By Julia Christian, Forest Governance Campaigner for FERN
Michoacán’s indigenous communities’ greatest resource is their forests. And they defend them with their lives.
Everyone was energised by the trek of 29 women from 22 African countries up and down Kilimanjaro this month to raise awareness of women’s land rights, producing a charter of 15 demands on how to protect and enhance these rights. A powerful statement and great mobilising action.
Despite the fact that land is intrinsically fixed in space, a new transnational market for land is born. Indeed, data from the Land Matrix suggests that in the last 16 years 77.5 million hectares of land – a surface slightly smaller than the entire Mozambique – have been transferred to international investors or are currently under negotiation. More than 140 countries are involved in this international market for land either as investor country, or as target country, or both.
By Gina Cosentino, Social Development Specialist, World Bank and Climate Investment Funds
Everything old is new again, at least when it comes to searching for workable and proven solutions to addressing climate change. Indigenous peoples have developed, over time, innovative climate-smart practices rooted in traditional knowledge and their relationship with nature.
This is a contribution to our ongoing debate 'Open Data and Land Governance: Increased accountability and transparency as a means to overcoming poverty?'. Join in and ad your voice to the discussion!
By Kaitlin Cordes, Head of Land and Agriculture at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
By Jenna DiPaolo Colley, Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)
Secure, legally-recognized land and forest rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities are vital to mitigating climate change, securing sustainable development, preventing conflict, and reducing poverty. It is also a core human right for up to 2.5 billion people who customarily hold and use land around the world.
By Imma Subirats, Senior Knowledge and Information Management Officer at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” (The Land Portal Video).
