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Digitalising Traditions: Custom, Land, Biodiversity and Resource Management in Vanuatu

Hickey Francis, Robinson Daniel . 2024. .
Digitalising Traditions: Custom, Land, Biodiversity and Resource Management in Vanuatu
BOOKPART, (2024 ) - SUBMITTEDVERSION - English (en-GB)

OPENACCESS - © Authors..
Audience : RESEARCHERS, STUDENTS

Subject
Customary law, kastom, biodiversity, land and marine resources, protected areas, digitisation, traditional knowledge
Domains
Sciences Sociales, Sciences de l'environnement, Sciences humaines
Description

This chapter explores the tensions and interplay between biodiversity regulations, land tenure (where ‘access’ to resources occurs), and non-state governance in the context of Kastom (traditions and customary laws) in Vanuatu, against technological changes in the way land, sea, and resources are managed. Ni-Vanuatu people have their own customary laws and rules around sharing of knowledge and biological resources including taboos about uses, seasonal restrictions, secret/sacred knowledge, medicinal (often family-line) knowledge, totemic species rules, and in relation to the customary rights over land and sea (tiered user rights) . Technology now regularly distorts the way customary law operates and is engaged within Vanuatu by a variety of actors. For example, formal land surveys are increasingly undertaken using a digital GPS and stored and shared as digital data versus the use of customary boundaries marked with rivers, creeks, banyan trees, and mountain peaks and kept secret except to those who have the traditional rights to know about them. These tensions have been heightened by foreign investment and land disputes in Vanuatu, and through attempted revisions to the Custom Land Management Act of Vanuatu (2013). We analyse these issues and changes against the backdrop of the emphasis and implementation of international laws such as the Nagoya Protocol to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples which encourage traditional/customary use, and the recognition of customary law and free prior informed consent (FPIC).

Keywords
Language
English (en-GB)
Creators
Hickey Francis, Robinson Daniel
Contributors
Sources
Coverage
Vanuatu
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