Investigates private sector investment in conservation and ecotourism through conservancy land leases in the Mara region of Kenya. In recent and growing tourism development, groups of Maasai landowners are leasing their parcels of land to tourism investors and forming wildlife conservancies. Examines this model and the implications it has for Maasai livelihoods and the environment. Given the large extent and recent change in ownership in these areas, land leases do however keep the lands they cover together and are potentially an optimistic outlook for such open rangeland areas.

Following a workshop in Benin in February, details examples of land grabbing in Cameroon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Mali, Congo, DRC, Gabon, Benin.

Includes customary law in South Sudan, statutory land law, customary land tenure, interface of customary and statutory systems, women’s land rights, access to land for returnees, land disputes, land grabbing and other challenges, recommendations.