By Rina Chandran
BANGKOK, Sept 13 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - An onlineproject mapping all of the world's indigenous lands will helpsecure legal rights, and alert communities to the potentialthreats of illegal logging and mining, land and indigenousrights groups said on Friday.
LandMark is compiling maps from dozens of indigenousorganisations for its website - which it claims to be the firstof its kind - and now covers 12% of the world's land.
The project, which includes areas recognised by governments,those with documentation or secure tenure, and those that arelikely to be indigenous lands, has begun ramping up efforts tosecure more maps.
"Many governments are not keen to acknowledge or recogniseindigenous or community land, so official maps often do notvisualise this land and it remains invisible," said Peter Veit,of World Resources Initiative (WRI), a Washington-based researchorganisation that is supporting the LandMark project.
"A global platform is particularly useful for comparativepurposes, and to show which countries are making progress," thedirector of land and resource rights told the Thomson ReutersFoundation.
Globally, indigenous and local communities own more thanhalf of all land under customary or traditional rights. Yet theyhave legal rights to only about 10%, according to theWashington-based advocacy group Rights and Resources Initiative.
Last month, a special report by the United Nations'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first timerecognised indigenous land rights as important for curbingglobal warming.
In the Philippines, there is an urgent need to mapindigenous lands due to the expansion of mining and plantations,said David De Vera, a director at the Philippine Association forIntercultural Development (PAFID), a minorities network.
The Southeast Asian country was ranked the deadliest in theworld last year for land rights activists by Britain-basedGlobal Witness, with 30 killings.
"Indigenous people are the poorest of the poor. It is verydifficult for them to claim their land or stand up to thegovernment and industries," said De Vera, whose association ismapping indigenous lands for LandMark.
PAFID uses satellite maps, GPS devices, drones and 3D modelsto help communities map their ancestral land, he said.
"Threats from mines and dams are highly relevant, and thoseneed to be on the map. Otherwise a map can give you a sense offalse security," said De Vera.
Indigenous communities in Quezon province south of Manilaplan to use their recently drawn maps to challenge theconstruction of the proposed Kaliwa dam, which will encroachonto their land and displace thousands of people, he said.
In India, millions of indigenous people and forest dwellersface eviction after their land claims were rejected.
The takeover of public lands such as forests, pastures andwater bodies by states and industries could affect more than 350million rural people in India, said Jagdeesh Rao, executivedirector at the Foundation for Ecological Security, aconservation group.
"Mapping is important to not just identify and givelegitimacy to collectively owned land, but also to trackdegraded lands so they can be restored," he said.
With growing pressure on land and resources from both risingpopulations and industry, conflicts are seen increasing.
LandMark's maps can help avert such disputes, said WRI'sVeit, but they are not enough.
"Legal recognition is critical, but alone is probablyinsufficient in many places to secure tenure," he said.
"It should be complimented with other measures thatstrengthen and secure land and natural resource rights", headded, such as formal titles and declarations of these areas asprotected.
(Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by MichaelTaylor. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, thecharitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitariannews, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, propertyrights, and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.org)