El 17 de septiembre de 2023, más de 70 representantes de titulares de derechos y sus aliados se reunieron en un diálogo mundial sobre las formas en que la financiación climática puede o debe apoyar su visión de futuro en un mundo afectado por el cambio climático.
Land and ecosystems lay the foundation of the economy and the wellbeing of society. 85 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion young people live in regions that are directly dependent on land and natural resources for sustenance. Land degradation is a youth issue that threatens current and future generations’ quality of life. Young people are increasingly becoming eco-anxious about threats to their environment and the possible impacts there may be for future generation.
Land corruption – corrupt practices in the land sector – threatens the lives and livelihoods of people and communities, the environment and climate, food security and political stability. Its impacts are particularly acute for 2.5 billion people who live on and from the land. Addressing it requires a dedicated focus and assessment of land related institutions across different national contexts.
“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.
Green energy (and/or renewable energy) requires large areas of land to operate, often more so than energy generated from fossil fuels. The acquisition of land comes with accompanying corruption risks which can lead to challenges such as land grabbing and illegal displacement of communities. To help mitigate corruption risks and their consequences, strong regulatory oversight and rigorous licensing requirements are needed, as well as transparency and community-based approaches to ownership of green energy projects.
While emissions trading already began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, carbon markets can officially be traced back to the Kyoto Protocol of 1997. The Kyoto Protocol introduced market-based mechanisms allowing countries to trade emission allowances and invest in emission reduction projects overseas. On this basis, the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was launched in 2005, pioneering the introduction of large-scale, regulated carbon trading systems.
Driven by the urgency of a global rush for land and extracted resources and unprecedented urbanization, hastened by the growing impact of climate change and frequency of natural disasters, women have been at the center of human rights violations worldwide regarding their rights and access to land.
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.
This policy brief highlights the critical role of gender-responsive approaches to land tenure that empower women and accelerate the implementation of land restoration commitments that build community resilience. It examines how greater tenure security for women and girls can lead to a more equitable and sustainable land management. The brief builds upon the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) 2018–2030 Strategic Framework and its Gender Action Plan adopted in 2017.
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