The worldwide web offers a wealth of documentation on land governance. This also goes for video material: recordings of meetings, films, animations, short clips etc., on topics ranging from research results to policy proposals and project evaluations. In order to make that information more readily available, LANDac has created this gateway to selected material.
Themes Also visit our thematic pages, where you can find more information and relevant publications on different land governance themes.
Here you will find items and clips developed by, or at the request of, LANDac. Staff of institutions that participate in, or are collaborating with, LANDac elaborate short lectures or give interviews on the topics they focus on in their research or other professional activities. This collection of items has been started in 2017 and is continually expanding. Moreover, here you can also find material that is already ‘out there’ on the internet. We have selected a number of appealing items that can provide the visitors of our website with more background on the issues that are nowadays in the frontline of theoretical and/or and policy debate. The items are classified in different categories. Please browse the categories below to find a learning module of your interest.
The online materials available below include training materials (either self-paced or with a fixed starting and end date), webinars, online tools, or even entire courses (massive open online courses – MOOCs). Most resources are free of charge, unless otherwise stated.
This page will be regularly updated. Is something missing, or do you or your institution have interesting resources available? Please let us know by sending an e-mail to: landac.geo@uu.nl!
Online Learning Categories
Introduction
Introduction
USAID – Series of training modules
USAID offers a series of nine training modules, freely available on YouTube, that introduces ways in which land tenure and property rights issues intersect with those relating to economic growth, food security, natural resource management, climate change, and conflict. It describes the populations that are most affected by land-related challenges and issues, and identifies some of the diverse actors who are working with governments across the world to solve land-related challenges. Finally, the series lists some of the drivers of tenure insecurity and the global pressures that make this issue relevant today. Please follow the links below, or immediately watch the modules here!
FAO – Responsible Governance of Tenure
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of short online videos and more extensive online e-learning module. The e-learning series on the Responsible Governance of Tenure includes the following modules:
International Land Coalition – Learning Hub
ILC has launced a learning hub, where you can find learning resources from ILC’s member organisations, more information on upcoming webinar (series), ILC’s database of good practices, and more. Visit the learning hub here.
Women’s Land Rights
Women’s land rights
LANDac – Securing Women’s Land Rights in Africa ADECRU and Fórum Mulher in Mozambique, ENDA Pronat in Senegal, GROOTS Kenya and ActionAid Kenya, Oxfam in Malawi in collaboration with LANDAc have implemented a year-long action research programme: Securing Women’s Land Rights in Africa: Scaling Impact in Senegal, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique. Below you can find some introductory videos and a webinar on women’s land rights, as well as an online lecture.
FAO – Responsible Governance of Tenure
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of online e-learning modules. Please find some e-modules on women’s land rights below:
The Land Portal regularly organises webinars around thematic issues, including women’s land rights. You can find the recordings of the webinars here. Previous webinars on women’s land rights include:
Utrecht University – Follow the Food: Dutch agribusiness and local food security in Africa Current development policy is prioritising trade above aid. The government of the Netherlands, for instance, is encouraging private sector actors to engage in ‘inclusive business’, involving smallholder farmers. [read more]
French beans in Kenya – Inclusive Business?
In this online available lecture, Ellen Mangnus and James Wangu, Follow the Food researchers, analyse one ‘inclusive business value chain’: the ‘French beans’ chain, targeting export markets in France and Germany. Reviewing factors such as the access to land, water and inputs, they conclude that it can be argued that the initiative is beneficial for participating smallholder farmers, but that there is a catch, which is precisely the ability to participate. Take a look and find out why this is so. [view lecture]
Wageningen University and Research – Selection of MOOCs
Sustainable Food Security: The value of systems thinking (MOOC) Learn how to apply systems thinking to improve the environmental sustainability of food production systems in this course. This free online course is offered as a MOOC, and has fixed starting dates (throughout the year). Please learn more about this course here.
Online Programme: Sustainable and Inclusive Landscapes We’re facing a number of complex and interrelated problems such as rising food prices, economic downturn, climate change, and increased competition on the use of natural resources. Join this online programme to understand what changes and skills are needed to make these changes and what your role in this should be. Thinking from a spatial perspective, this programme focuses on the multi-functionality and cross-sector nature of landscapes.
This online programme consists of three MOOCs who can be taken in any desired order. Your time investment will be about 2-3 hours per week per online course, and the average length is 4 weeks per MOOC. Of course, you can study in your own time, at your own pace, so you can adjust the duration. Learn more here.
USAID – Series of training modules
USAID offers a series of nine training modules, freely available on YouTube, see the Introduction category above. Please find the module on Tenure and Food Security here.
SDG Academy – Natural Resources for Sustainable Development(not specifically on land governance) Natural resources represent a potentially transformational opportunity to support development, but they are ultimately finite. How do we make the most of them without destroying the planet? In this 12-week massive open online course (MOOC), produced by the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, and the World Bank, you will learn about efforts to sustainably manage extractive industry investments. You will come to understand the complex and interwoven aspects of natural resource governance and become part of a global movement of citizens and practitioners committed to harnessing the transformational impacts of our natural resources. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced course, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more or start the course here!
Este curso explora las oportunidades y los desafíos en el uso del petróleo, el gas y los recursos minerales para impulsar el desarrollo sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe.
Visite la página del curso aqui para obtener más detalles.
Climate Change and Land Governance
Climate change and land governance
FAO – Responsible Governance of Tenure
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of online e-learning modules. Please find some e-modules related to climate change below:
Land Portal Foundation The Land Portal Foundation, one of LANDac’s partner organisations, was established to create, curate and disseminate land governance information by fostering an inclusive and accessible data landscape. The Land Portal Foundation believes that access to information is crucial for achieving good land governance and securing land rights for landless and vulnerable people. Improving access to land-related data and information is our mission. They provide a platform for land data and publications, link land databases and visualize and synthesize data, among other things. Explore their data bases, tools and the their Geoportalhere.
Technische Universität München – Introduction to Land Management (fixed dates)
Gain insights into the complex nature of land management and learn about terms, tasks and challenges related to our land. Future dates of this online course are to be announced. Learn more here.
FAO – Geospatial data for land monitoring
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of online e-learning modules. This series includes four modules:
Global Land Tool Network – E-learning platform This open-source platform by GLTN gives you access to courses and learning resources designed to help you understand and use a selection of GLTN’s land tools. The platform is device friendly, meaning you can access the courses anytime and on any tablet or smartphone device, while your progress is synced using the course tracking features. This is an ongoing project, and so more courses and resources will be added over time. Currently available courses:
Tenure responsive land use planning
Gender evaluation criteria
Teaching essentials for responsible land administration
SDG Academy – Measuring Sustainable Development(not specifically on land governance)
In this short course, you will hear from some of the experts responsible for creating the Sustainable Development Report about the value of measuring progress on the SDGs, and how a tool like the SDG Index and Dashboards helps policymakers and other stakeholders make important decisions about their development priorities. You will examine the different types of data that can be used to measure development progress, and learn the technical steps needed to construct an index for the SDGs. Finally, you will explore regional and city-level indices, and discuss new approaches to SDG measurement and data-based decision-making. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced course, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more on this course and how to start here.
SDG Academy – Tech for Good: The Role of ICT in Achieving the SDGs(not specifically on land governance) Tech for Good was developed by UNESCO and Cetic.br/NIC.br, the Brazilian Network Information Center’s Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society. It brings together thought leaders and changemakers in the fields of information and communication technologies (ICT) and sustainable development to show how digital technologies are empowering billions of people around the world by providing access to education, healthcare, banking, and government services; and how “big data” is being used to inform smarter, evidence-based policies to improve people’s lives in fundamental ways. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced learning module, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more here.
The Commons
The commons
Center for Behavior, Institutions and the Environment – Introduction to IAD framework Lecture on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework of Elinor Ostrom. Watch the lecture online here or below.
CIFOR – The future of the commons
2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garret Hardin. Its widely accepted message about the inevitable degradation of shared resources prompted privatization or nationalization of much common property. Yet sustainable management of the commons has a long history, and new evidence is increasing our understanding of effective governance of these resources for the future. This policy seminar, that can be rewatched online, discussed recent developments in research and policy on the commons, with particular attention to tenure and governance. Following an overview of key issues, speakers presented the factors that led to the adoption of the UK Commons Act to protect the commons; results of an international review of tenure security of land-based commons, particularly forests and rangelands held by communities and indigenous peoples; new evidence on how tenure can affect investment in shared resources by community members and outsiders; and factors shaping national policies on common resources and implications for the future.
CGIAR – The investment effects of forest rights devolution Local communities and indigenous peoples manage a significant portion of the world’s remaining forests, pastures, and fisheries as common property resources. Devolving ownership, use, and exclusionary rights to communities can, in many circumstances, provide incentives for them to manage resources in ways that facilitate sustainable management outcomes as well as greater equity in benefits distribution. However, understanding who is investing in community-held resources following rights devolution and how investment patterns evolve over time is fragmentary. This webinar presentation will address this knowledge gap by exploring the pathways that have emerged to deliver investment in common property resources in Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal and Namibia. The implications of these findings on more effective and equitable forest management institutional arrangements will be also presented. Rewatch the webinar and presentations here.
CGIAR – Innovations to help secure pastoral land tenure and governance How best to secure land tenure for pastoralists is an ongoing challenge for governments, practitioners, lawyers, academics, and communities themselves. As a result, pastoral lands continue to be encroached, fragmented, excised, and lost whilst all important mobility of people and livestock is blocked. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) supported by two CGIAR research programs: Policies, Institutions, and Markets and Livestock, and the International Land Coalition (ILC) have been working with national governments in Ethiopia and Tanzania to provide solutions for this challenge. Examples of the applied research include development, piloting, and follow-up support to land use planning, land certification, and rangeland management approaches.
During this webinar, Fiona Flintan described innovations, successful practices, and lessons learned from her work on pastoral land tenure and governance over the past 15 years, with special focus on how research and technical support to governments used as entry point can lead to policy-impacting results.
CGIAR – Community forest concessions in Petén, Guatemala
The devolution of forest rights to local communities is seen as a critical element of strategies aimed at conserving tropical forests and strengthening livelihoods based on them. Over the past two decades, community management of the concessions has contributed to the reduction of deforestation. While the conservation benefits of the community concessions are well documented, there is limited insight into their socio-economic performance.
In this webinar, CGIAR presents findings of an in-depth study across the currently nine active and three inactive community concessions that focuses on the community forest enterprises (CFE) operating them, with emphasis on: 1) the benefits accruing to CFE members, local communities, and society at large; 2) the degree to which forest-based income allows member households to move out of poverty; and 3) how such income is reinvested in livelihood assets at household level and business assets at CFE level. We conclude with the critical importance of such findings in support of the communities’ claims for renewal of the concessions, which will be appraised over the next years, and broader implications for natural resource governance at global scale.
Collective Action and Land Governance
Collective action & land governance
LANDac – Social Movements and the role of civil society in the land goverannce arena Jur Schuurman of LANDac discusses social movements and the role of civil society in the land governance arena with Oane Visser of the International Institute of Social Studies. Watch the interview here.
Land and Conflict
Land and Conflict
Grounding Land Governance Research Programme – Governance off the ground (documentary)
Both in northern Uganda and South Sudan people driven away by violence in the past are now returning to their home communities. Some of them, however, find their lands occupied by others and end up in conflict. Why is there so much confusion and contestation about land when violent conflict is over? And what makes land issues so difficult to resolve? This documentary explores land disputes in Yei County in South Sudan and Amuru District in northern Uganda, and the challenges they pose for post-conflict governance.
‘Governance off the ground‘ is a film by Mathijs van Leeuwen, Doreen Nancy Kobusingye, and Peter Hakim Justin, of the African Studies Centre, Leiden University, in collaboration with YOGIEMONK Televisie Producties. It was produced as part of the ‘Grounding Land Governance’ programme, a research programme financed by WOTRO – Science for Global Development – NWO.
Conflicts over natural resources and the environment are among the greatest challenges in 21st-century geopolitics. These conflicts present serious threats to human security at both the national and local levels. Natural resources and the environment can nonetheless serve as a vehicle for peace if managed in a sustainable and equitable manner. Environmental peacebuilding has emerged as a new frontier in interdisciplinary studies. It offers a conceptual and operational framework to understand the positive peacebuilding potential of natural resources across the conflict lifecycle while mitigating potential risks. Read more here.
Urban Land Governance
Urban land governance
LANDac – The social function of urban land in Brazil
In this online lecture, Roberto Rocco from TU Delft takes us through the social function of urban land in Brazilian cities. Watch the online lecture here.
SDG Academy – Sustainable Cities This course examines how urban sustainability can be delivered with increasing productivity and reduced inequality; provision of universal basic services and infrastructure; protection of the urban environments; and other solutions and investments, both speculative and in action around the world. You will emerge from this course understanding how governments, private stakeholders and other actors can improve urban development to heed the call of Sustainable Development Goal 11 – “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable“ by 2030. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced module, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more and start the course here!
Tourism, Nature Conservation and Land Governance
Tourism, nature conservation and land governance
LANDac – Tourism turning real estate
In this online lecture, Femke van Noorloos, LANDac PhD, explains the relation between tourism and land governance, looking at how to deal with residential tourism investment in the Global South. Watch the online lecture here.
SDG Academy – From the Ground Up: Managing our Terrestrial Ecosystems If you examine our reliance on the Earth’s resources – and vice versa – you will discover a stunning tapestry of complex interactions between ecosystems and human life. From preventing the extinction of species (including plants and animals) to mitigating the effects of long-term environmental shifts, how do we ensure that our interaction with the world around us doesn’t leave it destroyed? In this course, you will learn the science behind ecosystem functioning, including extinction rates, desertification, and how their physical makeup has evolved with environmental shifts. You will experience the lives of local populations dependent upon these resources, from their economic activities to their societal norms. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with an understanding of diverse ecosystems and how responsible use of these resources is imperative to our planet’s survival. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced course, to be completed before August 31, 2021. Read more here.
University of British Columbia – Forests and Livelihoods in Developing Countries
This interdisciplinary course explores the complex interactions between poverty, rural livelihoods, and forest resources in developing countries. We will consider some of the dynamics that occur when impoverished people use forests in their daily lives. We will talk about the role of forests for medicines and wild foods, as sources of fuelwood and charcoal for energy, and other pressing topics that confront sustainable forest management such as the impacts of human health and diseases on forests. The course consists of modules on forests and livelihoods in developing countries, agroforestry, human health in forested environments, protected areas and their sustainability, small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs), and community forestry. Three cross-cutting themes (gender, tenure and forest rights, and climate change) will span all of the modules. This is a free-of-charge, instructor-led course on a course schedule. Future dates to be announced. Please keep an eye on the website here.
Online Learning
Online Learning
The worldwide web offers a wealth of documentation on land governance. This also goes for video material: recordings of meetings, films, animations, short clips etc., on topics ranging from research results to policy proposals and project evaluations. In order to make that information more readily available, LANDac has created this gateway to selected material.
Themes
Also visit our thematic pages, where you can find more information and relevant publications on different land governance themes.
Here you will find items and clips developed by, or at the request of, LANDac. Staff of institutions that participate in, or are collaborating with, LANDac elaborate short lectures or give interviews on the topics they focus on in their research or other professional activities. This collection of items has been started in 2017 and is continually expanding. Moreover, here you can also find material that is already ‘out there’ on the internet. We have selected a number of appealing items that can provide the visitors of our website with more background on the issues that are nowadays in the frontline of theoretical and/or and policy debate. The items are classified in different categories. Please browse the categories below to find a learning module of your interest.
The online materials available below include training materials (either self-paced or with a fixed starting and end date), webinars, online tools, or even entire courses (massive open online courses – MOOCs). Most resources are free of charge, unless otherwise stated.
This page will be regularly updated. Is something missing, or do you or your institution have interesting resources available? Please let us know by sending an e-mail to: landac.geo@uu.nl!
Online Learning Categories
Introduction
USAID – Series of training modules
USAID offers a series of nine training modules, freely available on YouTube, that introduces ways in which land tenure and property rights issues intersect with those relating to economic growth, food security, natural resource management, climate change, and conflict. It describes the populations that are most affected by land-related challenges and issues, and identifies some of the diverse actors who are working with governments across the world to solve land-related challenges. Finally, the series lists some of the drivers of tenure insecurity and the global pressures that make this issue relevant today. Please follow the links below, or immediately watch the modules here!
FAO – Responsible Governance of Tenure
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of short online videos and more extensive online e-learning module. The e-learning series on the Responsible Governance of Tenure includes the following modules:
A selection of short videos by FAO that are freely available on YouTube:
University of East Anglia – Introductory keynote on global land governance
In this online available keynote address, Thomas Sikor presents a think piece on global land governance.
ILC has launced a learning hub, where you can find learning resources from ILC’s member organisations, more information on upcoming webinar (series), ILC’s database of good practices, and more. Visit the learning hub here.
Women’s land rights
LANDac – Securing Women’s Land Rights in Africa
ADECRU and Fórum Mulher in Mozambique, ENDA Pronat in Senegal, GROOTS Kenya and ActionAid Kenya, Oxfam in Malawi in collaboration with LANDAc have implemented a year-long action research programme: Securing Women’s Land Rights in Africa: Scaling Impact in Senegal, Kenya, Malawi and Mozambique. Below you can find some introductory videos and a webinar on women’s land rights, as well as an online lecture.
FAO – Responsible Governance of Tenure
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of online e-learning modules. Please find some e-modules on women’s land rights below:
You can also watch this video by FAO: Right to land of men and women: Experiences with paralegals in Mozambique
Food Security and Responsible Investments
Current development policy is prioritising trade above aid. The government of the Netherlands, for instance, is encouraging private sector actors to engage in ‘inclusive business’, involving smallholder farmers. [read more]
French beans in Kenya – Inclusive Business?
In this online available lecture, Ellen Mangnus and James Wangu, Follow the Food researchers, analyse one ‘inclusive business value chain’: the ‘French beans’ chain, targeting export markets in France and Germany. Reviewing factors such as the access to land, water and inputs, they conclude that it can be argued that the initiative is beneficial for participating smallholder farmers, but that there is a catch, which is precisely the ability to participate. Take a look and find out why this is so. [view lecture]
Sustainable Food Security: The value of systems thinking (MOOC)
Learn how to apply systems thinking to improve the environmental sustainability of food production systems in this course. This free online course is offered as a MOOC, and has fixed starting dates (throughout the year). Please learn more about this course here.
Online Programme: Sustainable and Inclusive Landscapes
We’re facing a number of complex and interrelated problems such as rising food prices, economic downturn, climate change, and increased competition on the use of natural resources. Join this online programme to understand what changes and skills are needed to make these changes and what your role in this should be. Thinking from a spatial perspective, this programme focuses on the multi-functionality and cross-sector nature of landscapes.
This online programme consists of three MOOCs who can be taken in any desired order. Your time investment will be about 2-3 hours per week per online course, and the average length is 4 weeks per MOOC. Of course, you can study in your own time, at your own pace, so you can adjust the duration. Learn more here.
USAID – Series of training modules
USAID offers a series of nine training modules, freely available on YouTube, see the Introduction category above. Please find the module on Tenure and Food Security here.
Please also listen to Yuliya Neyman on Land tenure, rights and governance.
SDG Academy – Natural Resources for Sustainable Development (not specifically on land governance)
Natural resources represent a potentially transformational opportunity to support development, but they are ultimately finite. How do we make the most of them without destroying the planet? In this 12-week massive open online course (MOOC), produced by the Natural Resource Governance Institute, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, and the World Bank, you will learn about efforts to sustainably manage extractive industry investments. You will come to understand the complex and interwoven aspects of natural resource governance and become part of a global movement of citizens and practitioners committed to harnessing the transformational impacts of our natural resources. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced course, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more or start the course here!
SDG Academy – Sector Extractivo: sostenibilidad y desarrollo en América Latina y el Caribe (in Spanish) (not specifically on land governance)
Please note: este curso está disponible a su propio ritmo hasta el 17 de diciembre de 2020. Este curso es administrado por el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo.
Este curso explora las oportunidades y los desafíos en el uso del petróleo, el gas y los recursos minerales para impulsar el desarrollo sostenible en América Latina y el Caribe.
Visite la página del curso aqui para obtener más detalles.
Climate change and land governance
FAO – Responsible Governance of Tenure
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of online e-learning modules. Please find some e-modules related to climate change below:
Land administration, data & technology
The Land Portal Foundation, one of LANDac’s partner organisations, was established to create, curate and disseminate land governance information by fostering an inclusive and accessible data landscape. The Land Portal Foundation believes that access to information is crucial for achieving good land governance and securing land rights for landless and vulnerable people. Improving access to land-related data and information is our mission. They provide a platform for land data and publications, link land databases and visualize and synthesize data, among other things. Explore their data bases, tools and the their Geoportal here.
Gain insights into the complex nature of land management and learn about terms, tasks and challenges related to our land. Future dates of this online course are to be announced. Learn more here.
FAO – Geospatial data for land monitoring
FAO, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations, offers a diverse range of online e-learning modules. This series includes four modules:
This open-source platform by GLTN gives you access to courses and learning resources designed to help you understand and use a selection of GLTN’s land tools. The platform is device friendly, meaning you can access the courses anytime and on any tablet or smartphone device, while your progress is synced using the course tracking features. This is an ongoing project, and so more courses and resources will be added over time. Currently available courses:
Visit the platform now!
SDG Academy – Measuring Sustainable Development (not specifically on land governance)
In this short course, you will hear from some of the experts responsible for creating the Sustainable Development Report about the value of measuring progress on the SDGs, and how a tool like the SDG Index and Dashboards helps policymakers and other stakeholders make important decisions about their development priorities. You will examine the different types of data that can be used to measure development progress, and learn the technical steps needed to construct an index for the SDGs. Finally, you will explore regional and city-level indices, and discuss new approaches to SDG measurement and data-based decision-making. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced course, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more on this course and how to start here.
SDG Academy – Tech for Good: The Role of ICT in Achieving the SDGs (not specifically on land governance)
Tech for Good was developed by UNESCO and Cetic.br/NIC.br, the Brazilian Network Information Center’s Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society. It brings together thought leaders and changemakers in the fields of information and communication technologies (ICT) and sustainable development to show how digital technologies are empowering billions of people around the world by providing access to education, healthcare, banking, and government services; and how “big data” is being used to inform smarter, evidence-based policies to improve people’s lives in fundamental ways. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced learning module, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more here.
The commons
Lecture on the Institutional Analysis and Development framework of Elinor Ostrom. Watch the lecture online here or below.
2018 marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of “The Tragedy of the Commons” by Garret Hardin. Its widely accepted message about the inevitable degradation of shared resources prompted privatization or nationalization of much common property. Yet sustainable management of the commons has a long history, and new evidence is increasing our understanding of effective governance of these resources for the future. This policy seminar, that can be rewatched online, discussed recent developments in research and policy on the commons, with particular attention to tenure and governance. Following an overview of key issues, speakers presented the factors that led to the adoption of the UK Commons Act to protect the commons; results of an international review of tenure security of land-based commons, particularly forests and rangelands held by communities and indigenous peoples; new evidence on how tenure can affect investment in shared resources by community members and outsiders; and factors shaping national policies on common resources and implications for the future.
Local communities and indigenous peoples manage a significant portion of the world’s remaining forests, pastures, and fisheries as common property resources. Devolving ownership, use, and exclusionary rights to communities can, in many circumstances, provide incentives for them to manage resources in ways that facilitate sustainable management outcomes as well as greater equity in benefits distribution. However, understanding who is investing in community-held resources following rights devolution and how investment patterns evolve over time is fragmentary. This webinar presentation will address this knowledge gap by exploring the pathways that have emerged to deliver investment in common property resources in Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal and Namibia. The implications of these findings on more effective and equitable forest management institutional arrangements will be also presented. Rewatch the webinar and presentations here.
How best to secure land tenure for pastoralists is an ongoing challenge for governments, practitioners, lawyers, academics, and communities themselves. As a result, pastoral lands continue to be encroached, fragmented, excised, and lost whilst all important mobility of people and livestock is blocked. The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) supported by two CGIAR research programs: Policies, Institutions, and Markets and Livestock, and the International Land Coalition (ILC) have been working with national governments in Ethiopia and Tanzania to provide solutions for this challenge. Examples of the applied research include development, piloting, and follow-up support to land use planning, land certification, and rangeland management approaches.
During this webinar, Fiona Flintan described innovations, successful practices, and lessons learned from her work on pastoral land tenure and governance over the past 15 years, with special focus on how research and technical support to governments used as entry point can lead to policy-impacting results.
The devolution of forest rights to local communities is seen as a critical element of strategies aimed at conserving tropical forests and strengthening livelihoods based on them. Over the past two decades, community management of the concessions has contributed to the reduction of deforestation. While the conservation benefits of the community concessions are well documented, there is limited insight into their socio-economic performance.
In this webinar, CGIAR presents findings of an in-depth study across the currently nine active and three inactive community concessions that focuses on the community forest enterprises (CFE) operating them, with emphasis on: 1) the benefits accruing to CFE members, local communities, and society at large; 2) the degree to which forest-based income allows member households to move out of poverty; and 3) how such income is reinvested in livelihood assets at household level and business assets at CFE level. We conclude with the critical importance of such findings in support of the communities’ claims for renewal of the concessions, which will be appraised over the next years, and broader implications for natural resource governance at global scale.
Collective action & land governance
Jur Schuurman of LANDac discusses social movements and the role of civil society in the land governance arena with Oane Visser of the International Institute of Social Studies. Watch the interview here.
Land and Conflict
Grounding Land Governance Research Programme – Governance off the ground (documentary)
Both in northern Uganda and South Sudan people driven away by violence in the past are now returning to their home communities. Some of them, however, find their lands occupied by others and end up in conflict. Why is there so much confusion and contestation about land when violent conflict is over? And what makes land issues so difficult to resolve? This documentary explores land disputes in Yei County in South Sudan and Amuru District in northern Uganda, and the challenges they pose for post-conflict governance.
‘Governance off the ground‘ is a film by Mathijs van Leeuwen, Doreen Nancy Kobusingye, and Peter Hakim Justin, of the African Studies Centre, Leiden University, in collaboration with YOGIEMONK Televisie Producties. It was produced as part of the ‘Grounding Land Governance’ programme, a research programme financed by WOTRO – Science for Global Development – NWO.
SDG Academy – Environmental Security and Sustaining Peace
Please note: This course is currently unavailable. However, you can watch videos from this course in the SDG Academy Library.
Conflicts over natural resources and the environment are among the greatest challenges in 21st-century geopolitics. These conflicts present serious threats to human security at both the national and local levels. Natural resources and the environment can nonetheless serve as a vehicle for peace if managed in a sustainable and equitable manner. Environmental peacebuilding has emerged as a new frontier in interdisciplinary studies. It offers a conceptual and operational framework to understand the positive peacebuilding potential of natural resources across the conflict lifecycle while mitigating potential risks. Read more here.
Urban land governance
In this online lecture, Roberto Rocco from TU Delft takes us through the social function of urban land in Brazilian cities. Watch the online lecture here.
SDG Academy – Sustainable Cities
This course examines how urban sustainability can be delivered with increasing productivity and reduced inequality; provision of universal basic services and infrastructure; protection of the urban environments; and other solutions and investments, both speculative and in action around the world. You will emerge from this course understanding how governments, private stakeholders and other actors can improve urban development to heed the call of Sustainable Development Goal 11 – “making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable“ by 2030. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced module, to be completed before 31 August, 2021. Read more and start the course here!
Tourism, nature conservation and land governance
In this online lecture, Femke van Noorloos, LANDac PhD, explains the relation between tourism and land governance, looking at how to deal with residential tourism investment in the Global South. Watch the online lecture here.
SDG Academy – From the Ground Up: Managing our Terrestrial Ecosystems
If you examine our reliance on the Earth’s resources – and vice versa – you will discover a stunning tapestry of complex interactions between ecosystems and human life. From preventing the extinction of species (including plants and animals) to mitigating the effects of long-term environmental shifts, how do we ensure that our interaction with the world around us doesn’t leave it destroyed? In this course, you will learn the science behind ecosystem functioning, including extinction rates, desertification, and how their physical makeup has evolved with environmental shifts. You will experience the lives of local populations dependent upon these resources, from their economic activities to their societal norms. By the end of the course, you will be equipped with an understanding of diverse ecosystems and how responsible use of these resources is imperative to our planet’s survival. This is a free-of-charge, self-paced course, to be completed before August 31, 2021. Read more here.
University of British Columbia – Forests and Livelihoods in Developing Countries
This interdisciplinary course explores the complex interactions between poverty, rural livelihoods, and forest resources in developing countries. We will consider some of the dynamics that occur when impoverished people use forests in their daily lives. We will talk about the role of forests for medicines and wild foods, as sources of fuelwood and charcoal for energy, and other pressing topics that confront sustainable forest management such as the impacts of human health and diseases on forests. The course consists of modules on forests and livelihoods in developing countries, agroforestry, human health in forested environments, protected areas and their sustainability, small and medium forest enterprises (SMFEs), and community forestry. Three cross-cutting themes (gender, tenure and forest rights, and climate change) will span all of the modules. This is a free-of-charge, instructor-led course on a course schedule. Future dates to be announced. Please keep an eye on the website here.
Photo top page: The cyber coffee of the Balkh University, provided by the World Bank. Photo: © Sandra CALLIGARO / TAIMANI FILMS / WORLD BANK