General

The project will train a total of 200 women in four villages in Grand Gedeh county on climate change, in particular adaptation and food production. A community dialogue on land rights will be implemented to guarantee women's land rights as part of communit y-based land management in the villages. In addition, plain language communication and education materials on women's land rights and the Land Rights Law adopted in 2018 will be produced and distributed. Out of the training participants, 10 women in vulner able position will be selected to pilot a model farm. The model farms will be designed together with a technical support person. The piloting women will be provided with rice, local chickens and fish, and trained and supported in the implementation of the farm. The food production model seeks to protect the area's natural resources: rice is grown in marshland and fish and chickens are raised as sources of protein to relieve the pressure on natural resources from deforestation, hunting and river fishing. Ada ptation to climate change emphasizes preparedness for weather irregularities. The project is implemented to empower marginalized rural women in Liberia and for them to have access to agricultural land and reach sustainable livelihood. As a result of the p roject, rural women are expected to acquire the necessary know-how to claim their rights within the community decision-making system according to the 2018 Land Law, women's land rights are expected materialise and food sovereignty is expected to be achieve d through self-sufficient food production in the model farms. The direct beneficiaries of the project are the 200 rural women involved in its activities. Other target groups include national level civil society networks, government and development partners , to which the initiative to be drafted at the community-level dialogue is directed. The project is implemented by the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI, www.fcints.org).

General

The Constitution presents considerable challenges for the forest sector. The most critical issue is how forest management obligations will be shared between the national and county governments. At the county level counties are required to be largely self-s ustaining. This demand is already making communities and county leaders lay strong claims over natural resources which they target as source of revenue. Many new issues with important links to local forest governance are emerging in the global arena. There are emerging trends towards large land acquisitions by foreign firms for biofuel and agriculture. There is a lot of misconception misinformation and concern about these issues at national and local level. Most local communities do not understand what thes e means for their livelihoods and the sustainability of their forest resources.This project is premised on the need to empower local communities to actively and effectively participate in the implementation of Kenya's Constitution 2010. It aims at empoweri ng communities to realize the host of constitutional provisions and rights on environment and natural resources.Project Objective: - to build capacity of local communities to participate effectively in forest governance by strengthening community institut ions (CFAs and CFA networks)- support implementation of the Constitution at county level by fostering participatory forest governance influencing the development of county legislation on forest management benefit sharing and forest concessions

General

The project reviews conflicts over natural resources in developing countries and brings new perspectives to the public debate. The main medium is a special issue of the journal Peruste published by the think tank Vasemmistofoorumi and distributed to thousa nds of readers. Also the communication of the issue and the related public event are concrete results of the project. The conflicts in developing countries particularly in Africa are often discussed separately from environmental and natural resource issues . One often focuses only on the acute armed conflicts. This project discusses conflicts around the governance of natural resources in developing countries.The vast majority of the world's poorest people live in countries rich in natural resources.Environme ntal destruction land ownership issues and the privileges to use natural resources are often in the background of conflicts and political disputes. Also the effects of climate change such as desertification and changes in the water cycle hinder the exploit ation of natural resources particularly in arid regions and increase the risk of conflict.The disadvantages of the use of natural resources appear mostly at the local level among the poorest part of the population (for example as environmental pollution or increasing shortages of natural resources) whereas the benefits flow often out of their reach. Questions around privileges to use natural resources cause conflicts in the developing countries. Also the privatization of natural resources (such as water) ha s accelerated conflicts.The project will try to bring democratic ways of managing natural resources into discussion. Essential questions are: who benefits from the exploitation of natural resources and who will bear the disadvantages? Who should have the d iscretion about the use of natural resources? Who owns the natural resources and in which way?There is relatively much discussion about the democratic management of natural resources but this discussion has mostly taken place in the academic context. The b ackgrounds of conflicts are however of more general interest which means there would be demand for popularisation.