This paper examines whether national expropriation and land laws in 30 countries across Asia and Africa put Indigenous Peoples and local communities at risk of expropriation without compensation. In particular, this paper examines whether national laws ensure that communities are eligible for compensation and whether eligibility requirements effectively close the door on communities seeking compensation.

El presente trabajo forma parte de un acumulado de acciones y luchas colectivas que venimos desarrollando las organizaciones sociales Consejo Cívico de Organizaciones Populares e Indígenas de Honduras (COPINH), Organización Fraternal Negra Hondureña (OFRANEH) y Jubileo Sur Américas (JS/A), y ha contado con el apoyo técnico del Transnational Institute (TNI).

The Department of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) and the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) jointly presented on the implementation of the One District, One Agri-Park programme in the context of the framework of the rural economic transformation model.

The lobby to industrialise food production in Africa is changing seed and land laws across the continent to serve agribusiness corporations. The end goal is to turn what has long been held as a commons into a marketable commodity that the private sector can control and extract profit from at the expense of smallholder farmers and communities. This survey aims to provide an overview of just who is pushing for which specific changes in these areas – looking not at the plans and projects, but at the actual texts that will define the new rules.

Asks how can poor people protect their land rights? Stresses importance of land in the social, economic and political life of Africa and fact that land is contested all over Africa, with women’s rights particularly at risk. Land registration is inaccessible to most. African governments have often muddied the water, with land frequently used to reward political loyalty. The commons are especially important for poorer people, but everywhere are under growing pressure as privatisation and enclosure continue.

Includes understanding the commons, getting to the sources of vulnerability, recommendations – making the playing field more equal for the poor.

Addresses the tenure fate of three commons: the 30 million hectares of pasture lands of Afghanistan which represent 45 percent of the total land area and are key to livelihood and water catchment in that exceedingly dry country; the 5.7 million hectares of timber-rich tropical forests in Liberia, 59 percent of the total land area; and the 125 million hectares of savannah in Sudan, half the area of that largest state of Africa. All three resources have a long history as customary properties of local communities and also share a 20th century history as the property of the state.

Divided into 7 sections: introduction – tenure insecurity, poverty and power relations; the subordination of customary land rights; attempts to make amends; an end of century turn-around – towards the liberation of customary land rights; launching reform through new policy and law; the need to assure success; how to make land reform work? Argues that dramatic improvement in the legal status of customary land interests is globally on the horizon.

El tema del acaparamiento de tierras por parte de extranjeros ha sido ampliamente estudiado en distintas regiones del mundo, analizando las características de los inversores, las consecuencias sobre los campesinos que deben ser desplazados de sus tierras o los mecanismos por medio de los cuales los capitales extranjeros ocupan los territorios de la mano de los Estados locales. En este trabajo, queremos proponer un enfoque diferente: los efectos sobre los bienes comunes derivados de la extranjerización de la tierra, para el caso de Argentina.

La presente investigación tuvo por objeto analizar la organización social que existe en San Juan Evangelista Analco, Oaxaca para el manejo forestal comunitario. La compilación de datos se hizo mediante el uso de la “técnica etnográfica”, lo que hizo necesario aplicar técnicas de investigación de campo de tipo cualitativo, como la de “observación participante”, “genealogías” y “entrevistas”. Los resultados reflejaron que en la comunidad existe una organización comunitaria para la administración de los bosques basada en el capital social, que recae en el Comisariado de Bienes Comunales.

The webinar on the Land Reform Agenda for Kenya took place on 10 October, 2018. The webinar reviewed the land reform process in Kenya and addressed a range of challenges, with a view to defining a path forward that will lead to equity and justice in land reforms.

The webinar addressed the following questions: 

Forests at the tropical Valley of the Apurimac and Ene rivers (VRAE), the second coca-growing region of Peru, are public common resources and nevertheless privately managed mainly by coca farmers, without effective State control of such use. The need for survival of the coca farmers, their chrematistic perception of the forest, the cultivation of cocoa (theobroma cacao) and land availability are crucial factors influencing the rates of deforestation of primary and secondary forest. Variables such as the legality of land tenure seem to have no influence.