Terra Firma and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) are pleased to announce the launch of a new LAND-at-scale project: Scaling Community Land Rights Certification in Municipal Areas of Mozambique. The project started implementation this month (February 2024) in the rural hinterlands of four municipalities in Manica, Sofala and Zambezia provinces.
During the Conference for Land Policy in Africa (CLPA) which took place in Addis Ababa in November 2023, LAND-at-scale organised the side-event ''Climate-Resilient Land Use Planning as a Tool for Addressing Land Degradation''. The LAND-at-scale (LAS) project partners and their government constituencies from Mozambique, Rwanda and Uganda participated in person. The set-up of the session was dynamic with each country first ‘pitching’ how land use planning processes were important in their LAS interventions, and then the government representatives adding to that a perspective from government. In each of the countries, the LAS partners consisting of NGOs and UN organizations, work closely with national or district land use planning officers of the government in carrying out project activities.
As part of a scoping study titled Land Governance for Climate Resilience: A review and case studies from LAND-at-scale projects headed by Richard Sliuzas, Emeritus Professor, University of Twente, IOM explored how climate plays a role in the UN-led Saameynta Joint Programme in Somalia. In this context, climate change is increasingly recognized as a multiplier of insecurity and fragility, where climate-related sudden and slow-onset disasters are driving people to leave their land and migrate. While migrating allows people to find alternative livelihoods and enhance their climate resilience, it can also be associated with instances of maladaptation to climate change. As such, this case highlights durable solutions in climate-driven urban sprawl in Baidoa.
As part of a scoping study titled Land Governance for Climate Resilience: A review and case studies from LAND-at-scale projects headed by Richard Sliuzas, Emeritus Professor, University of Twente, GLTN dove into the links between climate and land governance in the ‘’Scaling up community-based land registration and land use planning on customary land in Uganda’’ project. This case study highlights experiences from the community-based wetland management planning approach in Butaleja, Uganda, focusing on how the approach is addressing land governance issues and contributing to community climate resilience.
As part of a scoping study titled Land Governance for Climate Resilience: A review and case studies from LAND-at-scale projects headed by Richard Sliuzas, Emeritus Professor, University of Twente, CTV explored the links between climate and land governance in the LAND-at-scale project “Scaling Community Legal Literacy, Land Rights Certification and Climate Resilience in Mozambique”. This case study focusses on experiences from the Búzi District, where Cyclone Idai (March 2019) showed the need for proactive interventions in the land sector aimed at preparing districts and local communities to face and plan for severe climatic phenomena and their impacts, but also the challenges at making this link explicit.
As part of a scoping study titled Land Governance for Climate Resilience: A review and case studies from LAND-at-scale projects headed by Richard Sliuzas, Emeritus Professor, University of Twente, Tropenbos Colombia dove into the links between climate and land governance in their project.
What I learned about land rights from people who don't work in land rights
This webinar, the fourth of the Advancing Land-based Investment Governance (ALIGN) series, took place on February 9th, 2024, under the title “When carbon markets go wrong: How to ensure access to remedy for land tenure violations”. The webinar drew in 562 participants and featured panelists from policy experts to community leaders. The webinar was jointly organized by the Land Portal Foundation, the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Namati and the Columbia Center on Sustainable Development (CCSI).
In September 2023, Nairobi hosted vital climate events within a week, including the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) from 4th to 6th September. This three-day Summit convened leaders from various sectors to discuss Africa’s stance on global climate change plans, focusing on climate action financing and green growth, resulting in the unanimously adopted Nairobi Declaration. ACS ran alongside Africa Climate Week (ACW), one of four Regional Climate Weeks gathering region-focused contributions ahead of UNFCCC COP 28 in Dubai. Civil society organizations also released the African People’s Climate and Development Declaration and gathered for the Real Africa People’s Climate Summit March on Monday, September 4th.
Is climate change really the driver of conflict and displacement across the Sahel? This data story explores the history of conflicts in the region, the overlap with climate events and a wide range of institutional factors to investigate this question. The cases of Mali, Burkina Faso and Somalia are used as examples.
Climate-change induced disasters and communities’ responses to protect themselves and design solutions have become a top priority on the climate agenda. At the center of mitigation and adaptation discussions have been urban populations, particularly in informal settlements. At the same time, the rural poor with limited or no secure access to land tend to be overlooked. Not only are peasants among the most vulnerable to the impact of floods, droughts, storms, or wildfires. Because of insecure tenure rights in this group, natural disasters often result in land loss and migration as families have little means to reclaim their land or property without records or formal registration documents. Moreover, insecure land rights provide little incentives or capacities to mitigate or adapt to the effects of climate change. People are less likely to plant trees or protect the forest if they fear that their land could be taken at any time. Protecting people’s land rights likely leads to long-term investments in land and may help to combat deforestation.
Under the umbrella of the Land Dialogues series, the third webinar of this year’s series “Climate Funding and COP28 : Turning Pledges into Action” took place on November 28th, 2023. The webinar drew in a little under 200 participants and featured panelists from Indigenous leaders to donors. The series is organized by a consortium of organizations, including the Land Portal Foundation, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the Tenure Facility.