Tackling the issue of land and resource tenure is one of the prerequisites for mechanisms such as REDD+ to have positive impacts not only on reducing emissions from the forestry sector but also in reducing poverty and achieving food security. These new guidelines by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) outline principles and practices that governments can refer to when making laws and administering land, fisheries and forests rights.

Land policies in Africa have often overlooked the interests of certain social groups. In some areas, traditional access and ownership rights for women, migrants and pastoralists have been ignored or reduced.  The rise of HIV/AIDS in the region has created new social groups who are vulnerable to discrimination by land policies. As new policies are formed in the region, it is important to consider why these groups have been excluded. This will help to ensure that future policies represent these groups more fairly.

Mediating Land Conflict in Burundi: A Documentation and Analysis Project was an assessment and evaluation project undertaken by ACCORD between July 2009 and February 2010. The purpose of the project was twofold. First, it explored how land conflict mediation addresses or relates to other more long-term challenges for peace in Burundi – principally, the utilisation of land and increasing access to sustainable livelihoods.

This report focuses on the promotion of economic growth and improving ecosystem protection within Brazil’s rural landscape.

This study utilizes land registry data from the First and Second Stage Land Registration Reforms that took place in 1998 and 2016 in sampled districts and communities in Tigray region of Ethiopia. Tigray was the first region to implement low-cost land registration and certification in Ethiopia and providing household level land certificates in the names of household heads. Second Stage Land Registration and Certification (SSLRC) is scaled up since 2015 and provides households with parcel-based certificates with maps. The SSLR&C lists all holders of parcels by name and gender.

The 1998 Land Act represents one of the most important pieces of legislation in Uganda, which is predominantly an agricultural country. The role of a consortium of NGOs, The Uganda Land Alliance (ULA), is analysed in this paper, with regard to the enactment of the Act. The issues addressed include:

This report provides key data and recommendations on the sustainable development of four commodities driving land use change in North Sumatra, Indonesia - coffee, cocoa, palm oil and rubber. The report seeks to assess the current and future situation in the districts of Mandailing Natal, Tapanuli Selatan and Tapanuli Utara, taking into account both economic and conservation perspectives.

Assesses the ongoing land registration process in the Amhara Region and its outcomes for women. The paper finds that while land policy and registration procedures aim to guarantee women’s access to land, practice on the ground suggests more needs to be done to support women’s rights in the implementation process.Land registration, initiated in 2003, stipulates that both spouses should be named on the certificate.

Rural citizens have increasingly begun to invoke perceived citizenship rights at transnational level, such that rural citizen engagements today have the potential to generate new meanings of global citizenship.

By Samuel Gebreselassie

Assesses the process of rural land registration in Ghana and its outcomes for poor and marginalised groups.In Ghana, deeds registration has been in place since colonial times, and enables right holders to record their land transactions. However, very little rural land has actually been affected by this registration process. The research shows a general lack of awareness of the registration process among the majority of cash and food crop farmers. High monetary and transaction costs and a long and cumbersome process also constrain use of deeds registration.

This paper examines the introduction of Restitution Act No 22 of 1994. The main aim of the Act was to provide for the restitution of land rights to persons or communities dispossessed after 19 June 1913 as a result of past racial discriminatory laws or practices.