General

Although some positive steps have been taken with respect to the rights of indigenous women, their rights remain widely violated. Indigenous women suffer from multiple layers of discrimination: because of their gender, their race or ethnicity and class as many indigenous women live in poverty. While considerable human rights standards regarding indigenous peoples’ land and other human rights have emerged in the past 20 years, the gender dimension of these rights is neither well developed nor well understood and this is the case at both the national and international levels. FPP’s work will be built on two sets of existing standards, one pertaining to indigenous peoples’ rights and one to women’s right. The current project (2014) builds on the experiences that FPP has gained in the last five years (2009-2014) in the field of G&LR as well as on the results of the external evaluation (financed by ON) carried outin October 2012. Project activities include: (1) legal and human rights trainings based on materials elaborated and refined in collaboration with partners; (2) national level advocacy; and (3) setting and implementing standards and jurisprudence at the regional and international levels through briefings, reports and, where appropriate, litigation. Expected outcome: The work of FPP on genderand land rights will contribute towards understanding the issues and needs of women within indigenous people and forest communitiesregarding land rights issues and how a gender justice perspective can be best approached. This project will help implement international standards and jurisprudence pertaining to the land, resource and other rights of indigenous women in Latin America, Africa andAsia, and to promote their implementation in domestic law and practice. ON’s grant will be used to further develop and implement (inter)national standards and jurisprudence pertaining to the land, resource and other rights of indigenous women in Latin America, Africa and Asia, and to promote their implementation in domestic law and practice.

General

The former 'arc of deforestation' of peripheral Amazonia is dominated by extensive pastures and slash-and-burn shifting cultivation. These land management interventions have resulted in severe environmental degradation, restricted agricultural productivity and caused rural poverty. As populations continue to rise, there is a clear need for a more ecologically sustainable intensification of smallholder agriculture with high eco-efficiency and low external inputs. This project aims to create a new research partnership to tackle biodiversity and ecosystems resilience and assess the impacts of ecological intensification (more productive, reduced input sustainable systems) on smallholder farming at the eastern fringe of Amazonia. We will focus on four key priority areas namely: i) landscape ecology; ii) soil carbon and nutrient management; iii) global change biology and iv) conservation and biodiversity. i) Landscape ecology: Ecological intensification of agriculture requires an appreciation of how ecosystem processes at the landscape-scale can be integrated with existing smallholder farming systems, priorities and constraints. Key questions that need to be addressed include: 1) how should forests be managed to deliver optimal livelihood and environmental benefits? and 2) how can we ensure that forest management at the interface with neighbouring farming systems is sustainable and not over-exploited by farming communities? ii) Carbon and nutrients Traditional smallholder farming relies on low input strategies and future efforts must strive to increase resilience to minimize external risks. Sustainable low-input agriculture is difficult to achieve in the humid tropics, due to a combination of factors that reduce nutrient-efficiencies of crops. Key questions to be considered include: 1) how does smallholder land management impact on soil quality and 2) how can soils best be restored? iii) Global change biology Global changes at field, regional and global scales are transforming agriculture and socio-economics and we urgently require a better understanding of the processes and patterns involved. The key questions to be addressed here are: 1) to what extent can crop management mitigate against environment change-related stresses such as droughts, flooding? and 2) what is the short- and long-term effect of salinity intrusions into freshwater wetlands? iv) Conservation and use of biodiversity Biodiversity is essential to the sustainable management of ecosystems. Key questions to include: 1) how might forest wastes benefit farming systems; and 4) how does biodiversity provide more resilience to agricultural landscapes to cope with extreme events?

Objectives

The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

General

This project addresses the ongoing critical development challenge of changes in land use in Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar), and India. It will generate knowledge and an evidence-driven intervention strategy to help people gain more security over the land and natural resources they rely on for their livelihoods and survival. Industrial projects, large-scale agriculture Since the 1990s, successive governments of growing Asian economies have promoted trade and industrial expansion as critical drivers for economic stability and growth. This focus has led to rural and peri-urban landscapes being transformed by industrial projects, infrastructure, and large-scale agriculture. For people who depended on the land, these transformations have resulted in serious social and ecological impacts: -direct physical displacement and dispossession -loss of livelihoods -pollution or land degradation Legal rights remain unprotected There are very few easily accessible remedies to address the impacts of land use change. While regulations to minimize and mitigate damage exist, implementation is poor. There is widespread non-compliance to regulations. Administrative agencies are ineffective at responding to local community needs and integrating them into policy or legal designs. Laws are also ineffective. They serve as a threat, but not something that people can use to exercise their basic rights. Lawyers are costly, and often focused on formal court channels that are impractical for most people The UN Commission on Legal Empowerment estimates that four billion people cannot exercise their legal rights because of costs, dysfunction, corruption, or abuse of power. There is a recognized need for intermediary institutions, such as media, political parties, and unions that help citizens exercise their rights. Community paralegals as a solution Community paralegals also offer an effective solution. They are attracting increasing attention from international organizations, including the UN Commission on Legal Empowerment, for being cost-effective, flexible, and able to manage plural legal systems. They are especially noted for their effectiveness in dealing with land rights disputes in many countries, including several in Africa. This project will map land use changes in Indonesia, Burma, and India. Researchers will study how community paralegals can -collect rigorous data on impacts of land use change -translate impacts into legally actionable evidence -help affected communities seek remedies through formal administrative and legal institutions closest to the point of impact The project team will use conduct locally grounded research that identifies workable solutions to reduce the adverse effects of land use change on communities. The research will advance knowledge, inform evidence-based policy, and build evidence to promote responsible land governance.