Accounting for existing tenure and rights over marine and freshwater systems

Abstract Global commitments to conservation and sustainable development increasingly demand sensitivity to the rights and territories of Indigenous peoples and local communities. However, existing tenure systems are often overlooked by global actors and their initiatives. Using key informant surveys, literature, and established databases, we describe 62 distinct tenure systems (or place-based, governance relationships between people and coasts) across 24 countries. In all systems, people held rights to access and use aquatic resources to support healthy diets, livelihoods, and culture. The three collective-choice rights (i.e., management, exclusion, transferability) were present in 29% of systems – suggesting conditions sufficient for “self-governance”. People gained or held rights due to their residency (in 63% of systems); through historical use (52%), permits (35%), and/or kinship (29%). Our synthesis provides an opportunity for policy and action to recognize these systems of tenure, and to stimulate further actions that illuminate and recognize the rights of communities toward their sovereignty.