Insecure land tenure and property rights for women can contribute to the spread of HIV and to a weakened ability to cope with the consequences of AIDS. Land is a critical asset for the rural poor, and in most countries, men hold the rights to and control over land. As a result, women are often economically dependent on men, do not have secure fallback positions, and, therefore, have very little bargaining power.
Release Date: Monday, May 20, 2013File:  Land Tenure, Property Rights, and HIV/AIDS

El resumen informativo: "Land Tenure and REDD+" traducido en Español.
Release Date: Monday, August 1, 2011File:  La Tenencia de Tierras y el REDD+

From negotiations over responsible agricultural investment in Rome to new research on gender equality in Rwanda to important steps in legal reform in Tajikistan, land rights continued to be a priority issue for the global community in 2014. Here are some of our favorite pieces on land rights from USAID and our partners from the past year.

1. Investing in Smallholder Farmers to Feed the Future
   
   By Tim Fella (Devex)
   
    

Côte d’Ivoire emerged from a decade-long civil war in early 2011, but its diamonds—which played a role in sustaining the conflict—have remained on the world’s black lists. In November 2013, however, the Kimberley Process (KP) Plenary in Johannesburg recognized that Cote d’Ivoire had met minimum requirements of the KP Certification Scheme, the international mechanism to prevent conflict diamonds from entering the world’s markets.

A recent CIFOR paper finds that addressing tenure and property rights issues at the REDD+ project level may be insufficient to achieve REDD+ objectives. REDD+ proponents in several countries are devoting substantial resources to address tenure issues at a project level, but the authors suggest that these efforts may be insufficient to address tenure problems that arise from broader national conditions. These tenure challenges “…have deep roots in history, are national in scope, and have origins that often lie well beyond the boundary of the project site.

This article discusses how one group is contributing to critical thinking about how the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGs) are implemented. The Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC) - an Africa-based alliance of agricultural research organizations - is both tracking implementation of the VGs and launching a study that will, among other things, investigate the multiple pressures toward the commercialization of land and the resulting impacts on land rights in Southern Africa.

In many countries affected by conflict, households and entire communities have often been displaced multiple times, forcing them to leave behind land and property. One household’s loss becomes another one’s gain as internally displaced people are shuffled around and squat in any available space that provides a temporary reprieve from the insecurity and lawlessness. This creates opportunities for land grabbing as well.

The Kenya SECURE Project efforts were bolstered recently by two news articles which appeared in the Kenya national newspaper, The Daily Nation. The articles underscored the attempted expropriation of land that had previously been gazetted for two national reserves for conservation purposes.
Kenya Wildlife Service Defends Reserves from Expropriation

On September 23, at the United Nations Climate Summit, leaders representing governments, the private sector, and civil society announced that they would join the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) – a voluntary, farmer-led, multi-stakeholder, action-oriented coalition committed to the incorporation of climate-smart approaches within food and agriculture systems.

Farmers in Burma are increasingly organizing to push for recognition of expanded rights to land and how they use it. Despite the passage of the Farmland Law in 2012, grievances and conflicts over land remain widespread and farmers face continued restrictions of their farming choices.

The New York Times reported that Greece’s land administration system is a major impediment to economic growth. After a history of occupations, wars, and shifting population centers, less than 7 percent of the country has been properly mapped, while most land transaction records are handwritten and lack clear boundaries or zoning. Property ownership is often unclear, especially in rural areas, and that has led to competing claims for property and a backlog of court cases.

This research paper from USAID calls attention to the challenges faced by vulnerable populations with respect to land. The paper identifies five vulnerable groups who have weak claims on land rights and are particularly vulnerable to changes in land tenure systems and property rights reform:
Women
Households that have been directly affected by HIV/AIDS
Pastoralist communities
Indigenous populations