Land information is critical for equitable land governance that benefits the most vulnerable and drives economic growth, sustainable development, and food security. However, land data and information sources remain highly fragmented, unstructured and do not present the full range of perspectives needed for decision making. Land governance, (laws, processes, and institutions) regulate how decisions concerning land are made, implemented, and enforced and require the best possible land data and information.

Land rights are fundamental sources of tension in Liberia, so transparency about land information is both essential and highly politicized. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission and other scholars have documented land conflict as one of the major causes of the 14 year civil conflict (1989-2003) in Liberia, rooted in the country’s formation in the 19th Century as a land divided by indigenous peoples and freed slaves settling from the United States.

In Mozambique, the law recognizes certain forms of occupation as constituting legal tenure and nationals can claim this recognition of their right to occupy and use land allocated through customary norms/practices. Local communities can also claim rights over land which they have customarily occupied, used, and managed. These rights are not prejudiced by their lack of titling or documentation and may be defended on the basis of oral testimony.

Em Moçambique, a lei reconhece certas formas de ocupação que constituem posse legal e os(as) cidadãos(ãs) podem reivindicar esse reconhecimento de seu direito de ocupar e usar a terra alocada por meio de normas/práticas costumeiras. As comunidades locais também podem reivindicar direitos sobre a terra que costumam ocupar, usar e administrar. Esses direitos não são prejudicados pela falta de titulação ou documentação e podem ser defendidos com base em testemunhos orais.

This report on the land data ecosystem in Madagascar is the first step towards providing a baseline and diagnostic tool to inform conversations around land and data governance. It aims to complement existing initiatives to improve the accuracy and extent of land data in Madagascar and identify opportunities to improve public access to all forms of land information.

Ce rapport sur l'écosystème des données foncières à Madagascar est la première étape vers la fourniture d'une base de référence et d'un outil de diagnostic pour informer les conversations autour de la gouvernance foncière et des données. Il vise à compléter les initiatives existantes pour améliorer la précision et l'étendue des données foncières à Madagascar et à identifier les opportunités d'améliorer l'accès du public à toutes les formes d'informations foncières.

This report on the land data ecosystem in Madagascar is the first step towards providing a baseline and diagnostic tool to inform conversations around land and data governance. It aims to complement existing initiatives to improve the accuracy and extent of land data in Madagascar and identify opportunities to improve public access to all forms of land information.

Ce rapport sur l’écosystème des données foncières à Madagascar est la première étape vers la fourniture d’une base de référence et d’un outil de diagnostic pour informer les conversations autour de la gouvernance foncière et des données. Il vise à compléter les initiatives existantes pour améliorer la précision et l’étendue des données foncières à Madagascar et à identifier les opportunités d’améliorer l’accès du public à toutes les formes d’informations foncières.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Botswana, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

The aim of this report is to serve as a diagnostic for the land information ecosystem in Botswana and enable targeted interventions for improved information management.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Zambia, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

This publication discusses the importance of open data as a tool for inclusive land governance. It introduces and describes open data, land governance functions, and metadata. It provides an in-depth looks at AGROVOC, the controlled vocabulary about agriculture and related sciences coordinated by FAO for more than 40 years, and LandVoc, a sub-vocabulary dedicated to the land sector. Using these two examples, the article explores why structured metadata is integral for open data to support innovation and improvements in land administration.

Fraud and corruption are the main enabling mechanisms for land abuses in Brazil, guaranteeing impunity for land grabbers and other public and private agents involved in these schemes. This is what is evidenced in the research report, “Weak land governance, fraud and corruption: fertile ground for land grabbing,” which systematizes for the first time the relationship between these issues. Thereby, the study seeks to understand precisely why and how corruption and fraud associated with land grabbing occur.