Increasing global demand for natural resources is intensifying competition for land across the developing world, pushing companies onto territories that many Indigenous Peoples and rural communities have sustainably managed for generations. These communities, who collectively hold at least half the…

A new report analyses how the transition to a low-carbon economy – and the minerals and metals required to make that shift – could affect fragility, conflict, and violence dynamics in mineral-rich states. Could the pursuit of one Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) jeopardize the success of another…

How does the amount of land that youth expect to inherit affect their migration and employment decisions? We explore this question in the context of rural Ethiopia using a 2014 cross-sectional dataset indicating whether or not youth household members from a previous 2010 survey had migrated by 2014…

Inclusive businesses (IBs), embodying partnerships between commercial agribusinesses and smallholder farmers/low-income communities, are considered to contribute towards rural development and agricultural sector transformation. Structured as complex organizational set-ups consisting of, and…

The protection and sustainable management of soils is a precondition for sustainable development and moreover for the survival of humankind. Degraded soils, in particular in Africa, cause famine, poverty, migration and, under certain circumstances, even wars. Although insufficient protection and…

Studies show that women disproportionately bear the adverse impacts of land commercialization in the global South. Investments in agribusiness, mining, or logging have resulted in loss of land and displacement of local communities, loss of livelihoods, and loss of communal assets—and the effects are…

Pathways to increase access to land for the realization of development, peace and human rights

This report focuses on the emergence of new fringe activities that have transformed the relationship involving pastoralism, the State and the traditional national and transnational mobility of pastoralists. The phenomenon is multifaceted in nature and has been embraced by only a minority of…

Investing in agriculture is widely recognised as one of the most effective ways to alleviate poverty, improve food security and reduce hunger and malnutrition. Paradoxically, both overseas development aid and domestic investment in agriculture have been declining since the 1990s. The total share of…

This brief was produced by EcoAgriculture Partners and the FAO Liaison Office for North America following the presentations and discussion at the first in our newest event series for policymakers and conservation and development professionals in Washington, D.C. and beyond, “Towards Sustainable…

Data and information on land are fundamental for enabling smallholder farmers to gain secure access and control over their land, which provides the basis for investing in their operations. This briefing paper outlines the importance and benefits of increasing the availability and accessibility of…

Science and technology offer exciting pathways for rural women to tackle the challenges they face daily. Innovative solutions for rural women can, for example, reduce their workload, raise food production and increase their participation in the paid labour market. But even the very best innovative…

The OECD Development Centre’s Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) is a cross-country measure of discrimination against women in social institutions (formal and informal laws, social norms, and practices) across 180 countries. Discriminatory social institutions intersect across all stages of…

Climate change, environmental degradation and disasters do not affect everyone equally; gender, age, ethnicity, and income level, among other factors, can influence how individuals experience and are affected by environmental stress. Women in contexts of deep-rooted gender inequality, as well as…

The COVID-19 pandemic is “interrupting efforts” to achieve gender equality and threatening to “reverse hard-won gains” over the past decades

The land-related statistics are disaggregated by gender and include specific data on land and agricultural ownership by men and women. The data is shown in the interactive map, list of statistics indicators and their definitions

We have all heard the statistics about ecosystems’ demise. More than a billion people live in water-scarce regions. Thirty percent of the world’s forests have been cleared, and another 20 percent degraded. And nearly 500 million people live in drylands that are becoming increasingly vulnerable to…

CIFOR scientists reviewed studies looking at gender dynamics in communities living in and near dry forests – an important but under-researched ecosystem.

LandMark is the first online, interactive global platform to provide maps and other critical information on lands that are held and used by Indigenous Peoples and communities

This discussion paper examines the importance of water in ensuring food security

According to the Land Matrix, approximately 130 million hectares of land (or more than 52.7 million football fields) has been acquired globally in settled and impending land deals over the last 15 years.

While never offering a blueprint, FOLA shares a diversity of insights, experiences, and lessons from countries across the continent, highlighting the critical role of property rights in local livelihoods and development.

The first-of-its-kind baseline to measure the global extent of indigenous and community land rights.

Among these billions of people are the Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities who live on and manage approximately 65 percent of the world’s land area in customary or traditional systems. Despite existing laws that secure their rights, rarely do Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities have…

Tanzania has adopted a new national land policy which, among others, lowers the ceiling under which foreign investors can lease land from the current 99 to 33 years. The new policy comes barely months after the East African nation embarked on a campaign to seize “idle” land and deter “rogue…