This lesson brief discusses projects developed to reinvigorate the process of land registration formalization in peri-urban Ghana, their impacts, and the risks of unintended consequences for women, pastorlaists and the poor if their rights are explicitly taken into account.

This paper seeks to add to the growing literature on land concessions by examining a recent, high-level concession as a means of understanding three aspects related to concessionary investments: (1) the process by which concessions are awarded and implemented; (2) the intricate relationship between land use, land tenure, and land ownership in the face of concessions; and (3) the way in which village and household livelihoods are impacted due to such massive land use and ownership changes.

When we look at access to land and security of tenure, we talk about formal ‘ownership titles’, ‘informal written contracts’ and oral agreements between various parties. The rights and rights holders concerned are not usually specified something that often leads to misunderstandings and even conflict. This paper aims to help fill this gap by proposing a clear, simple method for characterising rights to land and natural resources and holders of land rights that can easily be applied in different cultures and legal systems all over the world.

When we look at access to land and security of tenure, we talk about formal ‘ownership titles’, ‘informal written contracts’ and oral agreements between various parties. The rights and rights holders concerned are not usually specified something that often leads to misunderstandings and even conflict. This paper aims to help fill this gap by proposing a clear, simple method for characterising rights to land and natural resources and holders of land rights that can easily be applied in different cultures and legal systems all over the world.

When we look at access to land and security of tenure, we talk about formal ‘ownership titles’, ‘informal written contracts’ and oral agreements between various parties. The rights and rights holders concerned are not usually specified something that often leads to misunderstandings and even conflict. This paper aims to help fill this gap by proposing a clear, simple method for characterising rights to land and natural resources and holders of land rights that can easily be applied in different cultures and legal systems all over the world.

‘Modern’ legal categories rarely take full account of the complexities of reality on the ground. Worse still, they sometimes lead to profound changes in social and economic relations, since providing security for one type of rights holder or issuing a particular land title (full or absolute) may negate the rights of other types of rights holders.

These suggestions of the malagache CSO FIANTSO are a direct response to the evaluation report of  the IFAD/FAO mission on the land reform in madagascar and their formulated observations, lessons and recommendations.

The enormity of the African refugee problem underscores the importance of resettlement issues in land use planning. Efforts to resettle subsistence-oriented agricultural populations have often come into conflict with host, or in-place land uses as competition for scarce resources lead to land degradation, violence, and the failure of resettlement schemes. The success of refugee resettlement will depend to a large extent on the degree to which host and refugee land-use patterns can become integrated or reconciled.

This report is the result of the co-operation of seventeen partners from four continents—all of them engaged in activities to improve the livelihoods of mobile livestock keepers. The organizing question of this collaboration was, how do mobile livestock keepers—i.e. pastoralists—succeed to organize themselves and to defend and secure their land rights.

[This is an update on this event] Papers of the Expert meeting on Enabling rural women's economic empowerment: institutions, opportunities and participation - 20/23 September 2011 - are now available. They include: