Indigenous collective land titling and the creation of leftovers: Insights from Paraguay and Cambodia

Abstract

Collective land titling often drags on for decades, while private land concessions and holdings do not face the same problem, creating ‘leftovers’ of land available for Indigenous peoples to attempt to collectively title. In two ethnographic case studies in Cambodia and Paraguay, we analyse community‐based Indigenous land titling by focusing on the on‐the‐ground dynamics of property relations, Indigenous livelihood shifts and ecological change. In both countries, large agricultural players implemented a staggering change in local landscapes through deforestation, configuring new realities that in turn feed into local environments and titling processes. Adapting their livelihoods to living in the leftovers, in Cambodia, the Indigenous Bunong shifted from rice to rubber as they navigated the slow titling process. In Paraguay, some Indigenous Guarani shifted from corn to cattle by renting out their collectively titled land. The case studies show that the liberal titling approach to secure Indigenous lands overestimates the ability of title to remove land from capitalist logics such as the push to rent or sell, while some spaces of autonomy are opened. We critique the liberal approaches to formalising title, where Indigenous struggles for their ways of life are funnelled into fighting for collective property.

Time as the Enemy? Disjointed Timelines and Uneven Rhythms of Indigenous Collective Land Titling in Paraguay and Cambodia

“…While privatization and concessions continue apace, the prolonged collective titling process has important impacts as Indigenous land claims are fragmented through community-based titling [13,18,19], that is, made into "reductions" [20], where Indigenous collective land titling is circumscribed only to the areas surrounding specific communities, instead of covering the entirety of "traditional territory" [21]. Leeman and Tusing [22] have identified this process as making "leftovers": the irregular process through which Indigenous land claims become fragmented as they are taken up into the market, deforestation continues despite collective titling efforts, and land continues to be affected by capitalist logics despite its legal designation as inalienable.…”