Introduction

In May 2021 the Land Portal conducted its fourth Annual Visitor Survey (AVS). The AVS is an important tool to assess impact, track progress and engage with the community, measuring the level of trust across visitors and partners, assessing the alignment with the current strategy, and identifying areas of improvement. With over 380 respondents from 80 different countries, this round of the Annual Survey provided plenty of results, insights, and ideas. The main points are summarised below.

Key Results

Nepal has stepped into yet another and very important milestone in guaranteeing security of tenure and access to land for all. Following the promulgation of the new Constitution in September 2015, the Government of Nepal amended the Lands Act of 1964 through enacting a Lands (Seventh Amendment) Act in 2018 which provided a legal framework for implementation of Article 40 (5) of the Constitution on the provision of land to landless Dalits.

In a bid to expedite the distribution of land ownership certificates to the landless people and decentralise the federal responsibility, the government has formed committees of the Landless Squatters' Problems Resolution Commission in all the 77 districts of the country. Each of the seven-member committees will include a chairperson and two others appointed by the government, with the remaining members representing the district Land Revenue Office, Survey and Forest Offices and the District Coordination Committee.

In May 2021, the numbers of households whose land rights have been secured with the support by the Global Programme Responsible Land Policy have reached a peak: Thanks to the hard work of our partners and project teams, 110.163 households had their land legally documented by then, corresponding to about  550.000 people directly benefitting.

The Bangladesh Forest Department has recovered 2,468 acres of forest land from grabbers in the last eight months.

Officials of the forest department shared this information at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on environment, forest and climate change affairs ministry at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

Ruling Awami League MP and chief of the parliamentary watchdog Saber Hossain Chowdhury presided over the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

The European Investment Bank has large investments in Nepal, with four projects in its energy sector, but has done little to stop rights violations.