Customary law

In order to gain further experience on rights-based approaches (RBAs) to conservation, the project focused on undertaking a situation analysis in the Xe Champhone Ramsar Site in Lao PDR. It examined the under-researched issue of customary law governing natural resources, including its relationship with statutory law. This publication summarizes and analyses the findings of the field work. It also provides recommendations on how to incorporate customary law governing natural resources into the governance of Ramsar sites in the country.

This study aims to survey the current level and form of State recognition of customary laws and institutions. The main focus of this paper is an analysis of the recognition of customary law in national constitutions.

Las discusiones sobre la protección de los conocimientos tradicionales tienen implicaciones directas en áreas estratégicas de la economía y la política, como el uso sostenible y el manejo de la biodiversidad, la seguridad alimentaria, la salud pública, el comercio internacional, la responsabilidad y la ética empresarial, los derechos humanos, la investigación científica, la distribución de la riqueza.

Customary laws, established by communal practice and usage for generations and passed down through oral tradition, are familiar, effective and continue to be practiced to a greater or lesser extent throughout the Northern Areas. And yet few of them have been documented so far. The objective of this survey and analysis was to draw out and understand the issues at the interface of customary laws governing the use and management of natural resources in the Northern Areas and statutory laws applied for the same purpose.

The Loita/Purko Naimina Enkiyio forest is estimated to cover an area of 330 km2 in Kenya and serves several functions within the Loita Maasai community. When a change of the forest tenure to a reserve threatened this community, they challenged the decision and were successful in having the decision rescinded. Security of tenure can be considered the single most important factor in the sustainable management of natural resources. This publication compares three different tenure regimes and discusses how they might affect the local Maasai community.