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Displaying 316 - 320 of 334Nuevas experiencias en materia de planificación urbana y gestión ambiental: el caso de Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
Seminario Regional sobre Avances y Perspectivas de la Gestión Ambientalmente Adecuada de los Residuos Urbanos e Industriales
South Africa - Operationalizing Community-Driven Multiple-Use Water Services Project
General
The Operationalizing Community-Driven Multiple-Use Water Services is initiated to increase levels of investments in multiple-use water services (MUS) . The project will also contribute to increased annual rates of Gross Domestic Produc (GDP) growth (3.0% per annum by 2020) and achievement of the national target for creating jobs for 300,000 households in agricultural smallholder schemes. Its impact will be improved income generation and community health in poor rural and peri-urban communities in South Africa. This project will be implemented for a total duration of 48 months and its total cost is estimated at € 1,745,059, of which the AWF will finance € 1,340,000 (77%). The Project will deliver three (3) key outcomes: (i) optimized water resources development and management for improved service delivery; (ii) improved local water use planning and management; and (iii) increased investments in improved community water services delivery.
Objectives
The purpose of the project is to support the operationalization of Multiple-Use Water Services (MUS) services in the Republic of South Africa (RSA) through demonstration investments, awareness raising, applied research and leveraging of finance.
Target Groups
The direct beneficiaries of the project include (i) households and local communities in Sekhukhune District and Vhembe District; (ii) local government and district government agencies benefiting from planning support and prepared planning tools and manuals, and (iii) national water sector policy makers and government agencies (Department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, Department of Water Affairs, Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Department of Rural Development and Land Reform; Department of Human Settlement; Department of Public Works; South African Association of Local Authority).
Living Landscapes - Securing ecological connectivity of high conservation value areas in Bhutan
General
In southwestern Bhutan special biodiversity and ecosystem services worthy of protection exist (High Conservation Value Areas), which are, however, without any formal protection status. For their long-term protection at national, regional and local level, they should be considered as an integral part of comprehensive land use planning as well as in management plans of the District Forestry Offices. In addition to building up knowledge and capacities within the forest administrations, the project also provides them with technical equipment to monitor and implement the management plans. It also supports local communities in reducing human-wildlife-conflicts, securing water resources and developing business plans to generate additional income. The development of guidelines, pilot projects and the exchange of experience between districts and authorities are intended to enable multiplier effects in other landscapes and districts.
Responsible Land Policy in Cameroon
Context
Reliable access to land plays a central role in food security and poverty reduction as well as for the sustainable use of natural resources. In contrast, poorly defined land use rights encourage conflicts between different population and land user groups and prevent investment in the conservation and restoration of biodiverse landscapes.
In Cameroon, the outdated legislation in need of reform does not allow adequate and affordable recognition of land use rights. Especially in rural areas, land use is mainly governed by customary regimes which are not systematically documented or legally recognized. Traditional land management is often based on collective rather than individual ownership. Women, young people and marginalised groups are especially disadvantaged in accessing land.
Approach
The project "Responsible Land Policy" (ProPFR) in Cameroon contributes to strengthening land use rights in the Centre Region, safeguarding the livelihoods of the rural population and at the same time promoting the protection and restoration of forest-rich landscapes. It supports sustainable access to land, particularly for women, young people and marginalised groups (e.g., Mbororo pastoralists and internally displaced persons), as well as in resolving land conflicts, especially of an agropastoral nature.
The project’s systematic approach aims to improve the documentation of individual and collective tenure and land use rights to forest, agricultural as well as pasture land, and their recognition by national, regional and local as well as traditional authorities. Furthermore, civil society and private sector actors are involved and strengthened in the implementation of responsible land policies.
| Project objective
The access to land as an essential prerequisite for restoring and preserving forest landscapes and combating poverty and hunger in rural areas has improved for specific population groups, particularly women and marginalised groups, in the Centre Region of Cameroon. The project aims to
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Responsible Land Policy in Niger
Niger is a landlocked country with 80% of its land area covered by desert. Only one eighth of the country's land area can be used for agriculture and livestock. Secure access to fertile land is therefore of vital importance as the country’s population economically depends on it. This scarcity of agricultural land is magnified by the extremely high population pressure in Niger, which has the highest fertility rate in the world. Small family farms mainly have traditional land tenure and use rights, which they may formally obtain, but in reality, this is practically impossible due to the low capacity and insufficient skills of the structures in charge of land tenure. In some parts of the country, customary norms and practices restrict youth and women’s access to land, only in exceedingly rare instances do they access quality land. If women or youth are allocated marginal land, there is often no guarantee of long-term use.
As women and youth are particularly affected by the lack of legal security, they generally invest less in soil fertility and production improvement measures. However, the project Promotion de la Politique Foncière Rurale (ProPFR) Niger, adopted in 2021, promotes the same rights for men and women as the law enshrines that all official documents relating to the legal protection of land rights can be acquired equally by women and men. However, customary laws are still predominant and for example restrict women who may be financially able to buy and rent land on the land market, but in practice are confined from such acquisitions.
In addition, since the turn of the century, large-scale private investment in pastureland has increased and has led to large-scale land losses. On a smaller scale, this situation has further been exacerbated by numerous cases of smaller land grabs by farmers. This trend of land concentration is a consequence of the increasing demand for and scarcity of agricultural land and the lack of boundary definitions and use agreements between farmers and herders. Land scarcity has become a permanent source of conflict between farmers on the one hand and herders on the other. Although most of the time farmer-herder conflicts could theoretically be resolved at the local level, they often escalate. This intensifying conflict situation promotes stigmatisation as well as social division and contributes to the general destabilisation in the country.
It is in this context that ProPFR Niger was initiated, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), with interventions starting in January 2023. The project's objective is to improve the legal protection of access to land for certain population groups, notably women, young people and pastoralists in certain communes of Tillabéri, Tahoua and Agadez. In order to achieve this, the project is divided into three main fields of activity to:
- Improve the institutional framework and procedures for securing land use as well as land ownership rights for smallholder farmers and livestock households,
- Increase civil society participation in the implementation of national land policies and the revision of the land legislation,
- Ensure that private agricultural investors, state and local actors are aware of the main contents of the national rural land policy.
The project will end in May 2026 after 3 years and 5 months of intervention in the regions of Tillabéri, Tahoua and Agadez and aims to achieve:
- Secured land ownership titles for 52,500 smallholder households.
- Collective land use rights and resources in pastoral areas for 700 herder households via social agreements, delimitation decrees and local conventions.
- 80% of conflicts in project target communities are addressed and resolved.
- Private investors will respect the prescriptions of the national rural land law.