‘Ancestral territories’ already consists in the Rural Land Law

The Food Sovereignty Commission adopted the draft Rural Lands and Ancestral Domain act. For the third week of October, the document will be submitted to national meetings and consultations of stakeholders, announced the legislator Miguel Carvajal, President of the organization.

Incorporating the words “Ancestral Territories” in the title, the Commission on Food Sovereignty unanimously approved this Thursday, October 2, 2014, the draft Organic Law on Rural Land and Ancestral Domain. With the adoption of the standard, observations are expected until the 20th of this month, in order to incorporate this legal body, announced Assemblyman Miguel Carvajal (AP).

Thus, it would exist the possibility that several points of the articles are subjected to pre-legislative consultation after the first debate. Opposition Assemblyman César Umajinga (Pachakutik), member of the Commission and leader of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), aims go on a special meeting to discuss what issues could undergo pre-legislative consultation.

“The struggle of the indigenous movement is that the lands law and the territories land are not separated (…), recognizing the title would mean to work in the territories, what are the issues that could affect that territory … ,” said Umajinga. The document establishes the Family Production Unit, whose extension would be established by the Land Authority and based on this measure, smallholdings and large estates would be banned.

The text also institutionalizes the Land Fund, it reduces paperwork for legalization, it decentralizes the titling at cantonal level, it establishes conditions for determining the social and environmental features of the land. According to Umajinga, there are still some missing points to define, such as the nationalization of the lands that are in foreign hands with grabbing features, among other things points.