This paper is an abridged version of an earlier scoping study entitled Sri Lanka Country Report: Land Watch Asia Study prepared in 2010 by the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement through the support of the International Land Coalition (ILC). It is also written as a contribution to the Land Watch Asia (LWA) campaign to ensure that access to land, agrarian reform and sustainable development for the rural poor are addressed in development.

In Afghanistan, insecurity over land and water rights hampers investments in food production and irrigation. In rural areas, customary tenure systems, partly based on religious law, are the most relevant but suffer from weak recognition and offer little protection to rights holders. The land policy reform is on-going but remains slow. Moreover, land administration capacity is weak and improvements mostly take place in urban areas. In this context, land disputes are common and often violent.

Land and resource conflicts in India have deep implications for the well-being of the country’s people, institutions, investments, and long-term development. These conflicts reveal deep structural flaws in the country’s social, agrarian, and institutional structures, including ambiguities in property rights regimes and institutions. In 2014, a study focusing primarily on reports in the national media reflected the gravity of these conflicts.

This short thematic study challenges the assumption that the legal framework to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ (IP) customary lands is adequate and that the challenge lies in its implementation. With support from MRLG, a core group of IP NGOs of the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA) held a series of seminars to scrutinize this legal framework, identify gaps and make recommendations for a revision of the supporting legal framework. The thematic study documents this joint reflection.

This short thematic study challenges the assumption that the legal framework to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ (IP) customary lands is adequate and that the challenge lies in its implementation. With support from MRLG, a core group of IP NGOs of the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA) held a series of seminars to scrutinize this legal framework, identify gaps and make recommendations for a revision of the supporting legal framework. The thematic study documents this joint reflection.

Ill-regulated land acquisition and unilateral land concessions may often trigger forced relocations, conflicts and human rights abuses. This course introduces the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent that indigenous people and small family farmers can use to protect their customary or traditional land rights. The process ensures that communities can participate in decision-making processes and that their concerns, priorities and preferences are accommodated in any project affecting their lands, territories and resources.

El manual es una herramienta dirigida a los responsables de proyectos y programas y contiene un procedimiento en seis pasos para facilitar el proceso de CLPI, al tiempo que muestra sus beneficios y provee el marco regulatorio que debe ser usado cuando se integren los derechos de los pueblos indígenas en las políticas y normas de las organizaciones.

The present study on Myanmar focuses on customary tenure among upland ethnic
nationalities, where colonial and state land administration systems have been poorly integrated,
allowing customary systems to be sustained over time. Much like under British colonial power, the
state has an ambiguous attitude towards customary systems: they are not formally recognized in
law but in practice they are tolerated. Customary land is not titled and therefore at risk of
alienation. The expropriation of many thousands of acres of farmers’ land during the military junta

Abstract: "Global economic change and policy interventions
are driving transitions from long-fallow swidden (LFS)
systems to alternative land uses in Southeast Asia’s uplands.
This study presents a systematic review of how these
transitions impact upon livelihoods and ecosystem services
in the region. Over 17 000 studies published between 1950
and 2015 were narrowed, based on relevance and quality, to
93 studies for further analysis. Our analysis of land-use
transitions from swidden to intensified cropping systems

Indigenous Peoples and local communities hold a large share of the world’s land area under customary systems. However, there is a tremendous gap between what is held by communities in practice and what is formally recognised by governments.

This Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) Manual is designed as a tool for project practitioners of a broad range of projects and programmes of any development organization, by providing information about the right to FPIC and how it can be implemented in six steps.

صمم دليل حق الشعوب الأصلية وممارسة جيدة للمجتمعات المحلية كأداة للمارسي المشاريع في طيف واسع من المشاريع والبرامج التابعة لأي منظمة تنموية، حيث يوفر معلومات حول حق الشعوب الأصلية وممارسة جيدة للمجتمعات المحلية وكيف يمكن تنفيذها في ست خطوات. ويكمل هذا الليل سياسة منظمة الأغذية والزراعة الخاصة بالشعوب الأصلية والقبلية (2010) والتي تدرج حق الشعوب الأصلية وممارسة جيدة للمجتمعات المحلية كواحد من مبادئها.