International standards can help businesses fill gaps in national law but addressing issues at scale requires systematic governance reform. Law is part of the problem as often are governments. In many countries features of the law facilitate dispossession. It is often not technical capacity that is missing but the political power to confront vested interests. The challenges are steep but need to be confronted.

Land in Cameroon is under growing pressure – powerful commercial interests;changing climate conditions and shifting demographic flows including mass migration and increasing population density. The rights of rural communities and indigenous people to access and use land for farming and grazing have been eroded,  primarily due to failure to recognise customary land tenure rights;land use conflicts and lack of effective local governance. The country’s land legislation is outdated and not compatible with customary law and local realities.

An encouraging story about how four communities regained control of their lands acquired by the Bioshape jatropha plantation in Kilwa District. Contains the Bioshape investment and the local response; from community-centred dialogue to government commitments; a reason to celebrate; next steps: consolidating community land tenure in Kilwa and Tanzania.

Africa’s Catholic bishops have criticized the appropriation of land;natural resources and other economic assets by private companies and called on national governments to show greater concern for local community rights and needs. They said: ‘The impunity of corporate and elite capture of African land and natural resources and the damage this is doing to Africa’s food systems;to our environment;our soils;lands and water;our biodiversity;our nutrition and health is a major concern.

The restitution of ancestral land rights in Namibia has  divided opinions since independence. Some argue it is a fitting process in dealing with colonial era land dispossessions;others are concerned about the complexity of implementing this kind of restitution. At independence;the Namibian government adopted the viewpoint of the latter group;arguing that the restitution of ancestral land rights is not possible because of historical complexities in establishing land occupancy by indigenous people at the time of Namibia’s colonisation.

The Ninth of March 2021 will go down in history for the residents of Mambasa Territory in Ituri Province as the day the government laid the foundation stone for the Mambasa Land Administration building.

For the past few decades;efforts to strengthen women’s land rights in many sub-Saharan African countries have primarily focused on a single approach: systematic registration through individual/joint certification or titling. While registration – individually or with a spouse – may support tenure security in specific contexts;the sheer complexity of land governance practices and tenure arrangements across the continent (both formal and customary) often render an emphasis on systematic titling inadequate.

Law reform often involves political choices requiring public participation and consultation. Outlines how governments and civil society may promote participatory law-making;details the positive impacts of such processes;and makes various recommendations to ensure that all citizensvoices are heard during law-making processes.

For many decades communities in West and Central Africa have been facing industrial oil palm plantations encroaching onto their community land. With the false promise of bringing ‘developmentand jobs;corporations;backed up by the support of the governments;have been granted millions of hectares of land under concessions for industrial oil palm plantations. The results of this expansion have been disastrous for communities living in and around these industrial plantations and in particular for women.

Despite a recent transparency law and participation in transparency initiatives;Cameroon’s investment environment remains plagued by poor transparency.

With the pandemic striking higher in Uganda;poor families continue to be forced off their land by their government and investors despite several directives halting evictions during the COVID period. Cites a number of examples. In the latest looming evictions;the Uganda government is evicting more than 35,000 artisanal miners in the Kisita mines in Kassanda district.

Gives details of how villagers in Chilonga in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province are being kicked off their land;paving the way for growing lucerne grass as stockfeed. Cites some individual case histories;government support to the giant dairy company Dendairy and attempts to resist the evictions.