law

For many millions in the developing world, land is central to livelihoods, food security, even identity — the natural result of a direct dependence on agriculture and natural resources. It is not surprising, then, that a recent wave of large-scale land acquisitions in poorer countries has sparked a major debate.

Across rural Africa, land legislation struggles to be properly implemented, and most resource users gain access to land on the basis of local land tenure systems. There is growing recognition that land laws must build on local practice. In recent years, several African countries have adopted legislation that strengthens protection for local land rights.

Since independence, African governments have adopted policies and programmes aimed at increasing land tenure security for farmers, so as to foster agricultural investment and productivity. These policies have usually been based on systematic registration of land rights, ignoring existing customary and local institutions and largely disregarding the distributive issues underlying tenure security ("security for whom?"). The materialisation of their hoped for benefits has been generally limited, and their implementation has enabled elite capture of land and has resulted in the expropriation of the rights of weaker groups. Over the last decade, new approaches to improving tenure security have been devised, usually paying more attention to local/customary norms and practices and to protecting all rights and interests in land.

Where local resource rights are weak, investment projects may undermine the ability of local groups to access the resources on which they depend. Weakness of local resource rights may also undermine the position of local resource users in their negotiations with incoming investors; and therefore limit their ability to benefit from investment projects through negotiated benefit-sharing arrangements.

Appropriate legal arrangements and adequate capacity to use them can help local groups in Africa have greater control over the natural resources on which they depend. This is the essence of the concept of legal empowerment – using the law to help disadvantaged groups have greater control over decisions and processes affecting their lives.

In the Sahel, rain-fed farming and pastoralism are the main livelihood sources. In the past few decades, efforts have been made to improve the water infrastructure in rural areas – for example through the creation of new water points and irrigation schemes. These efforts have often failed to consider governance and property rights issues - who decides what and how, and who has right over what before and after the water development project.

Consensus building is essential for successful negotiation and agreement of post-2012 Kyoto frameworks.
 

In much of Africa, rural populations depend on access to common property resources such as rangelands and forests. Securing local rights of access to such resources against encroachment by outsiders is key to protecting the livelihoods of local people.