Rural peoples, while comprising large populations in the majority world, i.e. developing countries, are frequently ignored and neglected by nation states and international institutions. Hundreds of millions of people in the majority world who are directly dependent on natural resources have no legal protection or other governmental incentives for the sustainable management of those resources. Perhaps most troubling, few efforts are currently underway to address this shortcoming.

To meet this need, CIEL established the Law and Communities (L&C) Program in 1997. The program focuses on rural constituencies in the majority world, and particularly on issues related to community-based property rights.  The program also explores the impacts of national and international laws, and the private sector and markets, on local incentives and disincentives for sustainable community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). 

The L&C Program therefore supports the formation and strengthening of public interest environmental law organizations in countries where CIEL is asked to assist.  Mentoring and technical assistance is provided to in-country partners to facilitate internal organizational enhancement and strengthen external impacts. The L&C Program also coordinates and participates in collaborative, in-country research and field-based pilot initiatives related to legal, regulatory, and economic interactions between local communities, formal governmental institutions, and the private commercial sector.  The specific goals are to promote the best interests of local communities, and to determine whether existing legal relationships are conducive to the sustainable management of natural resources. If they are not, efforts are sometimes undertaken to identify, design and advocate for policy frameworks that support more appropriate legal relationships.

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Contacts for More Information:

For more information, contact: Kristen Genovese.

Major funding for the Law and Communities Program is provided by the Ford Foundation, the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, USAID Indonesia through the Biodiversity Support Program’s KEMALA Project, USAID Philippines, and USAID Africa Bureau through the World Resources Institute.