A/HRC/36/53 securing loans. 52 In the United States, research found that native business owners often begin with very small amounts of start-up capital. For example, 52 per cent of American Indian and Alaska Native respondents to the 2007 United States Census Survey of Business Owners began their business with less than $5,000.53 80. The lack of collateral is often exacerbated by some indigenous peoples’ remote locations. Lack of communication infrastructure, limited market size and poor economies of scale, coupled with the high cost of living in remote and regional centres, severely narrows business opportunities and makes it difficult to attract qualified employees or convince lenders of business profitability. 54 There is also a shortage of financial institutions on or near indigenous lands due to their remoteness, which often imposes the existence of third or more parties to intermediate financial services, increasing the costs for indigenous peoples. Access to financial services is further limited by costly and time-consuming transportation. Women face particular challenges as they are often not allowed to hold accounts or borrow money.55 81. In Latin America, the persistent prejudiced views against indigenous peoples’ business capacity is also evident in the manner in which social and economic programmes and policies are developed and offered to indigenous peoples without targeting specific needs and concerns. Also, compensation and mitigation measures paid to indigenous peoples due to large-scale enterprises rarely consider their business capacity in a full manner and may result in additional social disruption to and cultural impact on indigenous peoples, for example when favouring selected individuals or families to receive benefits rather than investing in sustainable communal initiatives. 82. In many African countries, indigenous peoples practise nomadic pastoralism. There is a general lack of support to that sector of the economy as it is deemed unsustainable and destructive to the environment. Governments are spending huge budgets on other sectors of agriculture in the form of incentives such as fertilizer subsidies and insurance policies while neglecting pastoralism, which has nevertheless proven to be a viable livelihood activity. B. Lack of legal protection for rights over lands and resources 83. Indigenous peoples are often not recognized as legal owners of their lands, which may limit collateral when applying for a loan. Many lending institutions do not consider collective land ownership as equivalent to individual land titles. Private companies and financial institutions tend to simplify communal ownership and title to meet their own interests. For example, in the Amazon region there have been a number of speculative offers by private companies to buy the right to sell carbon credits from indigenous lands. A number of contracts for those purposes were considered void because they would be restricting collective use of land for traditional activities for 30 years or more to benefit a private entity.56 84. Furthermore, in many cases, resources on and under indigenous peoples’ lands are considered to be State-owned. Globally, indigenous peoples’ rights to their natural resources are restricted, particularly when it comes to subsoil resources. Even in cases where indigenous peoples do have legal title deeds to their lands, the land is often leased to mining companies with little or no consultation with indigenous people. For example, most ore production in Sweden comes from mines in Sápmi, the Sámi traditional area. 57 52 53 54 55 56 57 Miriam Jorgensen, “Access to capital and credit in Native Communities” (Tucson, Arizona, Native Nations Institute, 2017). Available from http://nni.arizona.edu/application/ files/8914/6386/8578/Accessing_Capital_and_Credit_in_Native_Communities.pdf. Ibid., p. 38. Ibid. See the submission from Cultural Survival. See http://g1.globo.com/natureza/noticia/2012/03/funai-considera-nulas-vendas-de-terra-indigenapara-estrangeiros.html. See the preparatory report from the Sami Parliament in Sweden/Sámediggi/Sámedigge/Saemiedigkie/ Sametinget for the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples prior to her 2015 visit to 17