TMG Research is working with the governments of Benin, Kenya, Madagascar, and Malawi to advance the implementation of the UNCCD Land Tenure Decision 26/
COP.14. The partnership involves analyses of the impact of activities to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) on legitimate land tenure rights and to devise ways to secure legitimate tenure rights and achieve LDN. It benefits from support by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation  and GIZ.
 

The study  titled “Differentiated Impacts of Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought on Women and Men” released this week at  COP15  has revealed that women are twice more affected by drought, land degradation, and deforestation. Drought and land degradation tend to increase the burden of unpaid care and domestic work shouldered by women and girls, which has also been further compounded by the coronavirus disease. 

Pastoralism faces diverse challenges, that include, among others, land tenure insecurity, that has necessitated the need to formalize land rights. Some governments have started regularizing rights for privately owned land, but this is complex to implement in pastoral areas where resources are used and managed collectively. Our aim was to assess how the scale of communal land tenure recognition in pastoralist systems may affect tradeoffs among objectives such as tenure security, flexibility, mobility, and reduction of conflicts.

Climate change increasingly affects agricultural systems, making it necessary for farmers to adapt to changing climatic conditions. An important element shaping farmers’ adaptation decisions and their vulnerability is their respective land tenure system. Especially land tenure security can strongly influence farmers’ incentives for adapting to climate change.

The Global Symposium on Soil Erosion (GSER19) represented a critical step towards the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM) in terms of minimizing the risk of soil erosion. GSER 19 identified effective and ineffective Sustainable Soil Management (SSM) practices, techniques, instruments and mechanisms which shed light on where the gaps and challenges are in terms of science, technology and legislation.