How to Help Communities Protect their Lands

Guest Blog by: Rachael Knight, Director, Community Land Protection Program, Namati

The scale of the global land grab is staggering. While international actors have made excellent progress establishing complaint boards, issuing principles for responsible investment, and securing commitments from multi-national corporations, these protections do not chart a clear course of action that communities can follow to protect their lands and natural resources before an investor arrives seeking land.

The problem is that once an investor arrives to “consult with” a community, it may be too late. After a deal has been made in capital city conference rooms or in clandestine meetings between chiefs and company representatives, communities are forced on the defensive. At this point, all they can do is try to mitigate the negative impacts of investors’ plans - rather than assertively proclaiming their legal rights, demanding that the investor abide by FPIC principles, and then choosing whether to reject the investment or accept it on terms that ensure that the community benefits and prospers.

Meanwhile, many of the “investors” grabbing land are national or local elites unaccountable to international institutions – the cousin of the President or the nephew of the Minister – who operate with complete impunity, protected by powerful connections to government, the judiciary and the police. Such individuals do not answer to shareholders or complaint boards, and are not the least bit concerned with principles of corporate social responsibility. If  a community’s land claims are unrecognized or undocumented – and if the community’s leadership is weak or corrupt – the easier it is for these elites to manipulate their power to claim what land they want.

To have a fighting chance against elites’ bad-faith actions, communities must proactively take steps to know and enforce their rights, prevent their leaders from transacting land without community approval, and seek legal recognition of their land claims. And they must do so before elites and investors arrive.

After years of working with partner organizations around the world to support communities to protect their land rights, the international legal empowerment organization Namati has developed a comprehensive approach designed to support communities to do just this: proactively document and map their land claims, seek formal government recognition of their land rights, and strengthen local governance.

To share this approach with frontline advocates and activists across the world, Namati has published a Community Land Protection Facilitators’ Guide as a step-by-step, practical “how to” manual for grassroots advocates working to help communities protect their land rights.

The guide, available to download for free, details Namati’s five-part process for protecting community lands and examines questions such as: “Who is included or excluded when defining a ‘community’?”, “How to resolve longstanding boundary disputes?”, and “How can communities prepare for interactions with potential investors?” The guide goes beyond documentation to address issues of women’s land rights, inclusive governance, cultural revitalization, ecosystem regeneration, and more. Every chapter includes exercises, sample forms, and tips from veteran land protection advocates. All activities are easily adaptable to a range of cultures, contexts, and community goals. The guide is accompanied by short, animated videos that demonstrate the community land protection process visually.

The goal is not just to protect land, but to leverage community land protection efforts to build:

●   Inclusive, diverse communities that respect the rights of women and other marginalized groups;

●   Sustainable local economies fueled by diverse local livelihoods;

●   Environmental stewardship that results in flourishing ecosystems, food security, and the protection of future biodiversity; and

●   The revival, maintenance, and inter-generational transfer of dynamic local cultures, languages, ceremonies, and traditional knowledge.

By adapting and using the approach in the guide, advocates around the world will be better able to not only help communities resist elites and investors’ bad-faith efforts to grab their lands, but to also empower communities to drive the course of their own development, create more just, equitable societies, and preserve ecological and cultural diversity for future generations

Join Namati’s Global Legal Empowerment Network to learn more and exchange strategies and experiences with other community land protection and legal empowerment practitioners.

Namati is a proud member of the #LandRightsNow campaign - learn more and sign up today!

New Publication: Protecting Community Lands & Resources in Africa

In November 2013, 30 pioneering community and civil society experts from across Africa gathered together in South Africa at the first Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resource Protection (see our original blog here) to share experiences and practical strategies in the battle to protect community land and natural resources. 

Out of this symposium came a commitment to share these practical experiences, success stories, challenges and resources through the development of a publication by these experts and other community partners, with Natural Justice and Namati. 

At a time where threats to community lands and natural resources are peak, "Protecting Community Lands and Resources in Africa: Grassroots Advocates' Strategies and Lessons" is an exciting and innovative collection of case studies written by advocates, for advocates in Africa. Many thanks to Ford Foundation Southern Africa for its support. For a PDF version of the document, please see here

Public Hearing on Kenya’s Community Land Bill, 2014

Mr. Odenda Lumumba, from the Kenya Land Alliance

 and the Civil Society Working Group on the Community

 Land Bill, presents his submissions

 on the Bill before the Senate Committee.

Natural Justice’s office in Kenya recently brainstormed on the question of public participation, asking what it entails, its substantive elements, and how to ensure it is effective. The starting point in the law lies in the Constitution of Kenya, which requires Parliament to facilitate public participation and involvement in the legislation process. 

Putting this principle to the test, Natural Justice attended a public hearing on the Community Land Bill held at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Nairobi, on last week. This hearing sought to give members of the public an opportunity to propose any amendments or changes to this fundamental Bill. The Senate Committee on the Community Land Bill conducted the hearing and was comprised of five Senators: Christopher Obure (Kisii); George Khaniri (Vihiga); Boy Juma Boy (Kwale); Martha Wangari (Nominated) and Liza Chelule (Nominated).

Natural Justice Attends Workshop on Community Land Rights in Kenya

On October 15th and 16th, the Natural Justice Kenya team attended a Community Land Protection workshop in Nairobi, which was facilitated by OXFAM, the Kenya Land Alliance (KLA) and Namati.  Natural Justice is continuing its collaboration with Namati following the successful meeting held in November, 2013 with African community rights activists on community land and natural resource rights.

The primary objective of the two-day workshop was to present Namati’s community land protection process and to discuss the Community Land Bill. The workshop was attended by a number of Kenya civil society organizations and indigenous peoples networks, including Natural Justice’s community partners Kivulini Trust, Friends of Lake Turkana and Save Lamu. In 2013, Natural Justice partnered with Namati to host a meeting.

New RRI Report on Recognizing Community Land Rights

Rights and Resources Initiative has announced the release of their latest report Recognizing Indigenous and Community Land Rights: Priority Steps to Advance Development and Mitigate Climate Change. This report demonstrates how recognising community land rights is a cost-effective way to address a host of social, environmental, and development challenges.

Prepared with Tebtebba, the report reveals that US$1.64 billion -- the funds already pledged by three multilateral initiatives to developing the REDD+ carbon market -- would expand the recognition of land rights for local communities and Indigenous Peoples living on 450 million hectares, an area almost half the size of Europe. These cost estimates provide a benchmark for future climate change research and policy work as international negotiations to address greenhouse gas emissions heat up.

Report on Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection

Following the highly success Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection, co-hosted by Natural Justice and Namati in Cape Town in November 2013, a report on the outcomes of the Symposium have been released.

Community Land and Natural Resource advocates from around Africa gathered together at this symposium to discuss challenges and brainstorm solutions based on their own experiences, revolving around the following 8 key themes:

• Community definition;
• Conflict resolution;
• Governance and Leadership;
• Equity and Gender;
• Conservation and Stewardship;
• Investor-Community Relations;
• Government Barriers to Implementation;
• Policy advocacy and Law-Making.

The organisers look forward to building the momentum created during the symposium. 

New Report on Compensation for Communities in Relation to Large Investments

Natural Justice’s  Stephanie Booker has contributed a chapter entitled "Biocultural Community Protocols: A useful means of securing community interests in the context of extractive industries" to a new publication by the Bonn International Center for Conversion (BICC). 

Supported by Bread for the World and Groupe Tchad, the publication, "Compensation Matters. Securing community interests in large-scale investments", provides analyses of contentious issues in compensation matters such as power relations in negotiations, entitlements for compensation,  as well as an examination of the different types of compensation and discussion of a number of issues with respect to affected communities. 

Also included are  a number of tools and approaches that may be/ have been use to approach compensation strategically, aimed at sustainable, just and inclusive outcomes for affected communities.

'Pluralism, Equality and the State'. 14th National Conference on Women's Studies

Natural Justice's Vaneesha Jain attended the 14th National Conference on Women’s Studies in Guwahati, Assam, India, from 4th to 7th February 2014. The conference was organised by the Indian Association of Women’s Studies in collaboration with Gauhati University Women's Studies Department, TISS Guwahati Campus, Cotton College State University and North East Network. The title of the conference was 'Pluralism, Equality and the State: Perspectives from the Women’s Movement'.

The conference had a total of 10 sub-themes, and Vaneesha presented a paper entitled ‘No Woman’s Land: Exploring Women’s Relationships with their Land and their Legal Entitlements’ under the first sub-theme. Participants in this sub-theme shared theory and field experiences in various Indian states on the subject of women’s access to land and land-based resources. The NJ presentation was well-received, and generated particular interest in its reference to the recent Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement legislation.

“Our Resources, Our Future, Putting Local People First” – 5th Alternative Mining Indaba, Cape Town, South Africa

From 4 to 5 February 2014, Stephanie Booker and Frances Kelsey of Natural Justice attended the 5th Alternative Mining Indaba, held at the Ritz Hotel in Cape Town.

The Alternative Mining Indaba, organised by Bench Marks Foundation, Oxfam, the Economic Justice Network and Norwegian Church Aid, brought together 200 activists from all over Africa as well as from Brazil, Canada and Myanmar to discuss, from the perspective of local communities, the impacts of mining and other extractive industries.

The Alternative Mining Indaba was held at the same time as the African Mining Indaba, an international mining conference taking place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre and therefore provided an alternative space for those organisations working with communities to focus on the local social, economic and environmental impacts of mining. Under the heading “Our Resources, Our Future, Putting Local People First”, various groups - from community forums to international non-governmental organisations presented and discussed their experiences, knowledge and expertise on the impact of mining.

Landmark Asian People's Land Rights Tribunal Held in the Philippines

Private sector investments in large-scale, industrial agriculture have been increasing in Asia since the 2008 food crisis, often resulting in the conversion of small-scale and subsistence agriculture and forests into monoculture plantations and widespread violations of human and peoples' rights. To further explore these issues, Holly Jonas (Natural Justice) attended the Asian People's Land Rights Tribunal from 16-17 January at the University of the Philippines in Manila. The Tribunal included consideration of four cases by a panel of eminent experts from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh and was hosted by the Asian NGO Coalition (ANGOC), Land Watch Asia Campaign, the University of the Philippines, the Pimental Institute for Leadership and Governance, and Oxfam's East Asia GROW Campaign.

The cases concerned issues with farmers, fisherfolk and Indigenous peoples being threatened and displaced by an industrial economic zone in Casiguran, Philippines; families having their subsistence farms destroyed to make way for large-scale sugar plantations in Koh Kong, Cambodia; Indigenous peoples being forcibly evicted from nearly 18,000 hectares of forested and small-scale agricultural land for oil palm plantations in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia; and Mamanwa Indigenous peoples opposing mining exploration in their ancestral domains in and around Lake Mainit, Agusan del Norte, Philippines. Together, these cases, presented by members of the affected communities and supporting non-governmental organisations, showcase an alarming situation of human rights and environmental violations in the three Southeast Asian countries, involving powerful local and foreign interests alike.

Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection

From 5-7 November, 30 pioneering community and civil society experts gathered in the !khwa ttu San community centre outside Cape Town, South Africa, for the first Africa Regional Symposium for Community Land and Natural Resources Protection. 

The Symposium, co-convened by Natural Justice and Namati, facilitated an exchange of best practices on community empowerment for strengthening land and natural resources rights among twelve African countries and more than two dozen communities. 

The event set out to meet three interrelated objectives: 

1. Share best practices, tools and strategies for empowered community land and natural resource management and protection; 

2. Support each other to confront local and/or national challenges to community land and natural resources claims; and 

3. Brainstorm new and innovative forms of legal empowerment and build a cross-disciplinary community of practice that fosters continued dialogue and learning. 

African BCP Initiative Meeting

On Sunday October 13th Natural Justice hosted a meeting of the African Biocultural Community Protocol Initiative’s Kenyan partners in Nairobi. Attendees included representatives from the following organizations: Kivulini Trust, the Ogiek People’s Development Programme, Save Lamu, LIFE Africa Network, the Enderois Welfare Council and the Nairobi People’s Settlement Network. 

The meeting opened with a discussion facilitated by Natural Justice’s Gino Cocchiaro about what a BCP is and how it can help communities to access the law, among other benefits. This was a chance for more experienced partners to share lessons, and new faces to learn more about the process. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to conversations surrounding the presentations of two guest speakers – Rebecca Wangui and Ken Otieno from Reconcile. Rebecca spoke about integrating gender concerns into land issues, giving an overview of the status of women in various Kenyan land laws. Ken’s presentation spurred lively conversations about the status of the Community Lands Bill in Kenya, its significance, and how communities can give input.

Strategies to Secure Community Land Rights and Resources

A meeting on securing community land rights and resources on the 19th and 20th of September ended with a pledge from stakeholders to work together to address this growing global crisis. Representatives of community groups, civil society, business and government met over the two days in the hope to form the initial strategies on the relevant topics within securing community lands and resources, including: the mapping and documentation of community lands and resources; legal recognition and empowerment; Expanding and Leveraging Private Sector Interest in Securing Community Land Rights; Making Community Land Rights a Global Priority; Deepening Synergies between Community Land; and Resource Rights and Conservation Efforts.

Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) attended the legal recognition and empowerment stream and took part in a panel discussion on "Community-based strategies: Strengthening community land and natural resource governance from the bottom-up." Gino spoke about Natural Justices' experiences with communities developing community protocols to address their local challenges through dialogue and negotiation with government and business.

Natural Justice and its community partners will continue to be involved in these important discussions and development of strategies for positive change.

Scaling-up Strategies to Secure Community Land and Resource Rights

From the 19th to the 20th of September, Gino Cocchiaro (Natural Justice) is attending the International Conference on Scaling-up Strategies to Secure Community Land and Resource Rights in Interlaken, Switzerland.

There is growing acknowledgement that lack of community land and resource rights has become a global crisis that undermines our progress for social, spiritual and economic well-being. Natural Justice continues to work with its community partners, advise national governments and business to address these critical issues. The meeting in Interlaken will therefore serve to:

• Collect and share best practice on community land rights with a range of stakeholders, including communities, governments, civil society and private investors;
• Raise the profile of community land rights as a priority issues to shape key investment and policy processes in ways to support local land and resource tenure;
• Provide a forum for the new collaborations and alliances between the different actors and interests around community land and resource issues.

For more information on the conference please refer to: http://www.communitylandrights.org/

James Anaya on the "resource curse" in the global south

Professor James Anaya (United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) has written an opinion article for Al Jazeera entitled "Is natural resource development a blessing, a 'quick-fix,' or a curse?" Drawing on his experiences as a UN investigator, he argues that the resource curse is alive and well in the global south, with profits from natural resource extraction failing to reach the people and communities who bear the brunt of its environmental and social impacts, and that the heart of the problem often lies in lack of recognition of the rights of the Indigenous peoples and local communities living on the land.

Referencing the community land and resource rights conference currently taking place in Interlaken, he calls on the new UN Sustainable Development Goals to include recognition of land rights, including rights based on traditional use and occupancy, in order to address deep-rooted problems of contested ownership. For more information, please read the Al Jazeera article and download Anaya's thematic report on extractive industries and Indigenous peoples, which was recently submitted to the Human Rights Council.

Impacts of Private Land Titling in Indigenous Communities in Cambodia

Photo courtesy of firstpeoples.org

Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP) has released a new publication in collaboration with the Ratanakiri Communal Land Titling Working Group entitled "Directive 01BB in Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia: Issues and impacts of private land titling in indigenous communities". AIPP introduces the research with the following description: "Asia has more than 200 million indigenous people who have maintained their lands, territories and resources sustainably for centuries. Land grabbing in the name of 'development' however, is taking place at an alarming rate, further increasing indigenous peoples’ marginalization, denying them of the material base for their distinct cultures and identities, and threatening their collective survival.

The situation in Cambodia exemplifies this issue. It deserves public attention and urgent government action. The current state of affairs needs to be addressed with a sense of urgency as indigenous peoples are being coerced to acquire private titles and sell them to make way for economic land concessions. Private titles are not consistent with the customary land tenure arrangements of indigenous peoples. They do not recognize the collective nature of indigenous communities, are limited to an area that is insufficient for traditional agricultural practices, and include other conditions that make them inappropriate.

Pastoralist BCP Programme Planning - Nairobi

Natural Justice's Gino Cocchiaro met with Life Africa Trust, Kivulini Trust and the Marsabit Accountability Forum in Nairobi, Kenya on 14 February. The meeting was to plan the two-year programme, supported by the GEF Small Grants Programme, that is being coordinated by the organisations to support the Borana and Samburu pastoralist communities to strengthen community governance systems through the development of community protocols with the aim of enhancing resource management and securing community land. Throughout the project Natural Justice will partner with Kenyan lawyers to build the capacity of the Borana and Samburu to proactively claim their resource and land rights.

Major Court Victory for Tana River Delta Communities

Photo via www.facebook.com/pages/Kenweb

In a significant victory for community land rights, the Kenyan High Court Judge Mumbi Ngugi has ruled that all land use plans for the Tana River Delta must be developed with the full participation of local communities. The Court also ordered that the Tana and Athi Rivers Development Authority must share current short and long term land use plans and that plans will be periodically reviewed. The ruling is a major triumph as tens of thousands of hectares of multi-use floodplain would have been converted for sugar cane production under the current plan and many residents of the Delta were to be removed. 

The case was brought by representatives of farmers, fishermen, pastoralists and conservation groups in the Tana River Delta and sought to halt large-scale commercial developments in the Tana River Delta until a master plan was developed. They were supported by the Kenya Wetlands Biodiversity Research Team with funding from the East African Wildlife Society and Nature Kenya. 

Read more about the ruling from the East African Wildlife Society’s press release here and the Business Daily here.

RRI Reports on Secure Land Tenure

The Rights and Resources Initiative has released two ground-breaking reports highlighting the importance of secure land tenure in broader national and international law and policy and for investors. 

“Landowners or Laborers: What choice will developing countries make?” considers the implications of policies, especially in Africa, that seek rapid development by ceding control of land and resources to external actors. It contrasts these policies with the successes of China and Brazil, which have achieved advances through establishing local property rights rather than undercutting them. It further summarises the state of resources and rights globally, and identifies the key choices and challenges faced by developing countries in 2012. The report can be downloaded here. 

“The Financial Risks of Insecure Land Tenure: An Investment View” considers the assumption that cheap land can be acquired to derive high profits easily. The report challenges this view, arguing that exploiting land with disputed tenure rights leads to significant risks. The paper can be downloaded here.

Landmark Ruling Against Indigenous Title in Guyana

Via www.forestpeoples.org

The High Court of Guyana has controversially ruled in support of a mining concession on titled Indigenous lands, setting a dangerous precedent for the already marginalised Indigenous communities of Guyana. The case was brought by residents of Isseneru village who received title over the land in 2007 in terms of the Amerindian Act of 2006. The court held that as the mining permits were received before the Act came into operation they were not bound by its provisions. 

In a press statement, the Isseneru Village Council stated that they are “deeply disappointed and worried with this ruling and what it means to our village and to Amerindian communities in general. On the ground it has serious environmental and social impacts for us. The miners have, for example, brought with them problems related to drugs and prostitution. At the higher level, we feel that when the High Court tells us that we have no rights to decide and control what takes place on our land, then the land is not ours.…Just Friday, when inquiring at the office of the GGMC [Guyana Geology and Mines Commission], we learnt that our whole land is covered with mining concessions. Yet, the government has not informed us about this.” 

Find out more through the Forest Peoples’ Programme press statement in English here and in Spanish here. The Isseneru Village Council press statement can be accessed here.