Most indigenous peoples, tribal people and ethnic minorities have culturally distinct land tenure systems based on collective rights. In many parts of the world, these systems are only partially recognized, leading to social and political marginalization, impoverishment and conflict. If indigenous peoples are to survive and prosper, culturally and economically, they must have secure rights to their land.

The IFAD-supported Sustainable Development Project by Beni Indigenous People (PRODESIB), which ran for eight years in Bolivia, was designed to provide land security to indigenous peoples (including the Tacanas, Chimanes and Trinitarios) by working to strengthen their organizations and involve them in the land reform process.

Project staff worked with indigenous organizations at local and regional levels to bring about legal recognition of indigenous communities, a prerequisite for obtaining collective titles to ancestral land. To get the land title process started, land was identified and demarcated, and negotiations were begun with the current occupants.

As a result of the project, about 1.3 million hectares were delimitated and titled, benefiting 157 indigenous communities of more than 15,500 men and women. The work is now being continued by national and regional governments in Bolivia.