•
Involve members of the communities at all stages of the mapping, from: 1) deciding what information is
most important to include; to 2) gathering the information; to 3) recording and displaying the information on
the base maps;
•
Record both land uses and boundaries, if possible;
•
Put our own Indigenous location names, land use categories and terms for vegetation types onto the maps.
Adding the names accepted by the government can also help to avoid confusion;
•
Make sure that draft maps are carefully checked by community members and changed if necessary, before
using them in negotiations with outsiders;
•
Where national laws allow, get the intellectual property rights to the maps and databases registered as
property of the people or communities concerned. In Guyana, it appears the Lands and Surveys Commission
has the sole right to approve and certify land surveys;
•
Consider collecting other scientific information on land use practices to support the information on the
maps. For example, we could record how often our people take hunting trips and what distances hunters
travel; and
•
Take measures to protect the use of the information, so it is not misused, misrepresented, or distorted by
outsiders. For example, we may not want pork knockers to know the exact location of our community’s
traditional mining grounds.
Figure 1: Here is a map made by the Baka and Bantu Peoples in Cameroon to show how their rights
overlap with a national park
Above: The map is in French, but
shows hunting areas and
A practical guide for Indigenous Peoples in Guyana
shows fishing areas.
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