Although Indigenous and rural communities are vital to the fight against climate change, in many countries these populations struggle to obtain formal rights over their land. Securing land rights for rightful landholders addresses poverty and climate change together.
Gender-responsive land tenure and property rights interventions can be an important catalyst in bringing the kind of revolutionary change necessary to correct the existing bias against women and girls, and forge more resilient societies in a post-pandemic world.
Secure land tenure is key to eradicating poverty, increasing agricultural investment and ensuring food security, and is an essential element of climate action and climate resilience. Yet women have far weaker rights to land than men.
Iniciativa Tierra y ODS (Land and SDG Initiative) spoke with Diana Fletschner about the land-related SDG commitments, what has been accomplished thus far, and what must be done in order to achieve them by 2030.
The rapid and crucial shift from fossil fuels to renewables has witnessed a familiar trend: Women — especially rural and indigenous women — are severely marginalized in decisions about land use.
Godfrey Massay highlights some of the international, regional, and national commitments that seek to improve women’s participation in land governing bodies in Tanzania.
In Jharkhand, eastern India, women are not entitled to own land and accusations of witchcraft are wielded against them to silence their claims to land.
Land degradation neutrality is daunting, but not impossible. And often the solutions are simple, even if the implementation is challenging: protect forests and land, and the people stewarding them.
Rachel McMonagle, Landesa’s Climate Change and Land Tenure Specialist, urges the Biden Administration to put Indigenous Peoples’ rights and expertise at the forefront of climate change solutions.
2020 was a tough year on many fronts, and land rights were no exception. COVID-19 hindered land rights advocates from doing field research, meeting with government officials, prioritizing policy initiatives, and obtaining funding. Despite these headwinds, we have seen important advances, and the field continues to grow. Here are eight breakthroughs in 2020 to celebrate.
