Land & Climate Change | Land Portal
Land & Climate Change issue page

Last updated on 16 November 2022

Ecosystems and biodiversity are vulnerable to ongoing climate change, and weather and climate extremes. Climate change has led to sea-level rise, changes in temperature and rainfall patterns, water availability, natural disasters, and extreme weather events. It has also added stress on land, amplifying risks to livelihoods, biodiversity, and food systems[1]. Geographical shifts in resource productivity, resource scarcity, and therefore land use patterns has increased pressure on land for both agricultural and settlement purposes.  As land use, tenure, and climate change are closely intertwined, the effects of climate change, manifested in either rapid or slow-onset ways, has altered how land and natural resources are accessed, used, and contested[2].  As a result, global warming also contributes to destabilizing existing land and resource governance institutions and property rights.

In recent years, many communities have already incurred significant social, economic, and environmental costs from global warming in local production systems. Climate change can instigate a wide range of tenure-related impacts that include growing competition for access rights to productive natural resources, greater potential conflict over the legitimacy of existing property rights, forced displacement, short-term and long-term migration, land and resource degradation, and alterations in asset values of land and natural resources[3]. Sustainable and inclusive land management can contribute to mitigating climate change effects[4].

International legal framework and policies

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) acknowledges that land use can contribute significantly to mitigation of climate change, including through the promotion of sustainable management of forests and oceans as well as other terrestrial, coastal and marine ecosystems. The Convention also indicates that land use management will need to take measures to facilitate adequate adaptation to climate change to ensure food security[5]. Likewise, the Paris Agreement (article 5) emphasizes the importance of mitigating climate change through land use activities, including those related to forests and REDD+. Parties have also included many land use activities in their intended nationally determined contributions. Also, the Conference of the Parties (COP) works on a number of land use-related matters. This year’s COP27 focuses on the implementation of the Paris Agreement, including questions of how to manage just transitions.

The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT) emphasize the importance of respecting and protecting the legitimate tenure rights of those likely to be affected by climate change, particularly farmers, small-scale food producers and marginalized communities. In particular, the guidelines underscore the necessity of addressing tenure concerns where it can lead to conflict caused by climate change or natural disasters.

Challenges and risks

Global warming has caused shifts of climate zones and the expansion of arid areas, in particular. This has affected biodiversity and ranges of plant and animal species. Moreover, climate change adds to land degradation and coastal erosion processes. As a result, food security has been increasingly challenged in drylands in Africa, and mountain regions in Asia and South America[6]. At the same time, land use and climate change are interrelated to each other, i.e. land use is a key factor contributing to climate change[7]. Both desertification and deforestation amplify global warming effects. 

As a response to climate change households have pushed for access and use rights over those areas where production is still viable or moved to new locations altogether in search for land or water resources. Poor and vulnerable members of communities, such as women, youths, ethnic groups or those lower in the social hierarchy will be at greater risk of marginalization and physical insecurity for they lack the knowledge and resources to respond to these new challenges. Research shows that in some contexts there is a tendency towards a feminization of agriculture and forestry (institutions) as a result of increasing male migration in face of low income and environmental stress[8].

In cases of insecure land and resource tenure regimes, such as leasehold rights or unrecognized customary tenure, rural households are disinclined to invest their time and money for improving their agricultural and water management practices as well as conserving forests. This may contribute to poor adaptive capacity in the face of climate variability. 

Innovations in Land & Climate Change

Preparing for long-term development pathways that secure livelihoods, resource regeneration, and environmental conservation in the context of climate change that is inevitably intertwined with ongoing economic transformations and urbanization is a challenging task in which tenure arrangements remain centrally important. Notably, community-based tenure regimes are able to provide social buffer mechanisms such as disaster relief funds, insurance systems, or producer associations. Local adaptation or mitigation plans are often carried out in collaboration with specific types of tenure institutions. In Nepal, for example, climate change adaptation plans are often prepared in conjunction with community forestry user groups.

Climate-proofing land management requires core attention to many aspects of land policy, law, and administration[9]. Firstly, it raises questions of documenting, recognizing, and securing tenure regimes for customary, statutory, indigenous, and informal property rights. Secondly, it requires incorporating knowledge on climate change into the land administration system.

Bringing a climate lens to understanding how tenure regimes can strengthen the ability of communities to sustain livelihoods and protect the natural resource conditions is essential. The multiplier effect of well-designed tenure institutions and planning platforms can provide a strong basis for adapting to and mitigating climate change by leveraging the knowledge, assets, and financial capital of key stakeholders to determine appropriate sustainable development pathways into the future. 

This is even more important in cases of large ecosystems, such as river deltas. For example, within a large river basin such as the Ganges or the Brahmaputra, the distinctive impacts of changing annual rainfall and glacier melt patterns in its upstream, middle reaches, and deltaic portions requires different strategies for increasing resilience. Among the enormous challenges faced by these deltaic regions are increased flooding and sea-level rise that will lead to further urbanization. In order to combat coastal deforestation, the Forest Department of Bangladesh together with donor support has moved towards mangrove co-management approaches that involve allocating clearer tenure rights for local communities to use and manage mangroves.

Participatory tenure-responsive spatial planning allows key stakeholders to jointly anticipate likely climate change scenarios and determine appropriate resource use and settlement patterns[10]. Such planning platforms can play a vital role in efficiently identifying issues, action and develop positive political momentum for change. The role of tenure-responsive planning for designing innovative flexible tenure arrangements within transhumance systems illustrates its importance.

Climate-proofing land management requires core attention to many aspects of land policy, law, and administration. Firstly, it raises questions of documenting, recognizing, and securing tenure regimes for customary, statutory, indigenous, and informal property rights. Secondly, it requires incorporating knowledge on climate change into the land administration system.

Data on Land & Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the world body for the assessment of climate change hosting the Data Distribution Center that provides climate, socio-economic and environmental data as well as future scenarios with technical guidelines. IPCC’s Emission Factor Database (EFDB) offers a library with emphasis on emission factors and other parameters with background documentation or technical references. However, no global data is available for CO2 emissions by land use or the land tenure-climate change nexus.

In order to set up specific tenure programs as a response to climate change there is a need for national land administrations to incorporate climate change-relevant information, such as climate-related risks[11]. National governments need to assess how existing types of land and resource governance regimes will be affected by different climate change scenarios[12]. 

References

[1] IPCC. 2019. Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/ecc26502/ipcc-special-report-climate-change-and-land

[2] Quan, J. & N. Dyer. 2008. Climate change and land tenure. The implications of climate change for land tenure and land policy. Rome: FAO. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/climate-change-and-land-tenure 

[3] Freudenberger, M. & Miller, D. 2010. Climate change, property rights, and resource governance. Emerging implications for USG policies and programming. USAID Issue Brief. Washington, DC: USAID. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/climate-change-property-rights-resource-governance

Hilton Prize Coalition. 2017. Land tenure as a critical consideration for climate change-related displacement in slow-onset disaster zones. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/issue-brief-land-tenure-critical-consideration-climate-change-related-displacement 

[4] IPCC. 2019. Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/ecc26502/ipcc-special-report-climate-change-and-land

[5] UNFCC. 2022. Introduction to Land Use. URL: https://unfccc.int/topics/introduction-to-land-use

[6] IPCC. 2019. Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/ecc26502/ipcc-special-report-climate-change-and-land

[7] Thapa, Pawan. 2022. The Relationship between Land Use and Climate Change: A Case Study of Nepal. In: Harris, Stuart A. (ed): The Nature, Causes, Effects and Mitigation of Climate Change on the Environment. URL: https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/76898 

[8] Djoudi, H. & Brockhaus, M. 2016. Unveiling the complexity of gender and adaptation: the “feminization” of forests as a response to drought-induced men’s migration in Mali, in: C. Colfer, B.S. Basnett, and M. Elias (eds): Gender and forests. Climate change, tenure, value chains and emerging issues, pp. 150-168. London: Routledge.

[9] Freudenberger, M. & Miller, D. 2010. Climate change, property rights, and resource governance. Emerging implications for USG policies and programming. USAID Issue Brief. Washington, DC: USAID. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/climate-change-property-rights-resource-governance 

FAO. 2013. Governing land for women and men. A technical guide to support the achievement of responsible gender-equitable governance of land tenure. Rome; Food and Agriculture Organization. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/landwiserecord414item447/governing-land-women-and-men-technical-guide-support 

[10] Chigbu, U. E., Schopf, W., Masum, F., Mabikke, S., Antonio, A., & Espinoza, J. 2016. Combining land-use planning and tenure security: a tenure responsive land-use planning approach for developing countries. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management. DOI:10.1080/09640568.2016.1245655.

[11] Van der Molen, P. & Mitchell, D. 2016. Climate change, land use and land surveyors. Survey Review, 48, 347, 148-155. DOI: 10.1179/1752270615Y.0000000029. Holden, S. & Sietchiping, R. 2010. Land, environment, and climate change. Challenges, responses and tools. Nairobi: UN-HABITAT. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/landenvir2010/landenvironment-and-climate-change-challengesresponses-and-tools

[12] For methodological guidance, see: FAO. 2017. Creating a system to record tenure rights and first registration. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization. URL: https://landportal.org/library/resources/creating-system-record-tenure-r... or FAO. 2017. Improving ways to record tenure rights. Rome: Food and Agricultural Organization. URL:
https://landportal.org/library/resources/improving-ways-record-tenure-rights