Offers a series of steps on how to stop border conflicts by marking the borders.

Includes how much land is being acquired, and by whom?; over the heads of local people: who are the parties to the deal?; the economic disequilibrium of the contract: what resources, in exchange for what?; what safeguards for local people and the environment?; discussion. Drawing on legal analysis of 12 land deals from different parts of Africa, discusses the contractual issues for which public scrutiny is most needed, and aims to promote informed public debate about them.

Critical shifts are affecting rural resource rights in Africa through widespread reform in land, forestry and other laws. The cutting edge of transformation affecting women is in emerging new provision for wives to hold family property as co-owners with their husbands, which could play a main role in revitalising smallholder agriculture. Recognition that equity in domestic land relations may ultimately be a prerequisite to the modernisation of subsistence agriculture in agrarian economies is the thesis underlying the analysis of legal texts in this paper.

Large-scale land acquisitions can have lasting repercussions for the future of agriculture, including both agribusiness and family farming. Rather than rushing into land deals, governments and investors should properly consider the wider range of options to invest in agriculture. In many parts of the world, family farmers have proved efficient and dynamic. Working with them can generate healthy returns, avoid the risks associated with land acquisitions, and improve farmers’ livelihoods.

Examines the draft Land Policy in depth. Provides an overview of the Policy and highlights the key areas of proposed change and their possible impact. Looks at the context, the problems addressed, the Policy framework, objectives and principles, strategic guidelines and options – land tenure, administration, the land registry, land transactions, and use and management of land.

Main chapters cover access to land and poverty reduction, land redistribution, and securing land rights. The last includes the role of land markets, women’s land rights, securing local resource rights in foreign investment projects, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples and pastoralists, conflicts.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights has issued a landmark judgement for marginalised communities across Africa. It ruled that the Kenyan government violated the rights of the Mau Ogiek people by evicting them from their ancestral land in the Mau Forest complex. This is the first time the court has ruled on an indigenous peoples’ rights case or in a case with mass human rights violations indicated. All indigenous forest peoples in Kenya (c.135,000) will find it easier to advance their own claims for recognition as owners of presently classified “government” forests.

Includes returning to the old or creating something new?; protecting land rights through systematic demarcation; recognising land rights; strengthening land administration; those left behind; recommendations

Summarises highlights from the first two and a half years of the programme, including insights on the legal levers that can be used to maximise local voice and benefit from local land rights to investor-state contracts through to community-investor partnerships, as well as a few milestones in IIED’s work on legal literacy training, exchange of experience and policy advocacy.

Includes what is the problem and what can be done?; the law and customary land rights; how does Forest Law treat customary land rights?; lessons from other African states; the way forward. Argues that the current de jure reality is that most rural Cameroonians are little more than squatters on their own land with regard to forests and other land assets.

Looks at land tax, land expropriation, foreign ownership, the National Resettlement Programme and the Affirmative Action Loan Scheme, case studies, and donor support in the land-reform process. Concludes with recommendations on expropriation, farm workers, sustainability of resettlement projects, gender issues, skills sharing and training.

Legal processes can help improve the lives of the poor in developing countries e.g. through establishing fair rules on international trade and securing land access in rural Africa. For this to happen, poorer actors – whether individuals or states – must have equitable access to the legal system, including a fair say in law-making processes, and access to effective enforcement institutions.