Land degradation and poverty are problems that must be tackled together for environmental conservation to succeed. However, it is rarely possible to move a population from degraded land to another area where the people can be more easily sustained. To find a new strategy that achieves both conservation and economic gains without the need to relocate a population, we examined/investigated a sustainable combination of ecological and economic development suitable for the restoration of areas of China with collapsing gullies, where the frequent steep slopes make restoration difficult.

Land is an important asset for rural households, and having secure land rights is important for poverty reduction. Despite the large body of literature on the relationship between land tenure security, livelihoods, and poverty, most of this literature is based on household-level data and does not consider possible intrahousehold inequalities in land ownership.

The Global Donor Working Group on Land releases this policy brief to reiterate its commitment on the SDG indicator 1.4.2 for achieving global land tenure security. The policy brief clarifies the status of indicator 1.4.2 towards its implementation by countries, as well as informs how the Global Donor Working Group on Land is supporting the custodian agencies for this indicator (UN-Habitat and WB) to have it re-classified by the Inter-Agency Expert Group on SDG Indicators by October 2018.

International Land Coalition infographic on why Land Rights are central to achieving the SDGs.

Presentation at the LandAc conference in June 2017, by Thea Hilhorst, representative of the World Bank, custodian agency of the development of SDG indicator 1.4.2. 

Thea Hilhorst presents the approach to measuring this indicator and the available data that can be used.

Methodological supporting document for land indicator under SGD Goal 1, target 1.4.2

There is a direct relationship between women’s right to land, economic empowerment, food security and poverty reduction. A gender approach to land rights can enable shifts in gender power relations, and assure that all people, regardless of sex, benefit from, and are empowered by, development policies and practices to improve people’s rights to land. This brief gives an overview on how to consider gender aspects in projects and programmes addressing land rights.

A defining feature of many of the world’s cities is an outward expansion far beyond formal administrative boundaries, largely propelled by the use of the automobile, poor urban and regional planning and land speculation. A large proportion of cities both from developed and developing countries have high consuming suburban expansion patterns which often extend to even further peripheries. Cities need to accommodate new and thriving urban functions such as transportation routes, etc. as they expand.

Geoffrey Payne outlines five fundamental propositions that are key to his understanding of tenure issues and policy options.

These are:

1) That access to affordable land with adequate security of tenure and associated rights is a pre-condition for realising the goal of adequate housing and poverty reduction;

Zambia recognizes two types of land tenure: customary and leasehold tenure. While historically the majority of land in Zambia has been held under customary tenure, leases (also called leasehold titles) are the only legal means of holding land rights. In 1995, a new Land Act was passed, which makes it easier for investors to acquire leasehold titles to customary land. When an investor obtains a leasehold title to customary land, the customary land reverts to the state once the lease expires and is thereafter governed by statute.

This article explores the impacts of the now discontinued Land Reform for Agricultural Development Programme on household consumption but argues that more work needs to be done to fully understand the connection between asset treansfer programmes and a reduction in persistent poverty

In this oil research paper, we have set out the challenges confronting oil producing countries in sub-Saharan Africa by giving case studies of Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea. We have also critiqued the draft National Oil and Gas Policy under formulation as well as the legal framework. We argue that the oil Dutch Disease and conflict nexus associated with oil producing countries are not a given since there are examples such as Norway which have utilised their oil revenue for transformation and sustainable development.