The shortcomings of the current land reforms suggest that voluntary;market-based transactions of land might not be a suitable measure to redistribute land;not to speak of wealth and power. The “policy” of national reconciliation has delivered one-sided benefits. The politics of national reconciliation are used to justify the status quo – an avoidance strategy to address the structural problems in Namibia. A more radical approach must be considered to redistribute land and capital. Only then will formerly disadvantaged people become equal co-owners of Namibia’s land and wealth.

Responding to an invitation from the Cameroonian government to help design a new land legal framework;civil society stakeholders have issued multiple proposals over the years on the topics they think should be included in the new land law. The LandCam project has documented;analysed and consolidated these proposals. Building on these;the authors also developed a comprehensive and coherent vision for the new land system and have made concrete recommendations;cited in this Briefing;for Cameroonian policymakers.

Includes Socfin in Sahn Malen;Pujehun District;lack of free;prior and informed consent;inadequate compensation for loss of land and crops;failure to mark boundaries of family land before clearing the land;indecent labour conditions;root causes of the Malen issues;recommendations.

Outlines how state and civil society-led legal empowerment initiatives can help secure land and resource rights;strengthen governance;improve access to legal systems and increase citizen participation in decision making.

Publication shows how addressing land issues can mitigate conflict;facilitate solutions to it;improve the likelihood that people can return to their homes after the violence is over;and contribute to peace overall. Draws on cases in nine countries in the Arab States;Africa and Latin America;with a range of conflict parties: farmers;herders;landlords;villagers;mining companies;host communities;displaced people;gangs;and various levels of government.

Report provides an alternate response to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s request to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to analyse impacts of warming to 1.5°C and related greenhouse gas emission pathways. Covers strengthening indigenous and community land rights;restoring forests and other ecosystems;and transforming agriculture. Confines solution pathways to low-risk land-sector approaches that protect;restore and sustainably manage natural ecosystems;while respecting human rights.

The certificate of customary ownership (CCO) is a land tenure reform implemented in customary tenure areas of Uganda;including Nwoya district in the north. Proponents of CCOs contend that they enhance tenure security for women and men;while critics argue that they fall short of expectations;disenfranchise;and at times extinguish rights to land. The objective of this analysis is to assess changes in tenure security that are attributable to CCOs by focusing on the completeness of the bundle of rights using the Conceptual Framework on Women’s Land Tenure Security.

One of the most striking things about some of the study sites in the A1 (smallholder) land reform schemes of Zimbabwe is the amount of small-scale irrigation going on. This is not on schemes or in formalised group gardens;but irrigation by individual farmers;many using small pump sets and pipes. This has been investigated in Masvingo;in Mvurwi in high-potential Mashonaland East;and in Chikobedzi in Chiredzi district in the dry lowveld. It seems to be a widespread phenomenon but is emerging largely unnoticed and unsupported.

Since the arrival of multinational agribusiness company SOCFIN in 2011 as part of a large-scale investment in palm oil in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone;social conflict has raged in the Malen Chiefdom. SOCFIN is controlled by a Belgian businessman (Hubert Fabri) and the French group Bolloré;which has developed a business empire in many parts of Africa. This report found that affected communities who have lost access to and control over their land have been exposed to serious human rights violations and abuses since 2011.

For decades food insecurity has been a challenge in Cameroon’s Far North region;mainly due to extreme weather and weak land legislation. Now the problem is escalating. The current humanitarian crisis caused by the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in over 87,000 refugees and 340,000 internally displaced people in the region. Humanitarian agencies are responding with food aid but little attention is given to underlying challenges;notably access to land. The reform of land legislation is an opportunity to strengthen land rights for local communities and marginalised groups.

The globally driven acquisition of land puts rural farmers across the globe at risk and Africa is the hotspot of global land grabbing. Shows the ongoing work of the Remote Sensing Research Group (RSRG);University of Bonn;to map land grabbing events in Southern Africa;with examples from Mozambique and Zambia. Provides an overview of current land grabbing databases;their lack of spatial information and how remote sensing datasets can overcome this lack when being used to detect large scale agricultural production schemes.

The Gambos municipality is part of Angolamilk region. However milk;which is life sustaining in these communities;was found to be in short supply due to diminishing grazing pastures correlating with the introduction of commercial cattle ranches to the area. It is the impact of commercial ranches on pastoralists which has removed their buffer against droughts and thus dangerously threatened food security.