Access to land and the right to food 2010, para. 26

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Paragraph text: For these groups, the existence of commons is vital. As noted by the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, in some legal cultures, community-based ownership of natural resources such as grazing lands, forests, water, fisheries and surface minerals is a traditional and effective way to grant control and proprietary rights to persons who have little or no other property. Such systems should be both recognized and fully protected against arbitrary seizure. Indeed, under existing international law, the requirements applicable to indigenous peoples may have to be extended to at least certain traditional communities that entertain a similar relationship with their ancestral lands, centred on the community rather than on the individual. That would encourage the management of common-pool resources at the local level by the communities directly concerned, rather than through top-down prescriptions or privatization of the commons. When such arrangements are institutionalized, the decentralized management of common-pool resources, recognizing their function as collective goods, is recognized as highly effective. Those negotiating the modalities of the use of the commons have the best information about its carrying capacity, and thus about uses that are sustainable, and the users have strong incentives to monitor the use of the commons and to report infractions.

Topic(s)

Person(s) affected