INDIGENOUS LANDS, COMMON PROPERTY AND BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT: A Brasil – French Guiana comparison

Abstract

At the end of the last century, the status of indigenous peoples changed in social representations and political scenes, shifting from isolated communities set apart from development processes to local partners for biodiversity management and environmental conservation. This is the result, amongst other factors, of two processes: the growing legal recognition of these peoples and the evolution of environmental policies re-shaped by sustainable development. In spite of that, a large number of policies derived from the paradigm of “virgin nature” are still in use, feeding old and new socio-environmental conflicts. What are the actual territorial rights conferred to indigenous peoples in Brazil and French Guiana? To what extent, and how, is their own territoriality recognized? And more specifically, to what extent traditional indigenous concepts of space and natural resources appropriation can help creating efficient policies for sustainable management of biodiversity?