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.
Read We can’t tackle climate change without indigenous people
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.
Read Eight Breakthroughs for Land Rights in 2020
Land-related risks are vastly underappreciated by corporate and environmental attorneys representing clients around the globe. This article seeks to raise the profile of land issues so that attorneys can better advise clients who might unwittingly trip into significant legal, financial, and operational peril by not fully appreciating how land risks lurk in supply chains and operations.
Read Global Land Risks and Opportunities in Corporate Supply Chains
To mark International Human Rights Day, Landesa’s Tizai Mauto and women’s land rights & gender expert Grace Ananda explore a few of the most pernicious inequalities to surface from the COVID-19 pandemic, and a common challenge they share: insecure rights to land.
Read OPINION: Why governments should strengthen land rights for women and youth
Closing a data gap may seem technocratic and boring. But the social and economic empowerment prospects of more than one billion largely poor women who lack secure, legal land and property rights hinges on the success of these efforts.
Read Gender Equality: Women, Land, and Data
The ideal of a married woman decorated with sindoor, sakha, and bichiya is romanticized through legend and folklore; steeped in this culture, women themselves see value in these rituals. Millions of women in India do not even imagine that these discriminatory and patriarchal rituals are not supernaturally ordained and blind them to the reality that the revered status given to suhagins causes untold suffering to any woman (widow) who does not fit the ideal.
Read Rituals of marriage create untold suffering for millions of widows in India
Access to land is both a critical component and a fundamental barrier to productive youth engagement in agriculture. If properly harnessed, Africa’s nearly 420 million youth—including more than 200 million who reside in rural areas—will be the continent’s greatest asset and its engine to grow agricultural productivity and food security while reducing poverty.
Read Why Securing Youth Land Rights Matter for Agriculture-Led Growth in Africa
On International Day of Rural Women, Shipra Deo shares stories from her work in rural India about the power of names — how they contribute to a person’s identity, affect the right to vote, and even uphold patriarchy.
Read The name game: How women get erased in rural India
COVID-19 and climate change are impacting all of us, but the dual disasters have a disproportionate impact on communities in emerging economies. These impacts are felt most acutely in rural areas, especially among indigenous communities and minority groups, and by women and others who are marginalized within those groups. Land rights were already crucial for food security, identity, and survival; but COVID-19 and climate change make land rights an increasingly vital solution in rural areas.
