigenous Peoples’ values
    2022
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    This review, for the first time to date, analyses the potential of labelling and certification schemes for Indigenous Peoples to market their food products. Specifically, it looks at those schemes that are designed by, with and for Indigenous Peoples, and that can provide economic, social and environmental benefits while protecting and promoting their unique values centered around the respect of life and Mother Earth. Eleven examples in this review cover innovative schemes implemented by Indigenous Peoples and practitioners in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Oceania. They include territorial labels, geographical indications (GI), and participatory guarantee schemes (PGS), among others. In addition, the publication features one case study of a community-supported agriculture (CSA), as alternative example to engage with Indigenous Peoples and reaching out the market. Important factors that lead to the success of different schemes include (1) the leadership and ownership of Indigenous Peoples in the initiative (2) adequate support by external stakeholders including public and private sector, and universities (3) raising consumer awareness and education on Indigenous food products via fairs, festivals and other platforms, and (4) designing value chains and policies in a way that harmonize local, domestic and international trade. The review includes recommendations for various actors to support Indigenous Peoples in their self-determined economic development and towards the sustainable marketization of their products. The review also provides guidelines for Indigenous Peoples willing to engage in such initiatve. Those are applicable to different contexts on the ground, and include good practices, and measures to mitigate risks.
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    Project
    Project Document for Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania. GCP/GLO/198/GER - Supporting Food Security and Reducing Poverty in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania through Dynamic Conservation of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (G
    Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS)
    2008
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    This project is the Sub-Sahara Africa component of the FAO global initiative on conservation and adaptive management of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS). Two specific transboundary systems and their population will be targeted: Masaai pastoral system and upland agro-forestry systems. The “dynamic conservation” approach which the project is advocating will address adaptive management and conservation of productive landscape of Masaai and Upland communities and will build capacity of local communities in Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania as a mean to achieve sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD). It is expected that the project will also contribute to sustainable development through: (i) enhancing the benefits derived by local populations and indigenous peoples from the management, conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity and natural resources; (ii) adding economic value and sharing derived benefits from these systems; (iii) enhancing food security and alleviating poverty while maintaining ecosystem goods and services of traditional agricultural systems (iv) improving awareness and education among government agencies, local authorities and communities, and other stake holders; ( iv) d emonstrating “local livelihood benefits – global environmental benefits linkages” through agro-ecosystem a pproaches across government agencies, local communities, indigenous peoples and private sector; (v) g uarantee that the ri ght to adequate food is realized by ensuring that every man, woman and child, in the t arget communities, have the physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement; and (vi) disseminating key best practices and lessons learnt between implementing agencies, recipient communities and countries -locally, regionally and on a global scale.

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