This issue brief highlights the challenges women are facing on access to lands, and the strategies in achieving gender justice for land rights - based from the results of the scoping studies on women and land in seven Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Philippines).

This publication is a collection of 2014 CSO land reform monitoring reports on the status of land tenure and access to land from seven Asian countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and the Philippines). The book also reflects the recent expansion of the monitoring initiative to a ridge-to-reef framework providing a more holistic approach in addressing ancestral lands, rural lands, and marine resource concerns.

Large-scale land acquisitions have increased in scale and pace due to changes in commodity markets, agricultural investment strategies, land prices, and a range of other policy and market forces. The areas most affected are the global “commons” – lands that local people traditionally use collectively — including much of the world’s forests, wetlands, and rangelands. In some cases land acquisition occurs with environmental objectives in sight – including the setting aside of land as protected areas for biodiversity conservation.