Women's land rights on stage at TEDx; New blogs on climate change and women farmers; Seed the Change on March 12
Plotlines - Landesa's Monthly e-Newsletter

Landesa at TEDxJakarta

My-Lan Dodd at TEDxJakarta

My-Lan Dodd, Landesa specialist on land tenure and gender, on the TEDxJakarta stage giving her talk Realizing Dreams Through the Power of Land Rights.

TEDxJAKARTA — In a small quantity, land is merely dirt. But on the broadest scale, it is the cradle of civilization, society, and religion, covering over 50 million square miles of our planet. It is the natural wealth of nations. Wars are fought on it and over it. Local and indigenous communities rely on it for their physical and cultural survival. Men, women, and families depend on it for their homes, livelihoods, and source of security.

Sonamoti watercolor Ma Phyu watercolor MLM watercolor

A widow named Sonamoti lacks the resources to feed her only son because she was deprived of her share of family land. She wishes for the means to grow food for him.

Villagers in Myanmar fear the loss of their homes and the destruction of the environment due to illegal logging, oil palm concessions, and other developments. They wish to protect the forests on which they depend.

A girl from Vietnam spends her entire childhood living through war, in which hundreds of thousands died and millions are displaced. She wishes for a better life.

These stories are about hardship, instability, and also insecure rights to land. But they’re also about dreams: how to realize dreams that are essential to meeting basic needs and fully developing human potential.

READ THE BLOG

WATCH THE TED TALK


Seed the Change - March 12, 2020

Seed the Change gala dinner and program

SEATTLE — Each year, Landesa's Seed the Change gala highlights the critical role of land in rural life, and the way secure land rights empower women, help combat climate change, and lift communities out of poverty.

This year's gala will focus on the role of land rights in sustainable futures. We are excited to have Dr. Ohnmar Myo Aung, Landesa's Myanmar Country Lead, as this year's keynote speaker, who will share stories of her country's struggle for land rights. 

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Why women farmers deserve the right to identity

Blog by Shipra Deo
Indira with her women's group in India

INDIA — Traditions, customs, and patriarchal institutions push a narrative that farming is dominated by men. But the reality in the world’s rural places—in India and beyond—reveals a different story.

Traveling the countryside—in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala – one sees women shouldering responsibility on the farm. Sudevi prepares field bunds. Ramwati harvests potatoes. Anusuya weeds out unwanted plants. Lalitha winnows a wheat harvest. Rajrani sells vegetable in the local market.

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Their Land, Our Future

To arrest the climate crisis, we need a democratic overhaul

Blog by Beth Roberts and Musimbi Kanyoro
Farmers in paddy field in India

GLOBAL —  If rights to land are secure globally, rural land users can root themselves. They can make a living. Land rights can ensure stability and safety for every woman and girl who embodies and defends local and indigenous knowledge and rights. Multiplied across the globe, these opportunities could arrest and reverse the climate crisis and the migration crisis, help achieve global peace and security, and realize human dignity for all.

For billions of people today, land means dignity and opportunity. For all of us, their dignity and opportunity means survival and security. It’s up to each of us to make clear that an effective and justice-oriented solution to climate change — secure land rights for rural land users — is the one we demand now.

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