In this onepager, you can find details on the LAND-at-scale project in Colombia. This project is implemented by Kadaster International, ICCO and Tropenbos, and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs via the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. 

The study focuses on impacts of PZ Wilmar’s acquisition of nearly 30,000 hectares of land. Wilmar is a multinational company involved in land grabbing cases related to oil palm plantations in Cross River State, Nigeria. The study shows the extent of Wilmar’s infringement on communal land rights, examining cases of eviction and destruction of livelihoods. Findings show that the four communities studied suffered from increasing food prices, deficits of local staple foods, evictions and displacement of poor farmers.

A widely held belief in Bobira is that private land is more fertile than communal land. What came to light through the workshop information sharing is that there is no difference in the type of soil in villages compared to freehold land. Any difference in soil quality is a result of how the land has been used and managed over the years. Transformative Scenario Planning (TSP) is designed for situations in which people’s perceptions of a problem, and perhaps of one another, have become stuck.

In Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya, a decentralized approach to land administration promises more accessible dispute resolution and a better deal for women. Among the challenges however, are old social attitudes that pre-empt discussion about women’s right to control land. In Lira district, for example, in-laws and land-grabbers routinely chase widows off land. A “viciously vibrant land market” often means that women are swindled in Bugunda district.

This paper studies the impact of land tenure on household agricultural productivity in Benin. Compared to households without land ownership or right to land (squatters), results show that land certificate ownership increases by 0.238 the likelihood of investing in agricultural equipment, whereas customary law ownership increases this likelihood by 0.374. The study suggests that public authorities recognise customary rights and reinforce legal land institutions.

The objective is to record current living customary law and ways in which it is moving in progressive directions so that this information can be used towards justice, as evidence in court cases, and in policy development and political engagement from local to national levels.

The research project uses the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of land, fisheries and forests (VGGT or Tenure Guidelines) as a tool to assess the impact of various governance frameworks on small scale fishing communities. It uses the Tenure Guidelines to empower communities to protect their rights in the context of promoting food sovereignty.

Chapter in ARCHIV 127335 - Rebuilding common property management : a case study of community-based natural resource management in rural Guizhou, China

Despite formal legal recognition of women’s land rights, no government institution is mandated to protect women’s land rights or to ensure their legal implementation and enforcement. The roles of decentralized land administration institutions do not include the protection of women’s land rights. More importantly, District Land Boards only control the allocation of public land and not private or customary. Several land dispute resolution institutions co-exist without clear coordination mechanisms.