This report on the state of industrial oil palm plantations in West and Central Africa shows how communities are turning the tide on a massive land grab in the region. Between 2000 and 2015 companies signed oil palm plantation concession agreements with African governments covering over 4.7 million hectares;mostly without the knowledge of the affected communities. These companies are now struggling. There has been a significant decline in the number and total area of land deals for industrial oil palm plantations over the past five years;from 4.7 to a little over 2.7 million hectares.

Includes overview;the problem: Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) finance a destructive model;current situation: DFIs write off loans;impacted communities face repression;human rights abuses;the role of European DFIs;recommendations. The negative outcomes experienced in the case of Feronia Inc.

Given the urgent need to prevent a collapse of biodiversity across the Earth, certain governments, organizations, and  conservationists have put forward proposals for
bringing 30 percent and up to 50 percent of the planet’s terrestrial areas under formal “protection and conservation” regimes. However, given that important

Forests and other lands are essential for achieving climate and development ambitions. If appropriately leveraged, natural climate solutions can contribute upwards of 37 percent of cost-effective CO Indigenous Peoples and local communities are key to achieving such outcomes. 2 mitigation by 2030,1 and evidence shows
This report presents the most comprehensive assessment to date of carbon storage in documented community lands worldwide.
 

The conceptual framework for Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) highlights that land degradation in developing countries impacts men and women differently, mainly due to unequal access to land, water, credit, extension services and technology. It further asserts that gender inequality plays a significant role in land-degradation-related poverty hence the need to address persistent gender inequalities that fuel women’s poverty in LDN interventions. This paper presents recommendations for moving towards a twin-agenda: gender equality and land degradation neutrality.

Diamonds in the Delta (DiD) is an international research-action network of scholars, water professionals and civil society advocates who are concerned about how climate change compounds problems of flooding and subsidence in delta cities. We – the people in the network – are united in our conviction that the needs, experiences and aspirations of communities that are actually or potentially most affected by these problems should be the focus when designing and implementing solutions.

This paper seeks to answer the question: how does land become grabbable and local people relocatable? It focuses on the historical and current conditions of land tenure that enable land grabbing. While recognising the important contributions thus far made by the critical literature on land grabbing, this paper moves forward towards understanding specific processes that befall before land is grabbed and its original users relocated.

The growing number of farmer-herder resource conflicts in Tanzania is often presented in official narratives as a product of climate change resulting from increased environmental pressures. Nonetheless, based on a qualitative research, this paper asserts that farmer- herder conflicts in Rufiji and Kisarawe districts should be understood in terms of the marginalization of pastoral community interests over access to land. This has created what Hall, Hirsch and Li [2013. Power of Exclusions: Lland Dilemmas in Southeast Asia.

Mining projects affect the health of surrounding communities by inducing environmental, economic, social and cultural changes in different population groups. Health impact assessment (HIA) offers an opportunity to manage these impacts. This paper aims to explore gender differences of impacts on the wider determinants of health as described by communities impacted by industrial gold mining and consider the implications for impact assessment. We conducted 24 gender-separated, participatory focus group discussions at three study sites in northwestern Tanzania.