This short thematic study challenges the assumption that the legal framework to recognize and protect indigenous peoples’ (IP) customary lands is adequate and that the challenge lies in its implementation. With support from MRLG, a core group of IP NGOs of the Cambodia Indigenous Peoples Alliance (CIPA) held a series of seminars to scrutinize this legal framework, identify gaps and make recommendations for a revision of the supporting legal framework. The thematic study documents this joint reflection.

In the Mekong region, conflicts between local communities and large scale land concessions are widespread. They are often difficult to solve. In Cambodia, an innovative approach to conflict resolution was tested in a case involving a private company, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), and several indigenous communities who lost some of their customary lands and forests when the company obtained a concession to grow rubber in the Province of Ratanakiri. The approach was developed by CSOs Equitable Cambodia (EC) and Inclusive Development International (IDI) with the support of QDF funding from MRLG.

The poster presents an overview of land, livelihoods and customary practices in Man-hsat Village, Northern Shan State, Myanmar. This poster is one of a five village case studies produced by partner organizations during field-based training on how to document customary tenure systems, supported by MRLG.

The poster presents an overview of land, livelihoods and customary practices in Myan Latt Village, Magwe Divsion, Myanmar. This poster is one of a five village case studies produced by partner organizations during field-based training on how to document customary tenure systems, supported by MRLG.

The poster presents an overview of land, livelihoods and customary practices in Nan-Pan Village, Southern Shan State, Myanmar. This poster is one of a five village case studies produced by partner organizations during field-based training on how to document customary tenure systems, supported by MRLG. 

The poster presents an overview of land, livelihoods and customary practices in Daw Taw Ku village, Kayah State, Myanmar. This poster is one of a five village case studies produced by partner organizations during field-based training on how to document customary tenure systems, supported by MRLG.

This dialogue provided a way for the land community to collaboratively explore challenges and opportunities related to the recognition of indigenous, ethnic minority and customary tenure rights in the Mekong region in order to:

[An Act to provide for the continuation of Leaseholds and leasehold tenure; to provide for the continued vesting of land in the Presindent and alienation of land by the President; to provide for the statutory recognition and continuation of customary tenure ; to provide for the conversion of customary tenure into leasehold tenure....]

An Act to provide for the classification of land in Zimbabwe as Communal Land and for the alteration of such classification; to alter and regulate the occupation and use of Communal Land; and to provide for matters incidental to or connected with the foregoing.

This case study examines specific examples of localised and informal land registration practices in South Africa. Such informal land registration often arises where people do not have access to the formal state system of land registration. But as the desire and need to gain access to urban land, to secure rights in relation to that land and also to trade land, a localised registration system that meets these needs tends to emerge.

The Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), with support from the World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), performed the Ghana Land Tenure Baseline Survey, the first of its kind survey of tenure rights among cocoa farmers in Ghana. CRIG surveyed almost 1,800 cocoa farmers operating 3,900 cocoa plots regarding various land tenure issues within customary sharecropping arrangements and on owner-managed land. This report describes the findings from the Survey.

Planning for climate resilience growth is increasingly important for the natural resource dependent economy of Tanzania. Central government does not have the knowledge, reach, skills or resources needed to plan for the range of livelihoods within Tanzania; but local governments, if granted the authority and resources, could plan with communities in the flexible, timely and appropriate manner that climate variability demands.