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Issues / Indigenous & Community Land Rights

Indigenous & Community Land Rights

With secure land tenure, Indigenous Peoples and local communities can realize human rights, achieve economic growth, protect the environment, and maintain cultural integrity. For centuries, Indigenous Peoples and local communities (IPLCs) have used, managed and depended on collectively-held land for food supplies, cultural and spiritual traditions, and other livelihood needs. Historically governed through customary tenure systems rooted in community norms and practices that often go back centuries, governments often consider such community land as vacant, idle, or state-owned property.  Statutory recognition and protection of indigenous and community land rights continues to be a major challenge.

Resources for Indigenous & Community Land Rights

1096

News

4220

Library

197

Blogs

206

Projects

50

Statistical Data

10

Spatial Data

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Confident Gender and Land Champions - New WOLTS Paper Published

23 May 2023

Latest paper from the WOLTS team offers new evidence of a sustainable approach to securing land rights for women and communities 

Land rights in Cameroon in limbo

Cameroon: Women's land rights remain in limbo

1 May 2023

Whereas Cameroonian law grant men and women equal access to land ownership, unofficial yet prevalent customary laws greatly restrict women’s right to own land. 

Close to 20 local farmers are in jail for fighting for their land not to be taken by the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP)

24 April 2023

Conflict over land rights is escalating in Uganda as people are forced to make way for the East Africa Crude Oil pipeline.

Projects

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Webinar Recap: Indigenous Land Rights and the Biodiversity COP15 Six Months On

1 June 2023

Under the umbrella of the Land Dialogues series, the second webinar of this year’s series “Indigenous Land Rights and the Biodiversity COP15: Six Months On” took place on May 25th, 2023. The webinar drew in a little over 350 participants and featured panelists from Indigenous women leaders to…

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Indigenous Land Rights and the Biodiversity COP15: Six Months On

25 May 2023

After two weeks of tense talks, the recent UN Biodiversity Conference COP15 ended with a landmark agreement to guide global action on nature through to 2030. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), includes concrete measures to halt and reverse nature loss, including putting 30%…