land tenure Archives - Resilient Landscapes (RL)

Land-based Investments for rural development?: A grounded analysis of the local Impacts of biofuel feedstock plantations in Ghana

The rapidly growing biofuel sector in Africa has, in recent years, been received with divided interest. As part of a contemporary wave of agricultural modernization efforts, it could make invaluable contributions to rural poverty. Conversely, it could also engender socioeconomically and environmentally detrimental land use changes as valuable land resources are converted to plantation agriculture. This research analyzes the impacts and impact pathways of biofuel feedstock development in Ghana. It finds that companies are accessing large contiguous areas of customary land through opaque negotiations with traditional authorities, often outside the purview of government and customary land users. Despite lack of participation, most customary land users were highly supportive of plantation development, with high expectations of ‘development’ and ‘modernization.’ With little opposition and resistance, large areas of agricultural and forested land are at threat of being converted to plantation monoculture. A case study analysis shows that this can significantly exacerbate rural poverty as communities lose access to vital livelihood resources. Vulnerable groups, such as women and migrants, are found to be most profoundly affected because of their relative inability in recovering lost livelihood resources. Findings suggest that greater circumspection by government is warranted on these types of large-scale land deals.

The Scramble for Land Rights: Reducing Inequity between Communities and Companies

Increasing global demand for natural resources is intensifying competition for land across the developing world, pushing companies onto territories that many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities have sustainably managed for generations. These communities, who collectively hold at least half the world’s land but legally own just 10 percent of land globally, are now racing to protect their land rights.
A comprehensive global review of how communities and companies formalize land rights, this report examines discrepancies in time and costs required to obtain formal land rights as well as the land size and rights ultimately granted to each in 15 countries across Africa, Asia and Latin America. It uncovers significant differences in the barriers that both groups face – disparities that give companies a clear advantage. Communities sacrifice years or even decades navigating unwieldy, expensive government processes that may force them to give up significant portions of their ancestral lands, while wealthy companies with strong political connections quickly secure rights to the same land.
The report sheds light on this uneven playing field between companies and communities, and recommends a more transparent path forward. It calls on countries to simplify overly complex procedures and amend steps that impose difficult, undue burdens on communities, while uniformly enforcing corporate land acquisition policies. Around the world, better conflict resolution mechanisms are needed to address competing third-party claims, and governments must also protect communities’ right to free, prior and informed consent.

Formalization of the collective rights of native communities in Peru: The perspective of implementing officials

Key messages

Regional governments have a central role in the formalization process as they are in the most direct contact with native communities. Nonetheless, incomplete decentralization has led to inadequate budget and trained personnel.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance should incorporate allocations for community titling procedures in the national budget.
There are incongruities between the expectations of native communities and the scope of the regulations that formalize collective rights – especially those related to rights to resources, the implications of usufruct contracts and the differences in rights granted over lands classified as forest versus agriculture.
The results show that investing in coordination and collaboration mechanisms has the potential to increase the effectiveness of implementation. This requires assigning budgets and promoting measures supporting information exchange and formal agreements to implement joint actions.

Integrating multiple environmental regimes: Land and forest policies under broader democratic reforms in the Bolivian tropical lowlands

The paper uses a policy integration (PI) approach to analyse forest sector reforms in tropical countries, using the case of reforms that affected the northern Bolivia forest economy. The paper provides a brief overview of PI and then analyses the various reforms that all contributed to reshaping Bolivia’s forest sector. The major related reforms are not only forestland tenure reforms, a new forestry law, but also important public administrative and democratic reforms. The case of democratic reforms linked with land and forestry reforms in northern Bolivia makes it possible to discuss environmental PI in a tropical context, and thus to review some of the key postulates that have been formulated on the topic, but which are to date largely based on empirical experiences from the northern hemisphere.

Determinants and constraints of integrating natural acacias into mechanised rain-fed agricultural schemes Sennar State, Sudan

Agroforestry practices in Sudan take on various forms across the country, depending on the arrangement, distribution and integration of trees with agricultural crops and/or livestock. The study aimed to describe and analyse the arrangement of acacia trees with crops on parklands in El Dali and El Mazmum areas in Sennar State, Sudan. Specifically, an attempt was made to identify the determinants of integration of natural acacia trees with crops in mechanised rain-fed agricultural schemes forming agroforestry parklands. Another specific aim was to determine farmers’ perceptions about the constraints of adopting such agroforestry practices were also determined. Data was collected using a social survey method, in which 50 % of the total numbers of villages was randomly selected after classification into small, medium and large villages. Moreover, 5 % of the heads of households in the selected villages were interviewed face to face. The number of respondents was 281. Logistic regression model results indicated that the number of household members, the administrative unit, the incentive received from agricultural union and the land size were the main determinants for integrating acacia trees with agricultural crops in mechanised rain-fed agricultural schemes forming the agroforestry parklands. Constraints related to the prevalence of agroforestry practices included the absence of extension services and planting materials, unfavourable tree tenure, the destruction of trees/crops by animals, and the practice of renting land for sole crop cultivation. Several suggestions are given increased adoption of sustainable agroforestry for more production farming. As a priority land tenure and tree tenure issues must be clarified.

Women and equity in the EUDR

The European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), enacted in 2023, aims to combat deforestation and forest degradation associated with high-risk commodities such as palm oil, cocoa, and beef. While its primary focus is environmental sustainability, concerns have arisen regarding its social impacts, particularly for women in smallholder and forest-dependent communities. This study examines the risks and opportunities the EUDR presents for women in agricultural and forest value chains, employing an intersectional approach. It explores how the regulation could either jeopardize tenure rights and livelihoods or enhance women’s roles in sustainable production systems.
The study also highlights the contributions of the Team Europe Initiative and the SAFE project in promoting gender equity within EUDR implementation. By focusing on legal, technical, and market-based opportunities, it underscores the importance of gender-responsive due diligence frameworks, digital data literacy, and market access for women producers. With appropriate safeguards and targeted support, the EUDR has the potential to create a more inclusive and equitable system, empowering women as forest stewards and smallholder producers while aligning with the EU’s broader sustainability goals.

Usufruct rights to trees: the role of Ekwar in dryland central Turkana, Kenya

Usufruct rights to trees (Ekwar) in the Turkana silvo-pastoral system are an important aspect of natural resource management, particularly in the drier central parts of Kenya. Originating from a participatory forestry extension program, a survey was carried out that showed the extent and duration, often in excess of one generation, of occupancy of a person’s Ekwar. Such rights center around the dry season fodder resources, especially of Acacia tortilis. However they are not definite and are linked to risk-spreading by flexibility in livestock management and the need that they be maintained through efficient usage and social linkages. Hitherto, such natural resource management systems have all but been ignored in the development process in favor of the “tragedy of the commons” paradigm. Likewise, pastoral development has tended to emphasize range and water, while trees are not given the attention they deserve. This endangers the resilience of the system, and it is therefore important that development works with, not against, such environmentally-sound practices to try to make them more sustainable in the long term.

Impacts of human activities and land tenure conflict on fires and land use change: cases study of Menggala-Lampung-Sumatra

Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), and United State-Forest Service are studying the underlying causes and impacts of land and forest fires in Indonesia. The main questions to beaddressed in this project are what, who, where, how much burned, and why it burned. This study will apply three levels of spatial analysis: island-wide, province, and site. At the site specific level, we are focusing on the relationship between fire, land tenure and land use change.

Conflict in collective forest tenure: Lessons for Peru from a comparative study

Key messages

In comparison with Indonesia, Uganda and Nepal, Peruvian law provides a weak mandate for tenure reform implementers to address conflict, and Peru has the lowest number of implementing officials stating that addressing conflict is among their responsibilities.
In the villages studied, Peru reports the highest proportion of villagers involved in land or forest conflicts, the highest proportion with actors external to the community and the lowest portion resolved.
Despite the legal significance of a land title, collective titling alone does not assure the end of land/forest disputes with outsiders. The state needs to defend the property rights that it has recognized.
Peru must improve its legal framework for conflict management in land/forest disputes both in and after formalization processes, drawing on state and customary, community or alternative mechanisms.

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