Benefit-sharing agreements and community contracts are intended to ensure affected communities are involved in and benefit from the management of forest resources, but communities have often been left feeling short-changed.

This briefing note provides an overview of the functioning of community benefit sharing and community contracting in the Republic of Congo, Gabon, Ghana and Liberia, through ClientEarth’s experience. It also draws out key considerations on benefit sharing and community contracting mechanisms.

L’Afrique de l’Ouest et centrale abrite 25 % des forêts tropicales de la planète. La déforestation y est une préoccupation centrale au défi climatique. Face à cette menace, des lois nationales visent à protéger et à restaurer les forêts, ainsi qu’à encadrer leur utilisation pour le développement national.

This executive summary offers recommendations based on lessons learned from Ghana, Liberia and RoC, for other countries of West and Central Africa who are considering how to embed REDD+ social safeguards into their national laws.

The full report is available from here.

Cameroon is currently witnessing an unprecedented wave of land-based investments, ranging from natural resources exploitation (oil, mining and gas), logging, large infrastructure building, etc. These developments happen in a context of population growth, in an increase in the domestic demand for land. There is a gap between the legislation governing expropriation and compensation in the country, and the variety of customary rules on land and resources. This context of legal pluralism results into endless conflicts opposing communities and the investors, including the State.

Memoria de la presentación del Informe 2016 Acceso a la tierra y territorio en Sudamérica, ciudad de Tarija, septiembre de 2017

The Annual Country Reviews reflect upon current land issues in the Mekong Region, and has been produced for researchers, practitioners and policy advocates operating in the field. Specialists have been selected from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam to briefly answer the following two questions:

1. What are the most pressing issues involving land governance in your country?

2. What are the most important issues for the researcher on land?

The key question in this article is the extent to which current real property expropriation practices in Kigali city promote spatial justice. Current studies focus on the ambiguous manner in which real property valuation had been regulated by the expropriation law of 2007, leading to unfair compensation and various conflicts between expropriating agencies and expropriated people. Following its amendment in 2015, the law currently provides clearer procedures for valuation and fair compensation, based on the market prices.

A case study of the situation in Lamu, Isiolo and Siaya Counties by the Land Development and Governance Institute (LDGI).

Covers the background, the numbers of people affected, the absence of a coordinated and planned approach, difficulties with the demarcation and titling process, demarcation procedures, the need for gender sensitivity, and compensation.

Includes the return process, public knowledge of land rights, land conflicts and dispute resolution, post-conflict vulnerable group issues, performance of land administration institutions, recommendations. Finds the issue of return not adequately dealt with in the NLP. 92% have returned in Lango, but only 5% in Acholi.

A second report for the World Bank’s Northern Uganda Recovery and Development Program – RDP. The objective is to inform policy processes on post-conflict land policy and administration on likely types of land conflicts and claims, their resolution, gaps in current land policy, resources needed. Survey suggests that Teso’s IDP displacement patterns are unique. Customary tenure has been transformed, with household heads now owners, not trustees, of rights in land, so clans are merely informed of sales. Common property resources are at greatest risk.

Three separate ‘on my mind’ articles by Professor Mbilinyi: Making National Land Policy inclusive and people-centred; In whose interest will this National Land Policy be?; Questions about the National Land Policy, 2016. Draft NLP just released for external consultation. Shares the views of other researchers.