Focuses on communal tenure reform developments (or lack thereof), referring to law, policy and practice in rural areas in South Africa. Shows that communal land tenure is not in a healthy state and discusses the following recent laws and policies that are symptoms of this ill health: the Communal Land Rights Act (struck down by the Constitutional Court); the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (passed in 2003); and the 2014 Communal Land Tenure ‘wagon wheel’ policy (currently in place).

Presents a legal analysis of the national legislation that relates to Indigenous Peoples’ and communities’ forest tenure rights at a global scale by assessing whether the legal systems of 27 of the most forested developing countries of the world recognize the rights of Indigenous Peoples and communities to access, withdraw, manage, exclude and alienate to forest resources and land. The countries included in this study are home to 2.2 billion rural people and include approximately 75% of the forests in the developing world.

Includes key policy areas; the legal framework governing land in Malawi; the Green Belt initiative and the New Alliance: threats or development opportunities?; case studies of large-scale acquisitions in Malawi – out-grower schemes in Nkhotakota and Chikwawa districts; recommendations. Brief illustrates the further accelerate land concentration among local elites and the exposure of many to landlessness and food insecurity.

Examines the role of development cooperation in land reforms and the extent to which donor organisations have addressed concerns related to gender equality. Reviews the reforms in 15 countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia, with a focus on Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Nicaragua. Legislation upholding gender equality is now present in different degrees in most of the countries examined. However, implementation often does not follow suit and women still face discrimination, in part due to social and cultural barriers and the inaccessibility of institutions able to support them.

Having listened to the presentations, encourage communities to continue to assert their rights. Noted a failure of governance and lack of good democratic practice. Consultation processes have been abused, promises not fulfilled, women not involved in decision making, there is a critical need for greater openness and transparency in all land deals. Make a number of recommendations to African governments and calls on investors to ensure that women’s voices and interests are heard and heeded in all decision making.

Notes from a conference on land grabbing in Southeast Asia at Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 5-6 June. Covers colonial and post-colonial plantations; the infrastructural violence of plantations; winners and losers – gender and generation; what then is the future for small-scale and family farmers?; state power, private capital and people’s rights; comparative thoughts

Includes key issues; the rise of development-induced displacements; key findings on the resettlement process; evaluating the proposed National Resettlement Policy; recommendations. Brief argues reforms need to be cognisant of the ways and means in which communities have been displaced and resettled in recent cases of land-based investments, and learn lessons from them.

Argues that the seizure of farmland for commercial diamond mining in Angola’s Lunda provinces is causing widespread hunger and deepening poverty. Fields are destroyed where crops are cultivated and arbitrary measurements taken to determine how much to pay the peasants; only US$0.25 per square metre of land seized. The law which ought to provide some protection is routinely ignored. Calls on the companies involved to start negotiations with farming communities to ensure fair compensation for people who lose access to their land through the granting of diamond mining concessions.

A critical review of the directions that post-conflict state-building is taking, particularly the implications for post-conflict land administration that current approaches are mandating as the ‘correct’ approach. Influenced by the author’s work for UN agencies on local government and land issues in Liberia and Somaliland.

Comments on the IDRC workshop on LSLAs and accountability in Africa, Dakar, 24-25 November 2015. The current IDRC programme supports 5 action research projects across 10 countries in West, East and Southern Africa. They investigate how to build accountability over land governance. This requires a multi-level strategy at both policy and community level. The most contentious debate was about valuation, benefit-sharing and compensation because compensation almost always fails to take full account of the real value of natural resources in people’s lives.

Describes a long-standing grazing dispute in northern Namibia that provides critical lessons on the challenges that people living in communal areas face to secure their land rights. Several large livestock owners illegally enclosed community rangelands to secure grazing for their own commercial cattle herds. The communities used legislation to defend their land rights: they mobilised relevant government and traditional authorities to intervene, resulting in a court order for the removal of most of the illegal cattle owners.

Argues the need for long term perspectives on implementing land reforms, to address people’s perceptions and practices, to decentralise authority to the local level, and to mainstream women’s rights into every activity relating to land, land administration and land dispute settlement.