Eastern DRC is home to part of the world's second-largest rainforest after the Amazon, which harbors the last remaining mountain gorillas on the planet. However, this diversity and abundance of natural resources help finance rebellions that are undermining the country and destabilizing the entire African Great Lakes region.

Against this unstable political backdrop, the last twenty years have been marked by land tenure insecurity and land-related violence in rural areas. While farming supports the income, food supply, and livelihoods of millions of people, land grabbing and land conflicts have undermined the agricultural system and rendered thousands of peasants landless.

This data story examines various initiatives implemented over the past fifteen years by local non-state actors in South Kivu, DRC, to help secure land tenure for local populations.

It is often assumed that such initiatives are more effective than state-led, top-down approaches because they rely on local actors and institutions to formalize locally recognized land rights. It is also commonly supposed that land formalization can help restore and maintain peace in conflict zones.

Contrary to these widespread hypotheses, which underpin the majority of land security projects in the DRC, my observations as a researcher and resident of South Kivu suggest that these initiatives are not a panacea for land insecurity. 

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This data story is part of a broader initiative by the Land Portal Foundation, in collaboration with GIZ’s Strengthening Land Governance in Africa (SLGA) project, to enhance the impact of African land governance research. Through this program, selected researchers and collaborators from the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) received mentorship and support in 2024 to transform their findings into accessible, policy-relevant knowledge products.