Anecdotal evidence suggests that conflicts over land and extractive resource developments are on the rise across Papua New Guinea. These micro-level conflicts have the potential to scaleup and feed into large-scale armed conflicts—such as those that occurred on Bougainville and in neighbouring Solomon Islands—which require costly external intervention. Against this backdrop, this paper examines PNG’s legally-mandated land mediation system in theory and practice. A number of weaknesses are identified and described; and a case study of an apparently successful “hybrid” approach is discussed.

Land Disputes Settlement Act 1975

Despite the ongoing land administration reforms being implemented across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Ghana, as a viable pathway to achieve tenure security and greater efficiency in land administration, the subject of land dispute resolution has received relatively less attention. Whereas customary tenure institutions play a central role in land administration (controlling ~80% of all land in Ghana), they remain at the fringes of the formal land dispute adjudicatory process.

Successful adoption of natural resource management technologies requires that important fundamentals of property rights be established. Because disputes over property rights occur universally, the ability to successfully defend one's rights to property exercises a central influence on the tenure security necessary for technology adoption. However, defending rights to property rests upon the possession of evidence that is readily available and widely regarded as legitimate.

Concerns over food insecurity in developing countries are reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Given that land plays an important role in the livelihoods of most people in developing countries, food security and poverty reduction cannot be achieved unless issues of access to land, security of tenure, and the capacity to use land productively and in a sustainable manner are addressed.

In 2007-8, the Cambodian government granted Economic Land Concessions (ELC) to two rubber companies, namely Socfin-KCD and Dak Lak Mondulkiri Aphivath in Bousra commune, Mondulkiri province. Through a comparative approach, the Case study examines the impact of these rubber concessions on local land tenure systems. It examines how each company took into consideration the land claims of affected people and communities, and the effectiveness of the conflict resolution approach.

This article summarizes the nature of land-related conflicts in the Philippines within the context of the prevailing agrarian situation throughout the country. An analysis of the agrarian institutions and different types of development that have occurred in a number of regions provide a broad representation of the current situation.

A local famer-herder conflict over grazing rights in the Mauritanian-Senegal border region has triggered a spiral of violence between Senegalese and Mauritanians in the southern Senegal River bank and different Mauritanian cities. This escalation has to be understood against the background of persistent racism and discrimination of the ‘black’ population of Mauritania.

This one-pager provides details on the LAND-at-scale project in Rwanda. This project is implemented by Kadaster International and IDLO, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise & Development Agency. 

Semi-nomadic yak herders of Bhutan depend on high altitude rangelands and yaks for their livelihoods. Conflicts over high altitude rangelands among herders can lead to sub-optimal management with negative impacts on the environment, livelihoods and socio-economic well-being of semi-nomadic yak herders.

Why this study?
Recent years have witnessed an increase in violent conflicts involving pastoralists in parts of West Africa and the Sahel. They often take the form of clashes between herders and farmers, impacting human, national and regional security.
Given its mandate and role in conflict prevention, the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel, in collaboration with the Economic Community of West African States, initiated this study in 2017 to examine the causes and identify concrete solutions to conflicts related to pastoralism.

Land in Uganda is a delicate resource that has caused many conflicts over the past years. About 80% of pending court cases in the country relate to land today. Looking at the country’s violent history, a rising population and increasing impact of climate change on agriculture productivity, land rights in Uganda are contested to this day. Land conflicts are either within communities, family structures or between individuals and external players such as investors.