Struggles to control valuable land, natural and mineral resources are at the heart of many conflicts around the world. Many have their roots in colonial conquest and post-colonial resource grabbing by colluding local and global elites. Land conflicts frequently entail clashes of values and meanings associated with land. Conflict risk is rising with climate change and the race to control critical mineral and water resources. Millions of people face loss of livelihoods and displacement.

This Law sets out principles, rules and measures regarding the supervision, inspection and monitoring of resettlement and vocation in order to enhance its efficiency, effectiveness, compliance, and to be consistent with locality condition and development to ensure Lao multi-ethnic persons who live in resettlement and vocational area have place to stay, place to earn a living and sustainable vocation which aim to solve illegal relocation problem, reduce poverty, improve livelihood of Lao multi-ethnic persons physically and mentally, develop social discipline, become development village and a

This video is about the everyday struggles of Munda people of Datinakhali Mundapara in Shyamnagar upazila (subdistrict) of Satkhira district in Bangladesh. Munda is one of the indigenous communities in the country. Being on the frontline of the climate crisis, rising sea levels and salt infiltrates, 28 Munda families living in Datinakhali Mundapara are in dire straits due to landlessness, poverty, and climate change effects, with 10 Munda households already have migrated to other places.

This second Forest Tenure Funders Group (FTFG) annual report analyzes progress against the five-year, $1.7 billion commitment to the tenure rights and forest guardianship of Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPs and LCs) in tropical forest countries announced at COP26.

“Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is the first line of defense when investors and government officials seek to develop projects that may affect Indigenous communities, lands, territories, and resources. For this reason, Indigenous Peoples must be prepared to engage with FPIC from a fully informed, proactive stance. Indigenous Peoples must have their FPIC protocols ready, and be ready to lead engagement around FPIC on their terms.” –Securing Indigenous Peoples' Right to Self-Determination: A Guide on Free, Prior and Informed Consent

In recent years, the call of civil society organizations to formalize rights of local communities and Indigenous Peoples to forests has been growing louder. They argue that formalizing local forest rights will have positive outcomes for livelihoods as well as forest conservation. In response to these calls, many governments have started forest reforms. This has become known as the forest tenure transition.

Photo by UNDP Guinea,Forested Guinea is one of the most vulnerable regions in West Africa to climate change , (CC BY-ND 2.0 DEED)

From the 3rd to 6th September, 2023, we the people of the great lands across Africa, including people from social movements and civil society, trade unions, women, indigenous peoples, young people, men, people living with disabilities, media organisations, faith-based groups and many others, gathered in Nairobi, Kenya and committed to this declaration on African climate and development priorities and demands.

This case study highlights the vulnerability of women in Fiaferana, who are disadvantaged, first, by their gender and indigenous heritage, and second, by their lack of tenure security in the midst of climate change. However, the women of Fiaferana have met these overlapping  challenges head-on through innovative and empowering strategies, including sustainable land use management.

This case study presents the unique example of pastoralist communities in Kenya who had traditionally been able to rely on their customary land governance systems to ensure their access to grazing land and to help them sustain their livelihoods in the face of drought. However, land laws that were passed by the colonial and post-colonial administrations in Kenya progressively replaced customary structures and practices with artificial formal/legal structures that bore no connection to the communities’ customs.

“Nature-based” solutions to climate change require the acquisition of large swaths of land for reforestation, afforestation, conservation and renewable energy sources. However, corruption in the land sector is already widespread and this additional demand for land may aggravate pre-existing corruption risks, as well as causing new ones.

Indigenous territories cover more than one-fourth of the world’s land surface, overlap with distinct ecological areas, and harbour significant cultural and biological diversity; their stewardship provides critical contributions to livelihood, food security, conservation, and climate action. How these territories are accessed, used, and managed is an important question for owner communities, state governments, development agencies, and researchers alike.

Les systèmes de propriété foncière dans les trois pays du Maghreb nous apparaissent aujourd’hui comme marqués par leurs particularités. Cependant pour l’essentiel, leurs différences sont le résultat, tardif, des politiques foncières conduites par les trois Etats depuis l’indépendance. [... ]