Land Rights and Resource Management among Indigenous and Afro-Latin Peoples in Mesoamerica: Laying the Groundwork for Secure Livelihoods and Communities, CCARC 2007.

This activist research project was designed to create and implement a plan for achieving land and resource security for selected indigenous and Afro-descendent communities in southern Mexico and Central America. Land and resource security are understood to have two basic components: secure access and/or rights to the resources, and a plan for long-term management of the resources once access is achieved.  The specific focus of each research project was chosen by our partner Black and Indigenous organizations, and the actual work of implementation was carried out by on the ground those same organizations.

Projects involved efforts to secure title to communal and multi-communal territories, issues of governance, and economic development.  CCARC documented and analyzed the process using action research methods, in order to help the participants reflect critically on the effort, and provide the basis for comparative analysis of the results, with those involved in parallel efforts, in Latin America and beyond.