67 244 which are both strictly material and other uses of a spiritual or cultural character.. As explained by the Inter-American Court, “the right to use and enjoy their territory would be meaningless in the context of indigenous and tribal communities if said right were not connected to the natural resources that lie on and within the land. That is, the demand for collective land ownership by members of indigenous and tribal peoples derives from the need to ensure the security and permanence of their control and use of the 245 natural resources, which in turn maintains their very way of life.” 231. Indigenous peoples’ right to property, access and use of the natural resources present in their traditional territories has been linked by the Inter-American Court to these peoples’ survival as differentiated peoples, taking into account aspects of both material subsistence and cultural survival. According to the Inter-American Court’s jurisprudence, “members of tribal and indigenous communities have the right to own the natural resources they have traditionally used within their territory for the same reasons that they have a right to own the land they have traditionally used and occupied for centuries. 246 Without them, the very physical and cultural survival of such peoples is at stake.” 232. Insofar as indigenous and tribal peoples have property rights over the natural resources present in their ancestral territories which are linked to their culture, States must adopt effective measures 247 to secure those rights , in accordance with the traditional use and occupation patterns. The state’s failure to adopt such measures violates Articles 1 and 2 of the American Convention. 233. The exercise of rights over natural resources is not conditioned to the existence of a formal title to property. Indigenous and tribal peoples’ territorial rights, which include their rights over natural resources, exist even without State actions which specify them, given that such peoples have communal property rights to land and natural resources based on traditional patterns of use and 248 occupation of ancestral territory. 234. Moreover, although neither the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, nor the American Convention on Human Rights, contain express references to the protection of the environment, it is clear that several rights of a fundamental rank which are enshrined therein require, as a precondition for their proper exercise, a minimum environmental quality, and are profoundly affected by the degradation of natural resources. The IACHR has emphasized in this sense that there is a direct relationship between the physical environment in which persons live, and the rights to life, security and physical integrity: “The realization of the right to life, and to physical security and integrity is necessarily related to and in some ways dependent upon one's physical environment. Accordingly, where environmental contamination and degradation pose a persistent threat to human life and health, the 249 foregoing rights are implicated.” , 235. In this sense, the protection of the environmental integrity of the natural resources that are present in ancestral territories is necessary to secure certain substantial rights of a fundamental 244 Corte IDH. Caso del Pueblo Saramaka. Vs. Surinam. Excepciones Preliminares, Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 28 de noviembre de 2007. Serie C No. 172, párr. 118. 245 Corte IDH. Caso del Pueblo Saramaka. Vs. Surinam. Excepciones Preliminares, Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 28 de noviembre de 2007. Serie C No. 172, párr. 122. Corte IDH. Caso Comunidad Indígena Yakye Axa Vs. Paraguay. Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia 17 de junio de 2005. Serie C No. 125, párrs. 124, 137. Corte IDH. Caso Comunidad Indígena Sawhoyamaxa Vs. Paraguay. Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 29 de marzo de 2006. Serie C No. 146, párrs. 118, 121. 246 Cf. Case of the Indigenous Community Yakye Axa, supra note 75, para. 137, and Case of the Indigenous Community Sawhoyamaxa, supra note 75, para. 118. 247 Corte IDH, Caso de la Cominidad Yakye Axa Vs. Paraguay. Fondo, Reparaciones y Costas. Sentencia de 17 de junio de 2005. Serie C No. 125, parr. 141. 248 CIDH, Derechos de los pueblos indígenas y tribales sobre sus tierras ancestrales y recursos naturales. Normas y jurisprudencia del Sistema Interamericano de Derechos Humanos. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.Doc.56(09, 30 de diciembre de 2009, parr. 68. 249 CIDH, Informe sobre la situación de los derechos humanos en Ecuador. Doc. OEA/Ser.L/V/II.96, Doc. 10 rev.1, 24 de abril de 1997.