MULTI-ETHIC COMMUNAL AND COLLECTIVE FORMS OF TENURE IN POST-WAR

GUATEMALA: LESSONS FROM THE PETÉN

LAURA HURTADO PAZ Y PAZ, Ph.D., Campaign and Advocacy Coordinator, Oxfam in Guatemala, lhurtadopaz@intermonoxfam.org (presenter)

LIZA GRANDIA, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of California-Davis, Department of Native American Studies, emgrandia@ucdavis.edu (co-author)

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Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013

Political and topographic map of Guatemala

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Sacred caves in the Q’eqchi’ lowlands

“Sacred Earth” Community (Loq Laj Ch’choch)

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Sacred lake Home altar

Main findings

• Indigenous usufruct versus colonizing usufruct• Use value versus exchange value of land• The ecologics of customary management versus

quadrangular allotment• Sacred versus secular logics• Tangible and intangible outcomes

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3.3 ¿Existen algunos lugares sagrados en la comunidad? SI NO N/S N/R ¿Cuántos? __________________________ ¿Cómo se llaman y dónde están ubicados? _______________________________________________________________________

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Recommendations

• A moratorium should be placed to all current and future land administration projects to allow for time, reflection, and true informed consent about the long term consequences of land titling.

• Help indigenous communities reconstitute their lands under customary governance or to create by-laws regulating the sale of village lands.

• Help communities negotiate and re-acquire access to their sacred sites that were privatized by land administration projects

• A holistic inventory of different types of communal lands.

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