General

• Outcome 1: The international climate regime for land-use and forests includes a rights-based approach and provisions to protect natural ecosystems • Outcome 2: Indigenous peoples and other forest-dependent communities enjoy greater respect for their land rights and are recognised for their sustainable management and protection of the rainforest. Implementing partners: RFN and partners.

General

In recent years, investors have shown renewed interest in acquiring farmland for agricultural investments in developing countries. Research suggests that media reports have over-estimated the scale of land acquisition, but underplayed how investors focus on more valuable lands, which already generate interest from a variety of competitors. While investment in agriculture can create jobs, improve access to markets, and develop infrastructure for agricultural development, large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are also associated with negative impacts on local populations. These include depriving them of their land and access to other resources. Since many villagers depend on land and natural resources for their food security and livelihoods, land acquisitions can have major and lasting negative repercussions for local livelihoods. If they are not properly managed, LSLAs can also increase the risk of conflict, both between and among companies and communities. Governments and communities face the very real challenge of ensuring that decision-making on land and investment builds on local needs and aspirations. Improving accountability is critical to ensuring that lands and local communities are equitably managed and governed. Through action-oriented research, this project aims to fill a crucial knowledge gap on what practical steps can best promote and improve accountability in LSLAs. The research team will assess the strengths and weaknesses of legal frameworks in regulating LSLAs in Ghana, Cameroon, and Senegal. Their analysis will feed into a participatory process that will enable local communities to design, experiment, and engage in activities to improve accountability in agricultural investment processes. In each country's pilot sites, researchers will test legal and social accountability tools. These tools aim to support local efforts to secure land rights and address governance structures. The project team will design tools to address LSLA gender dimensions; in other words, how LSLAs influence men and women. Their findings will help communities gain a better understanding of existing legal processes, map gaps in legislation, and propose alternatives to existing legal frameworks and governance structures. This work will form part of larger efforts to engage policymakers on how to achieve inclusive, transparent, and accountable decision-making around land and investment and is part of a series of projects promoting accountability on LSLA in Africa.

Objectives

To initiate a transformational shift towards sustainable, integrated management of multi-use dryland landscapes in northern Namibia, building on Land Degradation Neutrality principles

Other

Note: Disbursement data provided is cumulative and covers disbursement made by the project Agency.

Target Groups

1. The project will work towards the implementation and mainstreaming of sustainable and integrated approaches to the management of dryland landscapes and decision-making regarding land use in selected landscapes in Namibia. By scaling-up SLM and SFM best practices in priority landscapes in the north of the country, the project will also have a transboundary impact (Kunene basin) complementing existing in-country and neighbouring country interventions, which will in turn contribute to the achievement of both the project and the Impact Program main objectives. The strengthened national policy and capacity on LDN and the empowerment of stakeholders in SLM/SFM/IWRM planning and implementation, in combination with the establishment/strengthening of inclusive dryland commodity value chains, will have a positive impact beyond the target landscapes.2. Global benefits from the project’s successful implementation highlighted in Table 9 and elaborated in Section (8). In summary, they comprise:· 360,200 ha of production systems, located within three target landscapes that cover 1,455,049 ha of Miombo-Mopane Woodlands, under improved management practices as a result of applying LDN response hierarchy of avoidance, mitigation and restoration. [Refer to Tables 5 and 6, respectively, for disaggregated data and descriptions of the interventions.]· Carbon benefits totalling 1,301,476 tCO2e, based on sequestration of carbon arising from the above improvements in production systems and avoidance of emissions in the AFOLU sector.3. Local benefits from the project’s successful implementation will include:· SFM/SLM practices mainstreamed across the country: Principles and evidence-based best practices of SFM/SLM will be disseminated among project beneficiaries, including local communities and national institutions. By implementing activities related to it, the project will be able to reduce key policy barriers currently challenging the country’s enforcement to prevent causes of land degradation and will bring a positive long-term impact on a part of Namibia where land degradation is the most critical issue.· Increased local capacity: Different project activities will focus on enhance key stakeholders’ capacity for handling spatial data, develop strategic partnerships, mobilize finance, and conceive projects, all related to SFM/SLM practices, creating the conditions for a collaborative landscape management. The project expects to train approximately 300+ land managers in multiple locations across the landscapes of northern Namibia (targeting at least 30% are women) with focus on skills development for SLM/SFM/LR/IWRM policies and practice· Co-benefit of GEF investment: At least 10,000 beneficiaries (40% women) from the three target landscapes (Kunene-Cuvelai: 5,500; Etosha: 2,500; Okavango: 2,000).· Value chain development: The project foresees the strengthening of viable and sustainable promising value chains identified during the PPG process. Producer organizations will be able to participate in capacity building activities, as well as have access to finance and market mechanisms, which will allow their business to develop. Thus, it is also foreseen that by contributing to the productivity and sustainability of agricultural practices and green value chain development, the project, has the potential to indirectly contribute to long-lasting improvement of livelihoods and food security, particularly in direct beneficiary communities of the demonstration landscapes.