Documents

Who Owns The Land in Africa? Formal recognition of community-based land rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

This brief summarizes findings on community ownership and control of lands in 19 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that were included in the RRI's global baseline study (RRI, 2015).

Whose Land Is It? Commons and Conflict States

This paper addresses the tenure fate of three commons: the 30 million hectares of pasturelands of Afghanistan which represent 45 percent of the total land area and are key to livelihood and water catchment in that exceedingly dry country; the 5.7 million hectares of timber-rich tropical forests in Liberia, 59 percent of the total land area; and the 125 million hectares of savannah in Sudan, half the area of that largest state of Africa. All three resources have an uncountably long history as customary properties of local communities. They also share a 20th century history as the property of the state. Of course there is nothing unusual in this contradiction. Between one and two billion people on the planet today are tenants of the State (CLEP, 2008, Alden Wily, forthcoming (b)). They live on and use traditional properties on which, in the eyes of the national laws of those countries, they are no more than lawful occupants and users. When their expansive collectively-owned forest, pastoral and swamp lands are taken into account, up to five billion hectares are involved, potentially one third of the world’s total land area (Wily / RRI, 2010).

Rights to Resources in Crisis: Reviewing the Fate of Customary Tenure in Africa

This is the first in a series of briefs about modern African land tenure that provides up-to-date analysis on the status of customary land rights in Sub-Saharan Africa. The purpose of the series is to inform and help to structure advocacy and action aimed at challenging the weak legal status of customary land rights in many African countries (Wily / RRI, 2012).

Property Rights: Issues and Challenges

Chapter taken from Resources, Rights, and Cooperation: A Sourcebook on Property Rights and Collective Action for Sustainable Development (CAPRi, 2010).

Where They Stand

The Wapichan people of Guyana are using modern technology and community research to seek legal recognition of their ancestral land in the face of aggressive land-grabbing, destructive logging, and poisonous mining by illegal miners and foreign companies, finds new report by internationally acclaimed science writer Fred Pearce (Forest Peoples Program, 2015).