Balancing Economic Development with the Protection of Indigenous Territories in Latin America

The legal protection of Indigenous territories in Latin America has been crucial to safeguard collective rights and prevent land loss. However, current regulatory frameworksoften prohibiting any form of transferalso limit economic development opportunities within these territories. This policy brief examines how to balance territorial protection with Indigenous economic autonomy, drawing on Chiles model, which allows land transfers among members of the same Indigenous group while restricting sales to non-Indigenous buyers. Based on a study funded by GDLab (Felipe Jordán and Hugo Us, 2024), the analysis finds that this framework helps preserve Indigenous ownership without significantly affecting productive land use. Its success, however, depends on strengthening institutional implementationparticularly through improvements to the Indigenous Land Public Registryand ensuring governance mechanisms that promote sustainability and community participation in territorial management.