12 63. Traditionally, the Garífunas cultivated the land using a slash and burn, crop rotation method, which is described by the petitioner as follows : The Garífunas used the slash and burn system in which part of the land is left fallow in order to maintain a sustainable form of production and an acceptable ratio between yield at harvest and the work time invested. The combination of these factors means that a vast tract of land has to be 27 available to practice this production strategy. 64. The members of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community also engage in secondary activities, such as the sale of coconut bread and cassava bread and producing and sell craft work. The traditional economy of the community is based on reciprocity in the provision of manpower, redistribution of food in 28 times of scarcity and communal property of natural resources. In addition, remittances of money from 29 abroad are one of the chief means of subsistence and of improvement to homes. 65. The territory occupied by the Community has been collectively possessed since ancestral time. The Community identifies as its ancestral territory an area of approximately two thousand eight hundred and forty (2,840) hectares, which covers the both the housing area and the functional habit they 30 have used historically. Within this territory, the Community regards the areas around Cerro El Tigre, Cerro Punta Izopo, and the River Plátano as particularly important for traditional hunting, fishing, and 31 plant gathering activities. 66. The members of the Community consider that the land is a sacred heritage of the community and it is distributed according to customary law. Traditionally, they did not bother to document the land, since every member of the community had a plot assigned to him to cultivate and the rights to it were progressively acquired and transferred from one generation to another. Likewise, Beatriz Ramos Bernárdez, a member of the Community, stated in her testimony to the IACHR: "The Garifuna people live off cassava, yam, coco-yam, sweet potato, and coconut; from cassava we make bread and cake. We use coconut to make oil and we also sell it to buy food we cannot produce in the Community. ... Today, in order to survive we have to buy cassava from people in the shop outside the Community; we buy cocunut. There is poverty in Triunfo because our way of life, our life is farming and fishing." IACHR, Public Hearing dated March 2nd, 2007 on “Case 12.548 – Garifuna Community of Triunfo de la Cruz, Honduras”, 127th period of sessions. Testimony of Beatriz Ramos Bernárdez. 27 Written document containing observations on the merits presented by the petitioner before the IACHR, May 23, 2006, p. 6. Annex 1. The Inspection Panel of the World Bank. Investigation Report on Honduras: Land Administration Program. Investigation Report No. 39933-HN. June 12, 2007. p. 21. Attached to the petitioner’s written communication of October 13, 2008, received by the IACHR on October 15, 2008. 28 Annex 2. Study by the Caribbean Central America Research Council on the “Ethnography of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community”. Appendix 1 of the petitioner’s written communication of May 23, 2006, received by the IACHR on May 30, 2006. 29 According to the information provided by both parties, “approximately 55% of families support themselves financially through remittances sent by family members residing abroad, particularly in the United States”. - Annex 2. Study by the Caribbean Central America Research Council on the “Ethnography of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community”. Appendix 1 of the petitioner’s written communication of May 23, 2006, received by the IACHR on May 30, 2006. 30 Annex 2. Map developed by the Caribbean Central America Research Council as part of the study on the “Ethnography of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community”. Appendix 1 of the petitioner’s written communication of May 23, 2006, received by the IACHR on May 30, 2006. IACHR, Public Hearing dated March 2nd, 2007 on “Case 12.548 – Garifuna Community of Triunfo de la Cruz, Honduras”, 127th period of sessions. Expert appraisal by Edmund Taylor Gordon. 31 The President of the Community Council from 1990 to 1992 said ni a statement to the Prosecutor for Ethnic Groups: "The Community was fighting for recognition of land from Cerro El Triunfo de la Cruz to Cerro El Izopo, because according to their ancestors they possessed all that land for agriculture." Annex 4. Statements taken by the Principal Prosecutor in Tela. Annex 19 of the initial petition dated October 27, 2003, received by the IACHR October 29, 2003. In addition, according to the information provided by both parties: "Historically, according to the map, the lands now occupied by numerous mestizo (ladino) families in the area known as Canahuati belonged to the community of Triunfo de la Cruz, like the land located in the southern part of the Community around Cerro El Tigre, where several mestizo families have been living for some time. They were part of the area used by the Community for agriculturesic”. Annex 2. Study by the Caribbean Central America Research Council on the “Ethnography of the Triunfo de la Cruz Community”. Appendix 1 of the petitioner’s written communication of May 23, 2006, received by the IACHR on May 30, 2006. In addition, see IACHR, Public Hearing dated March 2nd, 2007 on “Case 12.548 – Garifuna Community of Triunfo de la Cruz, Honduras”, 127th period of sessions. Expert appraisal by Edmund Taylor Gordon.