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Displaying 331 - 335 of 341Responsible Land Policy in Madagascar
General
Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world and has about 24 million inhabitants. 65 % of the population are directly or indirectly dependent on agriculture and forestry, most of them working in subsistence agriculture (rice, maize and manioc). 70 % of the land is used for agriculture, including a high proportion of pastures, and only about 15 % of the land is still covered by forest. Deforestation and degradation of forest landscapes are some of the country's biggest environmental problems. Consequently, livelihoods and agricultural productivity in rural areas are increasingly endangered. As part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative (AFR100), Madagascar has committed itself to restoring 4 million hectares of forest landscapes by 2030. This commitment is offset by a lack of clearly defined and formalised rights for land use and ownership, which inhibits the willingness to invest into forest restoration. Such an investment without a secured, long-term use perspective involves a high risk. Women and marginalised groups find it particularly difficult to assert their land use rights, as they generally know little about legal regulations and procedures and are thus unable to claim their rights.
Activities in Madagascar
The country module is active in three fields of activity: Activities in field 1 are improving the institutional framework and the processes for securing rights of use or ownership of land for the rural population in the Boeny region. Field of activity 2 ensures that the securing of land use and ownership rights for the local population is part of pilot measures to restore forest landscapes. In the third field of activity, the project aims to increase the involvement of the civil society, which is a main implementing partner, in formulating and implementing a responsible land policy concerning forest resources.
An example from the field
From a formal point of view, the legal situation in Madagascar since the land reform in 2005 presents a solid basis for smallholder farmers to formally register their land and obtain a land use certificate for it. The decentralised system provides for a competent authority (Guichet Foncier) in each municipality to issue these certificates. Reality shows, however, that in many places the issuance of land certificates is de facto impossible, as Guichet Fonciers have only been opened in 535 of Madagascar's 1693 municipalities, are often understaffed or not functional due to a lack of infrastructure. Moreover, the process of applying for the certificate and of proving land use is currently complicated and costly in many of the municipalities. The ProPFR project (Promotion d'une Politique Foncière Responsable – Promotion of a Responsible Land Policy) is therefore committed to improving and simplifying the procedure for obtaining a land certificate. In order to achieve this goal, a Land Inventory Protocol (LIP) procedure has been introduced, which allows the rural population in the pilot communities to participate in a systematic land inventory. Civil society and decentralised structures responsible for land law are jointly developing an efficient and transparent procedure for inventorying the parcels and are being supported in the process. As a result, LIPs are to be issued, which already bundle various information required for the application for a land use certificate. By doing so, multiple field surveys are to be avoided and the latest technology is to be used to make precise land surveys possible.
Results
More than 6,200 plots, including 3,400 assigned to women, covering an area of more than 23,600 ha have been inventoried. In the implementation of forest landscape restoration (FLR), 3 sites covering an area of more than 11,000 ha have been demarcated by the IPSS women's team. The 10 mayors of the project's communes were trained on land tenure and 53 state actors (45% women) received training on land tenure and territorial planning for sustainable development. In addition, 139 key actors (public sector, private sector, women, marginalised groups) were educated on the legal and regulatory framework for land. 20 trainers were taught how to provide legal assistance on land issues to target groups.
Resources
Here on Landportal, the GPRLP shares its knowledge products, which come directly from the projects in the countries. These include good practices, impact stories, as well as manuals and guidebooks on topics like tenure security, dispute resolution and implementation strategies. You can find all our resources from Madagascar down below!
Land Titles for Indigenous Communities in Peru
General
The Peruvian Amazon region is home to more than 50 indigenous peoples living in almost 2,270 communities. Around 30% of these communities – 680 – still have no collective land titles (government data 3/2020). This legal uncertainty causes disputes over land, exploitation of natural resources and growing pressure on indigenous territories as a result of infrastructure and industry projects and the influx of settlers from other parts of Peru. Over the decade until 2015, virtually no collective land titles were granted to indigenous communities. The reasons include a lack of clarity over responsibilities, inadequate capacity and budget limitations. The governing role for land titling was transferred back to the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI) in 2014, but regional government agencies remain in charge of the day to day implementation. Since late 2015, German development cooperation − in coordination with other international actors − has been addressing the need for standardised databases, simpler procedures for granting titles, guidelines on the involvement of indigenous peoples and communities, and dispute resolution strategies, as well as capacity development and adequate budgets.
Activities in Peru
The project supports the granting of land titles to indigenous communities in the Ucayali and San Martín regions and improvements in processes at national level. In field of activity 1, the project is advising MINAGRI and regional agencies on drawing up and improving procedures for granting land titles. It is also supporting further development of the statutory framework for collective land rights, including procedures for preventing and mediating in land disputes. Activities in field of activity 2 are strengthening the national- and regional-level participation of civil society, especially indigenous organizations, in granting land titles to indigenous communities All project activities focus particularly on the rights and concerns of indigenous women who play an important role in ensuring food security but are often disadvantaged in terms of access to land. Impact at two interconnected levels Guaranteeing the land rights of indigenous peoples requires reliable cadastral information.
When the project started, cadastral information was only available in outdated Excel files (national level) and insufficiently organized physical files (regional level). To address this situation, the project applied a multilevel approach and supported its partners in the development and consolidation of two complementary digital cadaster systems. At regional level, since 2016 young indigenous professionals worked as project interns for 6-12 months in the systematization and digitalization of approx. 250 community files in both regions. This initiative also improved the technical skills and employability of these young professionals. At national level, MINAGRI launched two digital cadaster systems in 2018 which had been developed with project support. The Cadastral System for Rural Properties (SICAR) is a modern tool for online rural cadaster data updating which focuses on individual (usually non-indigenous) rural properties. Its main innovations are the interoperability with diverse governmental information systems (e.g. on natural protected areas, production forests, mining and oil concessions) and a public viewer to visualize individual rural properties, indigenous communities, concessions etc. The SICAR consolidates the information registered by the 25 regional governments of Peru and is accessible to public users. The transparency it creates helps to prevent land conflicts with indigenous communities. The second system called SIC-Comunidades (Cadastral System for Communities) for the first time provides information on peasant and native communities of the Andes and the Amazon, respectively. It is an innovative web application (also with a map viewer) which allows to follow and monitor the - often lengthy - legal recognition and collective titling procedures. To protect indigenous rights, it can currently only be accessed by registered users, mainly the regional governments but also the indigenous umbrella organization. The work done by the indigenous interns since 2016 prepared the ground for consultancies to upload cadastral information on all (San Martín) or a large part (Ucayali) of native communities into the SIC-Comunidades, an important contribution to enhance their tenure security.
Resources
Here on Landportal, the GPRLP shares its knowledge products, which come directly from the projects in the countries. These include good practices, impact stories, as well as manuals and guidebooks on topics like tenure security, dispute resolution and implementation strategies. You can find all our resources from Peru down below!
Responsible Land Policy in Uganda
General
With an average of 229 inhabitants per km2, population density in Uganda ranks high among the most densely populated countries in Africa and is currently experiencing growing pressure on land and land-related resources. The population is growing by more than 3.3% per year. Land in Uganda is increasingly being fragmented due to inheritance rules. As a result, land ownership is being split up and competition between different user groups is on the rise. This situation is exacerbated both by the presence of more than 1.4 million refugees from neighbouring countries (as of March 2020) and by large-scale land investment by national and international investors. Against this backdrop of growing competition for dwindling land resources, fair and secure land rights are increasingly important.
Less than a quarter of the land is formally registered and for most of the largely rural population, land is a source of identity, livelihood, nutrition, and wealth. The lack of documentation of ownership and historically weak enforcement of land rights has become a major challenge to contend with today. There is a high amount of insecurity particularly on customary land, often leading to the rural population having less secure access to land. Women, youth, and marginalized groups especially, are often unaware of their land rights. Land conflicts are a common occurrence within communities or families, often due to unclear land use or ownership. Additionally, conflicts are aided by cases of illegal land acquisition and eviction by some investors or from the often-fragile relations apparent in the refugee-hosting communities in the country.
Progressively, Uganda has created favourable preconditions for land governance through the 1995 Constitution, the 1998 Land Act, and the 2013 National Land Policy (NLP). However, given the latest implementation experience, there is a need for a review of the legal framework to reflect the emergent dynamics in the land sector. The global programme is working with local institutions to advance the granting of use and ownership certificates for smallholders as a basis for economic growth and food security.
Our approach
The Programme for Responsible Land Policy in Uganda (RELAPU) comes in to bridge the policy and implementation gap in actualizing the National Land Policy to promote land rights through supporting Continuous Awareness Raising and Information Dissemination (CARID) on land rights, resolving land conflicts through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) within communities using Area Land Committees, and Capacity Development within the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development (MLHUD), Local Government administrations and Civil Society Organizations to support systematic mapping of land using a fit-for-purpose approach.
The Programme works closely with all key stakeholders forsharing knowledge and experiences. This multi-level and multi-stakeholder approach secures inclusion and participation and, together with the experiences from implementation, informs policy advisory and review of the legal framework at the national level. The step-by-step, fit-for-porpuse process of land registration is a safe-guard to only map and document conflict-free land. Land ownership and use rights are registered with the issuance of a social document - Land Inventory Protocols (LIPs), and formal documents - Certificates of Occupancy (CoOs) and Certificates of Customary Ownership (CCOs). These documents not only record the ownership or use-right but also enable smallholder farmers to access credit for agricultural investment increasing agricultural productivity and household incomes, specifically for women, youth, and marginalized groups.
Sustainability is baked-in by a move towards self-financing of land registration where minimal fees are set by the District Local Councils for registration of land rights within the Sub-Counties. The programme works under the following fields of action:
- Improving institutional framework and procedures to secure tenure rights in Uganda, based on evidence, innovative approaches, and digitalized processes.
- Increasing civil society engagement in the formulation, review, and implementation of responsible land policy.
- Raising awareness about responsible land policy along internationally agreed guidelines and the 2013 National Land Policy among private agriculture investors, affected land users and financial institutions.
An example from the field
Less than 10% of all land plots in Uganda are formally registered. Rural populations are particularly likely to lack the documentation to protect their land rights. For this reason, traditional land ownership rights can often be established only with testimony from neighbours, village elders or clan representatives. Attaining land titles or land certificates is a lengthy and costly process and, for most of the rural population, simply not possible. The project Responsible Land Policy in Uganda is working in this area to ensure systematic documentation of the land rights of those living in rural areas. The first stage of the project involves informing the target population about its rights and its scope for protecting its land rights in the long term. One aspect is strengthening women’s rights since land rights are often passed down exclusively to male descendants. The second stage is to establish systematic land inventories at village level, surveying individual land plots digitally and collecting the necessary information concerning owners and users. The resulting land inventory protocols (LIPs) include all necessary information on neighbours, clans and parcels of land. The documented testimonies of neighbours and clans play a decisive role in avoiding future land conflicts. The LIPs are an adapted and pragmatic minimum standard for securing land rights: the systematic approach markedly reduces the work and costs involved. The LIPs also function as security when holders apply for small loans. LIPs therefore not only improve the land rights situation of those involved but also facilitate their access to credit to enable them to invest in their land. This gives entire families a better future.
The benefits
The Programme has supported awareness raising and mapping of undocumented land to strengthen land rights and mitigate land conflicts. Over 86,000 households in Northern, North-Eastern and Central Uganda have secured land use and ownership rights through Land Inventory Protocols, Certificates of Occupancy and Certificates of Customary Ownership. Of these households, 26,353 are women-headed. While 121,151 hectares of land have been mapped through direct Programme intervention. The Programme supports amicable resolution of land conflicts using Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanisms. In Central Uganda alone, 3,043 conflicts were reported and 2,531 solved – an 83% success rate (April 2022). Through the Responsible Investment in Land (RGIL) project component that ended in December 2023, at least 73 domestic agricultural investments improved compliance with international principles on responsible investment in agriculture and food systems.
A compliance monitoring Tool was developed together with the Uganda Investment Authority (UIA), to promote social, environmental, and human rights safeguards for investment in land. The Land Inventory Protocols have created preconditions for stepby-step registration of land rights. RELAPU has leveraged this to pilot a self-financing model of land registration within the local administrative structures. The LIPs, CoOs and CCOs have increased tenure security and land value for the recipients of the land documents while also enabling smallholder farmers to access credit for agricultural investments. Through dialogue with Uganda Bankers Association (UBA) and six financial institutions these documents may now be used at sensitised branches when applying for loans. Gender inclusion has been mainstreamed, with specific trainings to address gaps and advocate for women's land rights. While social inclusion in land governance has been ensured through CSOs and supporting public forums with representative voices from society.
Resources
Here on Landportal, the GPRLP shares its knowledge products, which come directly from the projects in the countries. These include good practices, impact stories, as well as manuals and guidebooks on topics like tenure security, dispute resolution and implementation strategies. You can find all our resources from Uganda down below!
Global Programme Responsible Land Policy
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Context
The livelihoods of large parts of the world’s population depend directly on access to land. If access is denied, the results are often hunger and underdevelopment. According to UN World Food Programme estimates, half of the 815 million people suffering from hunger in 2017 were members of smallholder families. Many landowners and land users possess only informal or traditional land rights, which are often not sufficiently recognised.
Alongside its economic value, land is accorded high traditional, religious and social value in almost all cultures. However, large-scale investments are placing growing pressure on land as a resource. In the absence of protective measures and transparency, as well as inadequate conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms, such investments often lead to conflict, forced expropriation and displacement. Thus, the pressure on land continues to intensify as it becomes increasingly scarce.
Many countries have committed themselves to good land governance and have signed up to the United Nations’ Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security. Yet, they still face considerable challenges in upholding these commitments. The rural population, especially women and socially marginalised groups, often lack reliable access to land.
Approach
In cooperation with policymakers in the partner countries, the project team is working to improve the framework conditions for good land governance. Together with its partners, the project aims to introduce transparent procedures and mechanisms in land administration, thereby improving the population’s situation with respect to land rights. The project focuses on three areas of action:
1. Securing land rights for the rural population through improved procedures
In Peru, the main emphasis is on land titles for the areas of indigenous communities, while in Benin, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Laos and Uganda it is on strengthening individual and collective land and usage rights. Here, the legal security is improved through property titles and long-term leases. The project closely collaborates with related projects who use secure land rights as basis for further activity such as soil conservation and forest rehabilitation.
2. Promoting the participation of civil society in responsible land policy
The project team supports civil society groups that participate in the implementation of new procedures for securing land rights. Civil society actors take on an important role in monitoring conflicts and shaping dialogue processes, and act as service providers.
3. Improving the framework conditions for responsible private agricultural investment
Through a series of awareness-raising and dialogue activities, the project team supports the responsible design of agricultural investments that consider the rights and needs of the local population. In Ethiopia, Uganda and Laos, this field of action is supported and deepened through European Union cofinancing (Responsible Governance of Investment in Land, RGIL).
The ‘Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests’ and the ‘Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment’ of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) guide the project’s actions. The activities in the target regions in Madagascar are being implemented by the ECO-GOPA-Land Resources working group.
Results
- The global project has already been able to strengthen the land rights of over 155,000 small farming households. Of these, more than 60,000 households have registered their land rights in the name of the woman or together as a couple.
- The project has helped to resolve nearly 4,100 land conflicts.
- More than 75 agricultural investors follow international guidelines and thus contribute to sustainable development.
Applying the VGGT to the responsible development of a large-scale oil palm plantation in Sierra Leone
General
Natural Habitats Sierra Leone (NHSL) acquired an oil palm concession of over 40,000 hectares from a previous owner, planning to produce organic palm oil from plantations to be developed within it. The concession covered the entire Makpele Chiefdom, located in Pujehun District in Eastern Sierra Leone, and originally included the buffer zone of the Gola Rainforest National Park (GRNP). The company south the participation of families and local community members through leasing part of their land to the company, and by operating as outgrowers or employees. To help ensure that the development would be inclusive, sustainable, transparent and respectful of human rights, NHSL requested the international NGO Solidaridad West Africa, to assist in applying the VGGT based Analytical Framework for Land-Based Investments in African Agriculture to the project. In doing this, Solidaridad identified the land tenure related risks for local communities and for the investment, and helped NHSL to develop risk mitigation strategies. The principal measure was to establish a local multi-stakeholder platform (MSP) as the forum representation of all community groups, negotiation with the company, for mediation between rival local land owners associations that had emerged, one opposed to the oil palm investment, the other in favour of it. The project also mapped the land areas identified for leasing to the company, and assessed the livelihood and food security implications of releasing this land with the local communities. The project trained all parties (land owning families, farmers and community members, and company staff as the leaseholder) in land tenure awareness, negotiating and contracting. Women’s participation was promoted actively, both at community level and in the MSP, and women developed an active voice. As a result of the project the total concession size was eventually reduced to approximately 2,300 ha and new leasehold arrangements were negotiated with the land holding families concerned, and escalating conflicts between stakeholders at community level and with the company were overcome. In addition the project also trained and formalised the land rights of approximately 3,000 out grower farmers on an additional oil palm production block in a neighbouring district which NHSL had also acquired 30% of whom were women. Solidaridad intend that lessons learned from the innovative approach be used to promote industry-wide adoption of the VGGT, nationally, regionally wtihin West Arica, and internationally. Grantee’s products and project documentation Solidaridad - The LEGEND Project: Accomplishments and Lessons Natural Habitats Sierra Leone company perspective: The LEGEND project: accomplishments and lessons Solidaridad’s learning report on applying VGGT principles to the Natural Habitats investment: Application of the New Alliance Due Diligence Tool: lessons from green field oil palm investment in Sierra Leone Solidaridad learning story on reduction of the NHSL concession size Solidaridad learning story on participatory mapping LANDac policy brief: Negotiating and implementing large scale land deals in Sierra Leone: Improving transparency and consent Natural Habitats Group in Sierra Leone: Evolution of Company Perspectives, Policies and Practice