New publication: Synthesis Paper on Indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources

Rome, Italy

2013

Download: ILC Synthesis Paper – Indigenous peoples’ rights to lands, territories and resources

The International Land Coalition (ILC) seeks to secure equitable access to land and resources for the rural poor through advocacy, knowledge management, networking, capacity building, and dialogue. Indigenous peoples comprise more than 370 million people worldwide. It is estimated that they constitute approximately 5 % of the world’s population, but make up 15 % of the world’s poor and about one-third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people (DESA, 2009: 21). Indigenous peoples have strong spiritual, cultural, social and economic relationship with their traditional lands, but their land rights are often the most precarious. Hence, indigenous peoples’ issues are of central importance for ILC’s mandate.

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New publication: ILC Annual Report (2012)

Rome, Italy

2013

The ILC Secretariat has published the ILC Annual Report (2012).

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Information from Land Matrix used to ‘sound warning on foreign investments in oil palm estates’

June 2013

Indonesia

See: Green Activists Sound Warning on Foreign Investments in Oil Palm Estates (Jakarta Globe, 14 June 2013)

Access to Land Matrix data is available here

Information on the launch of the Land Matrix is available here

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PASTORAL PEOPLES’ PARLIAMENT – A PLATFORM FOR THE UNHEARD, THE UNSEEN

MARAG, India

June 2013

The Maldhari in Gujarat State are the unheard and the unseen in the development agenda at state and national levels. They have no representation in policy decision-making processes despite those decisions having a fundamental impact on their lives and livelihoods. Their voices are not heard and their needs are not attended to. The Pastoral Peoples’ Parliament seeks to change this. The Pastoral Parliament is the brainchild of MARAG (Maldhari Rural Action Group) a local NGO based in Ahmedabad, India and an active ILC member. MARAG has supported the process of establishing the Parliament in its initial stages and is now playing a mentoring role”.

Further information is found in the Rangelands Bulletin (no.3) - pg. 9 Pastoral Peoples’ Parliament, MARAG, India; pg. 11 Opportunities for New Land Laws to support community-based pasture and NRM in Mongolia

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New: Land Matrix partnership launches second phase of its Global Observatory on large scale land acquisitions

June 2013, ILC

Dynamic public interface promotes greater transparency in land investments

See: Land Matrix Global Observatory

Bern/Hamburg/Montpellier/Rome (10 June 2013) The Land Matrix partnership today launches the second phase of the Global Observatory on large scale land acquisitions. The Land Matrix Global Observatory is a tool that promotes transparency in land transactions and supports open data and open source communities focused on land deals. The thoroughly updated dataset allows tracking of large scale land acquisitions, from negotiation to implementation.

Since the launch of the Beta version in April 2012, the Land Matrix partnership has received a substantial number of reactions, most of which expressed appreciation for the initiative, though some noted concerns. It provides valuable lessons on the challenges and successes of promoting open data on practices that are often shrouded in secrecy and have led to improving the Land Matrix and its database. Madiodio Niasse, Director of the International Land Coalition (ILC) Secretariat noted, “We have taken all comments that we have received very seriously, and we thank those who have contributed.”

The modifications and improvements to the database structure and its contents explain the significant difference between earlier estimates of total large scale land acquisitions (83.2 million ha for 1217 land deals) provided by the Land Matrix and the new estimates (32.5 million ha for 753 concluded land deals). The database now differentiates between intended, concluded and failed deals. In addition, the platform reports the implementation status of each deal, including if a project actually becomes operational and eventually starts producing. Finally, each piece of information is directly related to its source, allowing the filtering of deals by the type of source and enabling users to themselves judge the reliability of the information.

As the Land Matrix is a constantly evolving database, conclusions drawn from the data should be tentative. Jann Lay, from the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies noted, “The Land Matrix Global Observatory data reveal the importance of capturing the dynamics of large scale land acquisitions, which are not easy to trace.”

The new dynamic interface offers multiple technical enhancements and innovations, including allowing users to download the entire unfiltered dataset – a significant step towards achieving truly open data. An advanced crowdsourcing function enables any user to submit details on land deals, from a single deal to sharing entire datasets.

Markus Giger from the CDE (Centre for Development and Environment) at the University of Bern said, “We hope for feedback from a wide range of stakeholders. More evidence and data is needed to help to continuously update and improve the quality of the data”.

With these improved functions, the Land Matrix Global Observatory can become an important tool to address the lack of transparency that still surrounds large-scale land transactions. Ward Anseeuw from the Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD) said, “The Land Matrix has evolved from a database into a public tool promoting greater transparency in decision-making over land and investment at a global level.”

 

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New publication: CSRC Land and Agrarian Rights Campaign Update – Nepal

CSRC, Nepal

May 2013

This publication highlights key campaigns and demands of poor and marginalized communities on land and agrarian rights in Nepal.

Download: - Campaign Update – VOLUME 34

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COLARP’s research on land issues in Nepal and South Asia

COLARP, Nepal

April 2013

1. Evidence Based Policy Debate Series on Land Issues was organized by COLARP on 16th April, 2013  at  Direction Exhibition & Convention Center, Kathmandu. Dr. Purna Nepali presented on “Evidence based Policy Debate Series on Land Issues in Nepal”. Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti, Regional Coordinator, NCCR North-South presented discussion paper on “Political Economy of Land Policy Analysis in Nepal”. Similarly, Dr. Ganesh Gurung, Chair, COLARP and Dr. Fraser Sugden, IWMI jointly presented paper on “Absentee Land Lordism and Land Reform in Tarai-Madhesh: Ongoing Trends and Future Challenges.   

 

2. COLARP in collaboration with its partner organizations  National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South and Nepal Centre for Contemporary Research (NCCR) organized the South Asian level symposium “State of Art in Transnational Pressure on Land (TPL) and Food Security in South Asia” in Kathmandu, Nepal on 8 May, 2013. The objectives of symposium were to understand the state of art in Transnational Pressure on Land (TPL) in South Asia, focusing on actors, interest, and mechanisms of land acquisition; creating the common platform for sharing, reflecting and learning the issue of land acquisition and food security nexus; and documenting the current state of art in TPL. The papers were presented from four countries i.e. from Nepal (3), India (2), Pakistan (1) and Bangladesh (1). As an output, Press Release, Brief Symposium Report and Edited Monograph will be published soon.

From Left to Right: Dr. Devendra Chapagain (Land Expert), Dr. Mahesh Banskota (Dean, School of Arts, Kathmandu University), Dipendra Bdr. Cheetri (Former Vice Chair , National Planning Commission & Former Governor, Nepal Rastra Bank), Keshab Badal (Chairman, National Cooperative Federation Ltd. Nepal & Former Chair , High Level Land Reform Commission), Dr. Ganesh Gurung (Chair, COLARP & Former member, National Planning Commission) and Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti (Regional coordinator, South Asia Regional Office, NCCR) at Transnational Pressure on Land (TPL) and Food Security in South Asia held on 8 May 2013.

 

3. Community Forestry is a well-known and demonstrated programme in the field of participatory natural resource management in Nepal. At present, COLARP is conducting a project titled “Documentation of Reflection of Actions for Learning (ReAL) on the Inclusion and Develop resiliency of Dalit for Diversifying their Livelihoods in Local Community Forestry Groups in Nepal” to enhance social equity (Dalit, marginalised caste and gender). COLARP is also working on Community Land Tenure which would be innovative in our context. This work is based on best practice of allocating Community Forest Land (CFL) to poor and marginalised community. Since, agricultural land is scarce, CFL would be alternative to it in land reform discourse.

 

4. Dr. Purna B Nepali, Executive Director (ED) participated and presented a paper on “Land Right from Below in Nepal and the Key Role of Land Monitoring: Civil Society Perspective in Converging Equity and Efficiency” in World Bank Conference ‘Land and Poverty 2013′ from April 8-11, 2013, at Washington DC, USA.

 

5. Mr. Kabin Maharjan, Research Officer participated in a regional workshop on “Extraterritorial States Obligations and Access to Natural Resources”  organized by FIAN Nepal  from 16-19 April 2013 in Kathmandu, Nepal. Six countries (Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Malaysia) participated in the programme. The major issues discussed were on the issue of growing land acquisition and its extra territorial effects.

 

6. Ms. Shanti Barma Shkha, Admin and Finance Officer, participated in a program “From Fields to Cities: Labour, Mobility and Social Change in Contemporary Nepal” conducted by Social  Science Baha on 25^th April 2013. Presenters- Antonio Donini (Tufts University) and Jeevan Sharma (University of Edinburgh) presented their research findings on changing nature of labour exploitation and on migration- external and internal in Nepal.

 

For further information, and publications, please contact COLARP (contact info)

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Environment and Development Association (JASIL)’s work on pasture

JASIL, Mongolia

April 2013

JASIL participates in discussions with the Government of Mongolia

JASIL members  participated in the National Pastoral Seminar organized by  the Mongolian Government and Parliament on 15 April 2013 

JASIL participated in the SELPS initiative meeting, which looks on ways on how to link pastoral agriculture land  use with ecosystem approaches.

Lobbying on Draft Land Law

JASIL participated in the  Working group meeting on the Draft Land Law  in the Mongolian Parliament 3 times in April 2013.

JASIL also co-organized a lobbying meeting with other NGOs on pasture management in the Draft of the Land Law  on 8 April 2013,  and organized a national level dissemination meeting on 14 April 2013,  to ensure that the law could be used for the herders’ livelihood improvement and pasture management, under the new policy and research settings.

Mongolian TV broadcasts Dr.Ykhanbai’s speech in the Parliament

New publications

JASIL has published the  policy brief on : Reading  WFD by herders in JASIL study sites for the improved pasture management and Livelihood improvement of herders by using ICT. To obtain a copy please contact Dr. Hijaba Ykhanbai (contact info)

Events

On May 27-28 JASIL with FAO and the Ministry for Nature and the Environment co-organized a national level meeting  in Mongolia.

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New publication: Land Governance in Asia by Antonio B. Quizon (2013)

Download: Land governance in Asia

Author: Antonio B. Quizon

Year of publication: 2013

Region: Asia

This paper examines land tenure systems and legal frameworks in Asia, and the current major debates around processes of land reform and justice for poor land users. It sets today’s systems in their historical context, tracing their roots back to regimes imposed by colonising powers, mainly European, over a 450-year period. Colonial governance focused first on trade but then evolved to encompass land as a commodity and a source of revenue, with increased concentrations of ownership. Following World War II, many newly independent countries in the region initiated processes of land reform, which played an important part in state building. However, these efforts met with very different degrees of success, determined by individual country conditions and their historical legacies.

The land reform process has remained largely incomplete, but today there is a resurgence of interest. This paper examines various models for reform and their potential to protect rights and access for poor land users. Among the major issues it discusses are women’s access to land, the land rights of indigenous peoples, tenure for forests and public domains, the role of small farms, the phenomenon of land grabbing, and the emerging effects of climate change.

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PUBLICATIONS: Land Watch Asia Campaign Updates

The Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) has published country and regional updates for the Land Watch Asia campaign.

The Land Watch Asia campaign seeks to enhance access to and control of land through policy dialogue, capacity building, information sharing, and networking. Seven national campaign updates highlight the major interventions and achievements of the various campaigns from 2010 to 2011 in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines.

The Land Watch Asia campaign updates are made possible with support from ILC and MISEREOR.

To read the Land Watch Asia campaign update, please go here.

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