Land. It is a commodity like no other. We live on it. We grow from it. We drink from it and build our futures upon it. But — increasingly and frighteningly so — we don’t share it equally.

The distribution of land has long defined the gap between rich and poor. Now new data shows clearer than ever how the way in which land is being shared and managed profoundly impacts extreme and rising inequality, and the achievement of women’s and girl’s rights.

The LANDac Conference 2021 was opened by the Co-Chairs of LANDac, Dr. Gemma van der Haar from Wageningen University and Dr. Guus van Westen from Utrecht University. Dr. Guus van Westen noted that theirs is the 11^th consecutive LANDac conference, and that last year, labeling the conference an Online Encounter, we were not yet ready to accept the new reality of COVID-19. This shift has enabled LANDac to reach new audiences that were not previously part of the LANDac crowd.

The Sarayaku people of eastern Ecuador have declared their traditional Amazonian home as Kawsak Sacha — a living forest with rights.

On Mindanao, in the Philippines, the Manobo people have created a local and regional governance structure for their lands, including Bagani, or warriors, to police the area against logging and poaching.

The second session of the 3rd Mekong Regional Land Forum explored some of the regional and global trends in protecting local user rights in forests. In particular, it looked at some of the regional programs in social forestry and how these attempt to draw a balance between community needs and other demands for conservation, and exploitation for timber and non-timber resources. 

Instruments like the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) are "voluntary", i.e., legally non-binding. These instruments are intended to have a direct influence on the governance of the tenure practice of states by providing an internationally recognized set of principles, and by simultaneously encouraging good practices.

Whether and how climate change drives conflict has driven considerable debate over the past decade. Yet understandings of climate-conflict remain general, and in many respects, unsettled.

A 2021 African land rush seems unlikely, but issues persist

Joseph Feyertag is a research fellow at the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Roger Calow is a senior research fellow at the ODI, and Ben Bowie is a director at TMP Systems.

By Sônia Guajajara (Guajajara), Executive Coordinator for the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB); Vicky Tauli-Corpuz (Kanakaney-Igorot), former UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Gregorio Mirabal (Wakuenai Kurripaco), General Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA); and Peter Seligmann, co-founder and CEO of Nia Tero.
 

The data on forest loss is still grim but we know what causes deforestation - and the policy tools and market mechanisms that can stop it

Every year on April 22nd over a billion people across the world come together to observe Earth Day. First established in 1970, Earth Day was created to drive action in combatting the ongoing global environmental and climate crisis. The theme of the 2021 event is Restore Our Earth. The 2021 Earth Day campaign covers various concepts for how we can restore our earth, but sometimes these can be difficult to visualise.

COVID-19 may have forced the 50th anniversary of Earth Day to be commemorated online last year, yet millions of people participated in calls to action. As we begin to look beyond the pandemic, however, it's vital to remember that we cannot go back to business-as-usual as far as our planet is concerned.