Matito Leruso was born and raised in the herding community of Lengurma in Isiolo County. Communal grazing land has been central to her community’s livelihood, wellbeing, and identity for generations, but they have never had their legal rights to govern it recognized. None of Kenya’s thousands of pastoralist communities have. This changed in 2016, with the passage of the Community Land Act. Since then, Matito has joined other residents of Lengurma in working to understand, use and shape the new law to ensure that their community land rights are respected and upheld.

On the 2019 International Day of Rural Women, Landesa’s Shipra Deo explores how land rights are an essential element for overturning misperceptions about the role of women in society and on the farm.

In a workshop with a group of agronomists who work in agriculture extension in India, I ask the participants to draw the picture of a farmer with whom they work. All but one of them draw male figures.

Our sugar is made from sugarcane. And sugarcane is not planted in trees or in the air, it’s planted in the ground, in the soil, on land. It’s the bedrock of our investment.

—Illovo Land Champion

The failure to secure the property rights of rural communities shows a clear policy gap between citizens and rights to land as per the Constitution and the attitude and practices of the state, traditional leaders, white farmers and mining companies in relation to such rights. 

Absent from the discourse spurred by the motion passed in the National Assembly on 27 February is what could be achieved in the interim for land reform programme using existing legislation while the country awaits a verdict on the constitutional amendment to determine whether is possible to expropriate land w

For hundreds of years, pastoralists in Ethiopia’s lowlands have relied on strong customary land tenure systems to survive. Historically, legislation has failed to clearly define communal rights to rangelands, and the specific roles and responsibilities for both communities and local government to administer and manage these resources. This legislative deficiency prevented pastoral communities from fully exercising their constitutional rights to land (Ethiopia’s Constitution broadly recognizes pastoral communities’ right to access land and prevents their involuntary displacement).

Posted by Catalina Goanta on Mar 16, 2018 in Catalina Goanta | on The Land Portal Foundation Partners Up with Maastricht University for Student Research Project on Land Governance

Press release

By Tim Hanstad, Co-Founder & Senior Advisor, Landesa

This is the second blog in a series of two that are based on a keynote address made at the 2018 India Land Development Conference.

Por Stephanie Burgos, Oxfam America, Asesora política senior

En Colombia, el país más desigual en el acceso a la tierra en América Latina, el acceso equitativo a la tierra es un tema decisivo para la consolidación de la paz en el país.

Por Jaime Vintimilla

Llama profundamente la atención que en medio de un conflicto constitucional y socioambiental muy complejo como el de Nankints, el Ejecutivo precisamente expida en diciembre un reglamento general para la aplicación de la Ley Orgánica de Tierras Rurales y Territorios Ancestrales vigente desde el 14 de marzo de 2016.

Freddy Ordóñez Gómez

Integrante del Instituto Latinoamericano para una Sociedad y un Derecho Alternativos (ILSA)

@Freddy_Ordonez