This Case Study looks at the implementation of the Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management Law (VFV Law) in seven villages in Sagaing Region, to assess the practices on the ground and how the law impacts the land tenure security of smallholder farmers.
Nigeria’s arid North West is beset by violence between herders and farmers, which has been compounded by an explosion in criminal activity and infiltration by jihadist groups into the region. The last decade has seen thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced, with many fleeing into Niger Republic next door. Statelevel peace efforts with several armed factions have had some success, but these will not prove durable unless more actors lay down their weapons.
Land has been one of the major concerning factors in escalating disputes and conflicts between ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, including the violation of minority rights. This paper examines the impact of land policies and land-based development programs on the rights of ethnic minorities in eastern Sri Lanka by analyzing selected major policies and projects. The analysis is interpretive and descriptive in nature. Secondary literature was the primary source for the analysis.
ABSTRACTED FROM PURPOSE OF THIS MISSION: The purpose of the mission was to gather accurate and up-to-date information from a range of sources about a number of issues concerning the treatment of Tamils including the government’s attitude to diaspora activities and the treatment of members of diaspora groups, in particular members of the Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE). The mission was also interested in gathering information about the treatment of members and former members of the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In July 2017, Democratic Party candidate Khaltmaa Battulga was elected Mongolia’s new president with 50.61% of the vote, defeating his rival Miyegombo Enkhbold from the ruling Mongolian People’s Party (MPP) who received 41.16% of the vote. Importantly, 8.23% of the voters in the second round chose the none-of-the-above option, the so-called blank ballot. Mongolians believe in democracy as a guiding general principle and vision, but they have less trust in the fairness and effectiveness of political institutions.
COVID-19 has negatively affected indigenous land rights, particularly for those who already face food insecurity as a result of land confiscation or grabbing and the loss of their territories. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, the expropriation of indigenous lands and natural resources and the increase in conflicts on their territories were already placing indigenous peoples in a particularly precarious situation. The crisis has led to reports of encroachment upon indigenous land by opportunists, such as illegal loggers and miners.
In the last decade, Myanmar’s Kachin State has seen a boom in tissue-culture banana plantations driven by cross-border Chinese investors. This Case Study compiles field research and publicly available knowledge about the scale of the production and its economic, social and environmental consequences. The study provides a detailed snapshot of the investment model and key actors in Kachin State, the methods of land access, landscape outcomes, and experiences of plantation workers.
This report responds to heightened concerns over rising levels of farmer-herder conflict across a wide band of semi-arid Africa. We assess the quantitative evidence behind this general impression and review the explanations in the scientific literature, in the light of known issues with long-standing attitudes towards pastoralism and mobile populations. Looking at the data available, we find that total levels of all forms of violence have been rising in the last ten years — especially in some countries in West and Central Africa.
This brief draws from USAID’s experience supporting systematic land documentation in Zambia to further advance awareness and knowledge about the relationship between gender-based violence (GBV) and the access, use, and control of land and property. It aims to inform current and future design and implementation of programs that promote land-based investment and land rights (particularly women’s land rights) by civil society organizations, other donors, and the private sector.
Rapid population growth combined with fast rate of land transfer and land conversion urges for an effective land administration and management in Bangladesh. But the land administration system in Bangladesh is corrupt, inefficient, and unreliable and inherently contains systematic weaknesses. It proliferates and perpetuates the endemic nature of land disputes. Nearly 80 percent of court cases in the rural areas are estimated to be related to land-conflicts.
This paper considers possible answers to these difficult questions by focusing on two issues: the evolution of legal norms in response to both endogenous and exogenous changes, and the role that African customary law and indigenous dispute resolution has played in promoting coordination and cooperation among group members, thereby reducing violent conflict. This paper explores legislative actions taken by the Nigerian government that impede the continued evolution of these relatively elastic customary legal norms.
This study determined pre-conflict, conflict and post-conflict land use change and analysed the impact of armed conflict on the intensity of land use change in northern Nimba County. Landsat images of 1986, 1990, 2002 and 2016 were classif