Land and Covid-19

As governments press pause on economic activities and people change their work and social behaviors to halt the spread of COVID-19, there are several hidden dimensions that can put pressure on land governance and management and threaten the land rights security of millions worldwide. In this section, we’ve put together the latest news on how COVID-19 affects various dimensions of land rights.

Key Debates

Event

LANDac Conference 2021

30 June 2021 to 2 July 2021

Global

Organizers:

LANDac

Land, Crisis and Resilience

30 June – 2 July 2021
afternoons (CEST), online

The LANDac Annual International Conference offers a podium for knowledge exchange between researchers, practitioners and private sector representatives interested in land governance for equitable and sustainable development. Anticipating that the COVID-19 global crisis will continue to restrict travel and large-scale events, the LANDac Annual International Conference 2021 will be held in an online format.

Event

Justice on the Frontline: Tackling Gender Injustice during the Pandemic

18 March 2021

Global

Organizers:

Namati

Across the world, women are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. One of the most dramatic effects is the rise in gender-based violence. Traditional and patriarchal systems for addressing abuse, often housed in police and court services, have failed to adequately respond to women’s needs.

Event

Rolling back social and environmental safeguards in the name of COVID-19

18 February 2021

Global

Organizers:

Forest Peoples Programme

Land Portal Foundation

The Tenure Facility

The webinar Rolling back social and environmental safeguards in the name of COVID-19., organized by Forest Peoples Programme, the Tenure Facility, Middlesex University, the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic and the Land Portal, took place on Thursday, February 18, 2021 .

Event

Building Back Better: Confronting the Impact of COVID-19 on Land Tenure, Food Security and Nutrition

13 October 2020

Global

Organizers:

Land Portal Foundation

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Welthungerhilfe

Global Donor Platform for Rural Development

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment

International Land Coalition

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Partners Event on coordinating a Covid-19 response while monitoring the effect on governance of tenure and determining how to build back better

Event

Webinar Series: The Effect of COVID-19 on Indigenous People’s Organizations and Local Communities

2 September 2020 to 17 September 2020

Global

Organizers:

Ford Foundation

Land Portal Foundation

The Tenure Facility

Thomson Reuters Foundation

This series of three webinars features indigenous and non-indigenous leaders in a virtual roundtable to discuss both the key effects that COVID-19 is generating in their communities as well as possible solutions and the way forward.

Event

COVID-19, Regulatory Rollback and the ‘Green Recovery’: Indigenous Peoples Raise Their Voices

17 September 2020

Global

Organizers:

Ford Foundation

Land Portal Foundation

The Tenure Facility

Thomson Reuters Foundation

As COVID-19 has hobbled governments around the world, environmental protections have diminished or disappeared altogether, leaving the door wide open for abuse, corruption, land grabs. Indigenous peoples and their territories are prime targets to pillage during this vulnerable period.

Event

COVID-19, Biodiversity and Climate Change: Indigenous Peoples Defining the Path Forward

10 September 2020

Global

Organizers:

Ford Foundation

Land Portal Foundation

The Tenure Facility

Thomson Reuters Foundation

Indigenous Peoples and local communities manage more than half of the world´s land. These biodiverse ancestral lands are vital to the people who steward them and the planet we all share. But governments only recognize indigenous and community legal ownership of 10 percent of the world´s lands. Secure tenure is essential for safeguarding the existing forests against external forces. This is specifically true for forests managed by Indigenous Peoples, where much of the world’s carbon is stored.

Event

COVID-19 and Public Health: Indigenous Peoples on the Front Line

2 September 2020

Global

Organizers:

Ford Foundation

Land Portal Foundation

The Tenure Facility

Thomson Reuters Foundation

Wednesday, September 2nd, 9:00 AM-10:30 AM EST (3:00 PM – 4:30 PM CEST)

Three-quarters of emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses, meaning they can be transmitted from animals to humans, with Ebola, SARS, MERS and now COVID-19 being examples. Scientists are warning that deforestation, industrial agriculture, illegal wildlife trade, climate change and other types of environmental degradation increase the risk of future pandemics.

Event

Prindex Global Online Launch: Securing Land and Property Rights in a Post-Pandemic World

15 July 2020

Global

Organizers:

Land Portal Foundation

Prindex

Join us for the online launch of Prindex, the world’s first global survey measuring how secure people feel in their land and property rights. Having previously published data and analysis for 33 countries, Prindex is now poised to release its full global dataset of 140 countries.

Event

LANDac Online Encounter 2020: Covid-19 Crisis and Land Governance and Parallel Sessions

1 July 2020

Global

Organizers:

LANDac

Land Portal Foundation

In this webinar, LANDac, the LANDdialogue and the Land Portal Foundation will take stock of the emerging insights on the immediate and mid- to long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on equitable and sustainable land governance.

Debate

Online Discussion: Land Rights Implications of COVID-19

3 June 2020 to 24 June 2020

Closed

Facilitators:

Mr. Alexandre Corriveau-Bourque

Yuliya Panfil

Ms. Karol Boudreaux

Mr. Neil Sorensen

Miss Chantal Wieckardt

Partners:

Landesa - Rural Development Institute

Land Portal Foundation

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

UK Department for International Development

New America

Environmental Peacebuilding

LANDac

Global Protection Cluster Housing, Land, and Property Area of Responsibility

Cadasta Foundation

Global

Event

Migration, Displacement, and De-urbanization in the Context of COVID-19

28 May 2020

Global

Organizers:

New America

Landesa - Rural Development Institute

Land Portal Foundation

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

UK Department for International Development

Environmental Peacebuilding

Global Protection Cluster Housing, Land, and Property Area of Responsibility

LANDac

Join us for the Land Rights and COVID-19 webinar and discussion series, which is presented by Land Portal, Landesa, the Global Protection Cluster HLP AOR and GIZ, with organizing support from Environmental Peacebuilding Association, LANDac, New America and the UK's Department for International Development (DFID).

Information by issue

The number between the parenthesis indicates the number of resources on the Land Portal that are tagged with 'Covid-19' for each issue.

Forest Landscape Restoration (18)

Forest Tenure (25)

Indigenous & Community Land Rights (115)

Land & Corruption (42)

Land & Food Security (91)

Land & Gender (59)

Land & Investments (40)

Land Conflicts (51)

Land in Post-Conflict Settings (18)

Land, Climate Change & Environment (53)

Rangelands, Drylands & Pastoralism (2)

Urban Tenure (44)

Information by country

News

Uzbek Farmers Unhappy With President's Order Giving Land To Jobless Youth

14 March 2021

Uzbekistan

Main photo: Farmers complain that not only will they lose income without compensation, but they even have to pay taxes on the land they are forced to give away.

International Women's Day 2021: Fighting for Women's Land Rights

8 March 2021

Global

This year’s theme for the International Day,"Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world", celebrates the tremendous efforts by women and girls around the world in shaping a more equal future and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

World's tropical forests and people imperiled by legal rollbacks under COVID-19

18 February 2021

Global

Threats against indigenous people and rainforests have risen during the coronavirus pandemic as governments have rolled back social and environmental safeguards to boost economic growth, land rights activists said on Thursday.

Covid an Excuse to Strip Tropical Forests: Indigenous Groups

18 February 2021

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Brazil

Colombia

Peru

Indonesia

PARIS (AFP) — Governments worldwide are using the Covid-19 pandemic to push through destructive development projects and roll back protections of indigenous groups, according to a global report on deforestation and rule of la

More Land & Covid-19 news

Library

Rolling back social and environmental safeguards in the name of COVID-19

Reports & Research

March 2021

Brazil

Colombia

Peru

Indonesia

Global

The webinar Rolling back social and environmental safeguards in the name of COVID-19, organized by Forest Peoples Programme, the Tenure Facility, Middlesex University, the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic and the Land Portal Foundation, took place on Thursday, February 18, 2021.

Indonesia: Rollback in the Time of COVID-19

Reports & Research

February 2021

Indonesia

This paper highlights the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has affected and disenfranchised indigenous peoples and forest communities in Indonesia. The lack of adequate protection of the rights of indigenous peoples and their territories before the pandemic has been made worse by a lack of protection during the pandemic.

Perú: Retrocesos en tiempos de COVID-19

Reports & Research

February 2021

Peru

Los impactos económicos del COVID-19 han generado que el Estado peruano agudice aún más en la priorización de las actividades extractivas por sobre la atención y cumplimiento de los derechos de los pueblos indígenas.

More Land & Covid-19 library resources

Events

3rd Mekong Regional Land Forum

26 May 2021 to 27 May 2021

Location

Online

Laos

See map: Google Maps

South-Eastern Asia

Cambodia

Laos

Myanmar

Thailand

Vietnam

Organizers:

Mekong Region Land Governance

Land Portal Foundation

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

Land Equity International

Groupe de Recherches et d'Echanges Technologiques

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH

LANDac Conference 2021

30 June 2021 to 2 July 2021

Global

Land, Crisis and Resilience

30 June – 2 July 2021
afternoons (CEST), online

Organizers:

LANDac

More Land & Covid-19 related events

Blogs

Hope for Land Ownership in Tumaco, Colombia

24 February 2021

Authors:

Mr. Nicholas Parkinson

Colombia

The pandemic has shown the Colombian government how structural land issues continue to hamper rural development.

Colombia’s hospitals have been challenged due to Covid-19, and while the government rushes to strengthen the country’s healthcare system, intensive care unit occupancy remains high throughout the pandemic.

Secure land rights are now more important than ever

29 January 2021

Authors:

Nathaniah Jacobs

Tehtena Mebratu-Tsegaye

Global

Eight Breakthroughs for Land Rights in 2020

2 February 2021

Authors:

Chris Jochnick

Tanzania

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Liberia

Myanmar

Global

2020 was a tough year on many fronts, and land rights were no exception. COVID-19 hindered land rights advocates from doing field research, meeting with government officials, prioritizing policy initiatives, and obtaining funding.

Despite these headwinds, we have seen important advances, and the field continues to grow. Here are eight breakthroughs in 2020 to celebrate:

More Land & Covid-19 blogs

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Land and Covid-19

Key Debates

Land, Crisis and Resilience

30 June – 2 July 2021 afternoons (CEST), online

Partners Event on coordinating a Covid-19 response while monitoring the effect on governance of tenure and determining how to build back better

Information by issue

Information by country

News

Library

Events

Location

Land, Crisis and Resilience

30 June – 2 July 2021 afternoons (CEST), online

Blogs

The pandemic has shown the Colombian government how structural land issues continue to hamper rural development.

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30 June – 2 July 2021
afternoons (CEST), online

30 June – 2 July 2021
afternoons (CEST), online