An encouraging story about how four communities regained control of their lands acquired by the Bioshape jatropha plantation in Kilwa District. Contains the Bioshape investment and the local response; from community-centred dialogue to government commitments; a reason to celebrate; next steps: consolidating community land tenure in Kilwa and Tanzania.

Africa’s Catholic bishops have criticized the appropriation of land;natural resources and other economic assets by private companies and called on national governments to show greater concern for local community rights and needs. They said: ‘The impunity of corporate and elite capture of African land and natural resources and the damage this is doing to Africa’s food systems;to our environment;our soils;lands and water;our biodiversity;our nutrition and health is a major concern.

Responding to an invitation from the Cameroonian government to help design a new land legal framework;civil society stakeholders have issued multiple proposals over the years on the topics they think should be included in the new land law. The LandCam project has documented;analysed and consolidated these proposals. Building on these;the authors also developed a comprehensive and coherent vision for the new land system and have made concrete recommendations;cited in this Briefing;for Cameroonian policymakers.

Notes that a record 212 land and environmental defenders were reported killed in 2019 but believes that the real number was certainly higher. Mining;logging and agribusiness were the main drivers of this. States that ‘verifying cases from Africa continues to be difficult. Limited monitoring of the issue by civil society;media repression and localised conflict mean attacks are probably underreported in some regions.Seven were reported killed in DR Congo;Burkina Faso;Uganda;Ghana and Kenya. Makes recommendations to governments;companies and investors.

For the past few decades;efforts to strengthen women’s land rights in many sub-Saharan African countries have primarily focused on a single approach: systematic registration through individual/joint certification or titling. While registration – individually or with a spouse – may support tenure security in specific contexts;the sheer complexity of land governance practices and tenure arrangements across the continent (both formal and customary) often render an emphasis on systematic titling inadequate.

Law reform often involves political choices requiring public participation and consultation. Outlines how governments and civil society may promote participatory law-making;details the positive impacts of such processes;and makes various recommendations to ensure that all citizensvoices are heard during law-making processes.

For many decades communities in West and Central Africa have been facing industrial oil palm plantations encroaching onto their community land. With the false promise of bringing ‘developmentand jobs;corporations;backed up by the support of the governments;have been granted millions of hectares of land under concessions for industrial oil palm plantations. The results of this expansion have been disastrous for communities living in and around these industrial plantations and in particular for women.

Despite a recent transparency law and participation in transparency initiatives;Cameroon’s investment environment remains plagued by poor transparency.

With the pandemic striking higher in Uganda;poor families continue to be forced off their land by their government and investors despite several directives halting evictions during the COVID period. Cites a number of examples. In the latest looming evictions;the Uganda government is evicting more than 35,000 artisanal miners in the Kisita mines in Kassanda district.

Gives details of how villagers in Chilonga in Zimbabwe’s Masvingo province are being kicked off their land;paving the way for growing lucerne grass as stockfeed. Cites some individual case histories;government support to the giant dairy company Dendairy and attempts to resist the evictions.

The restitution of ancestral land rights in Namibia has  divided opinions since independence. Some argue it is a fitting process in dealing with colonial era land dispossessions;others are concerned about the complexity of implementing this kind of restitution. At independence;the Namibian government adopted the viewpoint of the latter group;arguing that the restitution of ancestral land rights is not possible because of historical complexities in establishing land occupancy by indigenous people at the time of Namibia’s colonisation.

The Ninth of March 2021 will go down in history for the residents of Mambasa Territory in Ituri Province as the day the government laid the foundation stone for the Mambasa Land Administration building.