The race for the exploitation of natural resources has brought challenges of different natures, including land conflicts, mainly between investors and the local population. In some cases, the resolution of problems has been unfair due to the lack of legal knowledge and representation to help the vulnerable population. It is in this context that the paralegal figure was established, endowed with solid knowledge to voluntarily provide basic legal support to community members.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Botswana, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

The aim of this report is to serve as a diagnostic for the land information ecosystem in Botswana and enable targeted interventions for improved information management.

Securing women’s rights, access to, and control over housing, land, and property (HLP) are important for livelihood generation, food security, a store of wealth, and other economic benefits. Ensuring women’s HLP rights also provides social benefits, such as improved bargaining power within the household and community. Data on women’s rights to HLP is limited, but available evidence from 53 countries shows that within those countries, over 70 percent of women do not own any land. Without action, women are at risk of being left farther behind.

This State of Land Information (SOLI) report is an analysis of the current state of land data in Zambia, assessing the availability of land information and the compliance of this information with open data standards. 

The severity of the population dislocation and destruction of housing, land and property (HLP) in the Ukraine war has driven efforts for starting reconstruction planning prior to the war's end. This comes with the realization that re-covery will entail considerable preparation, including ef-forts at using seized Russian assets to finance it. Engaging in HLP restitution and compensation will be a primary re-covery challenge, with the Ukrainian government moving forward with legislation for facilitating this.

Ukraine is poised to transform the process of housing, land and property (HLP)

restitution and compensation after wars. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has displaced

more than 13.5 million people (UNHCR 2023) and created massive destruction and

damage to the country’s HLP. Initial efforts at recovery along with counter-offensives

have stabilized large areas of the country and liberated others, to which displaced

Ukrainians are now beginning to return (Duggar 2022; Conkling 2022). The Ukrainian

With over 14 million people now displaced from their housing, land, and property (HLP) in Ukraine there is considerable concern about the reconstruction and restitution process. This is particularly significant in Ukraine given that destruction of HLP appears a purposeful effort on the part of Russian forces. The Ukrainian Prime Minister emphasized the importance of reconstruction and restitution planning before the war is over.

This article describes the process of legal contention between civil society, political parties, and state institutions for the baldíos lands in the Colombian Altillanura region in the last two decades, a region considered the country’s “last agricultural frontier.” The article focuses on the dual and sometimes contradictory roles of the state institutions, both as facilitators of baldíos grabbing and as guarantors of the peasants’ legal land rights.

Since 2000, many African countries have introduced programs aimed at providing smallholder farmers with low-cost certificates for land held un-der customary tenure. Yet there are many contending views and debates on the impact of these land policies and this book reveals how tenure security, agricultural productivity, and social inclusion were affected by the interven-tions.

Title: The economics of pasture management in Georgia: An economics of land degradation study

Land, Law and Chiefs in Rural South Africa analyses contestations of power and control over land through the lens of local case studies in the densely settled former African ‘homelands’ or Bantustans. These were areas reserved for African occupation by the apartheid government and when the ANC came to power in 1994, they were the poorest and least developed parts of the country. Over the last few decades, mineral deposits have been exploited and some are located close to the boundaries of rapidly expanding cities, such as Durban, where peri-urban land is at a premium.