General

Introduction Community-based management of land and forest land is based on traditional knowledge, experience and aspiration of community, aiming to enhance the capacity and experience sharing between the community and stakeholders for sustainable natural resource management, livelihood improvement and traditional cultural value conservation of forest-associated community. However, community forest has not been encouraged to develop because of legal framework lacking. Besides, the community has not been recognized as a legal entity. They have not been assigned natural forest as production forest in accordance with Land Law 2013# These are barriers against the forest ownership of community that lives closely with forest for thousands of years. In order to solve the mentioned inadequacies, Oxfam has supported Ma Lieng and Uyen Phong community with project #Sustainable forest management through strengthening tradition institutions in the management of community land and forest of Ma Lieng community in Giang Man Mountain, Tuyen Hoa district, Quang Binh province#. The project has gained a number of achievements: Advising the procedure of assigning forest land management rights with the total area of 802.19 ha for 04 communities. The communities have been assigned with certificates of land use right for 50 years; advising the development of forest management regulations based on cultural identity and traditions of Ma Lieng community;establishing a network of community forest management in central region including Ma Lieng, Khua, Sach, Kinh, Co Tu, Van Kieu community so that Ma Lieng people have opportunities to learn and share experience with other communities about community forest management; promoting stakeholders like the People#s Committee of Tuyen Hoa district to issue decisions on community forest management and integrate the community forest management into socio-economic program of the district. Besides, through models of community forest management, policy lessons are summarized, contributing to the revised Land Law 2013 and a number of legal documents relating to state-run agricultural farms and forestry farms innovation. However, the project has only assigned the people with forest land managementrights and created basic legal framework. It is necessary to continue the community consultancy, institutionalize documents on managing and extracting the forests, ensuring a legal framework for people to manage and protect the forests. On the basis of the undertaken activities, the project should continue systematizing and consolidating the information and practical lessons for policy advocacy for system of legal documents that will be amended and issued.

General

CO implementer The project aims to improve small farmers# participation in land governance through piloting a community-based monitoring mechanism that will be adopted into subsequent national policy documents. This mechanism will build on Oxfam and Landa#s experience in community consultation on the Land Law and engagement in direct community projects, with the aim to increase domestic support for implementing the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs). The overall goal of this project is to secure land rights of small-scale farmers and ethnic minority communities through evidence-based advocacy towards a more transparent and inclusive land governancelegal framework, with meaningful participation of the citizens in to the processes in order to help reduction of land use related conflicts in Vietnam. This project contributes to Vietnamese Government priorities by operationalising Article 199 of the 2013 Land Law on a pilot basis in three provinces, documenting and disseminating results, and linking to development of policies and guidelines to implement citizen monitoring provisions of the Land Law nationwide. To achieve this, Oxfam and Landa will engage with MONRE/GDLA and other government agenciesimmediately from the start of the project. Successful implementation of the action will contribute to the overall goal of MRLG of securing the rights to land access of small holding farmers. This project will be primarily implemented in regions inhabited by ethnic minority groups. The engagement of the small farmers at grassroots level throughout project implementation will be facilitated through various capacity building and awareness raising activities. Furthermore, they will not only be consulted on the suitability andappropriateness of the guidelines on citizens monitoring of land governance, but also engage directly in certain stages of monitoring. This continuing process of engagement will form a solid foundation for proactive action of smallholder farmers in claiming theirrights. The project#s ultimate beneficiaries are small-scale farmers (particularly ethnic minorities and women) who obtain and preserve access to land through different land re-allocation, pro-poor participatory land planning, and other progressive policies. The minimum target in this Innovation Fund project will be that 300 farmers in each of three provinces, or 900 farmers in all, of which at least 50% are ethnic minorities and50% women will actively engaged in monitoring different processes of land governance

General

In Mozambique, Oxfam is partnering with two national organizations and district level paralegal organizations. Sekelekani is communication and media advocacy organization created by Tomas Vieira Mario # a notable Mozambican journalist and media lawyer. Sekelekanifocuses on communication for development and advocates for freedom of information and freedom of the press. Sekelekani is part of the National Civil Society Platform for Natural Resources and Extractive Industries, composed of 18 organizations. Sekelekani leads the communications work for the Platform, and has been actively exposing resettlement and land titling problems encountered in Palma district, where a proposed new liquid natural gas (LNG) plant will be built. Centro Terra Viva (CTV) is an environmental research and advocacy NGO that works for the protection and promotion of sustainable development. Established in 2002, CTV#s works to strengthen civil society participation in national decision-making processes through applied research onenvironmental law and policies, environmental education and training. In the Palma district, CTV is training and supporting local community paralegals leading rights training and disseminating information about environmental and land legislation to communities in the project area, with a specific focus on gender equality.