ABSTRACT
Schemes to reformulate property law, land tenures and title systems to implement systems for governance of communal land and resources have been attempted at many junctures. Current reform efforts largely derive from concepts developed under evolutionary models of western property systems, which are predicated upon the ideas of individuated and formalized land titles and resource management. Such models sit alongside or displace more or less resilient customary and communal systems that have been subject to various forms of state-initiated and private, corporate intervention over many years (Fitzpatrick 2006: 999). The interplay between indigenous peoples and local community groups, with colonial and post-colonial modes of ‘intervention’, have produced dynamic yet often conflicted regimes, as can be demonstrated across the case studies canvassed in this collection. Further, notwithstanding the long trajectory for greater recognition of indigenous peoples’ rights to land and resources, debates about customary governance over communally held land and resources are still consistently deflected to questions of individual title, ownership and the formalization of tenure systems as a necessary precursor to economic development.
