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.

COVID-19 has negatively affected indigenous land rights, particularly for those who already face food insecurity as a result of land confiscation or grabbing and the loss of their territories. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the expropriation of indigenous lands and natural resources and the increase in conflicts on their territories were already placing indigenous peoples in a particularly precarious situation. The crisis has led to reports of encroachment upon indigenous land by opportunists, such as illegal loggers and miners.

Although land forms the basis for marginal livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa, the asset is more strategic for women as they usually hold derived and dependent rights to land in customary tenure areas. Initiatives to secure women’s land tenure in customary areas are undermined by the social embeddedness of the rights, patriarchy, lack of awareness by the communities, legal pluralism, and challenges of recording the rights.

The dynamics of current global challenges—like food and nutrition security, environmental degradation, climate change, and emergencies—reduce the availability of and/or access to natural resources, and thereby underline the urgency of achieving transformational changes in the governance of tenure. This is increasingly required to bring the greatest good to the most people, in line with human rights.

The “Responsible Governance of Investments in Land” (RGIL) project in Ethiopia aims at ensuring that investments in land are productive, contribute to sustainable land management, and respect the rights and needs of local populations, in particular vulnerable groups and women.

Climate change increasingly affects agricultural systems, making it necessary for farmers to adapt to changing climatic conditions. An important element shaping farmers’ adaptation decisions and their vulnerability is their respective land tenure system. Especially land tenure security can strongly influence farmers’ incentives for adapting to climate change.

Global efforts to combat climate change will require a transition to renewable energy and government action to reduce reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. If followed through, such action will create stranded assets – in other words, economic assets affected by premature write-downs or downward revaluations, or converted to liabilities.

This brochure provides a brief inroduction to LandVoc, the linked land governance thesaurus.  Logistical as well as technical information are provided. 

In 2015 we celebrated world leaders’ recognition of the foundational and strategic role that secure land rights for all –women and men, regardless of ethnicity, religion, place of residence, or civil, economic, social, or political status—must play to achieve a world free of poverty, hunger and systemic gender discrimination.

This webinar took stock of the emerging insights on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on land rights and discussed concerns about the expected mid-to-long term impacts on equitable and sustainable land governance.

The discussion built upon previous efforts of the broader land governance community, including the Quick-scan Survey on the COVID-19 crisis by LANDac and the LANDdialogue, insights from the LANDac Professional Learning Programme and the webinar and discussion series ‘Land Rights Implications of COVID-19’ by the Land Portal Foundation and its partners.

Fin juin 2019, la Commission européenne a annoncé avoir conclu un accord de principe en vue d’un accord de libre-échange avec le Mercosur. Ce bloc commercial sud-américain est composé de l’Argentine, du Brésil, du Paraguay et de l’Uruguay. L’accord envisagé est l’un des volets d’un accord d’association plus global. Il est fortement décrié par la société civile et certains gouvernements. La présente publication est proposée par MISEREOR, Greenpeace, la CIDSE, le CCFD-Terre Solidaire et Entraide & Fraternité.

El presente informe fue construido de manera conjunta por las Iniciativas “ODS y Tierra”, “ENI Argentina” y “Land Matrix”. Su objetivo es realizar contribuciones al Estado y a la sociedad en general, para mejorar la implementación de los ODS y sus Metas relacionadas a la Tierra en la República Argentina. Para tal fin, se utilizaron datos extraídos del documento “Trayectoria de las Metas de Tierra de los ODS en Argentina”, estudio encargado por la ENI Argentina a la consultora Dra.