Land tenure and governance – only slow progress
Some 1.1 billion people, almost one in four of all adults, consider it likely that they could lose the rights to some or all of their land and housing within the next five years, and this number has risen notably in the past few years. This is revealed in the “Status of Land Tenure and Governance”, recently published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the French agricultural research and cooperation organisation, Cirad.
Tenure security is a crucial catalyst of responsible land governance, and rights over the control of land and decision-making about its use enable better productive and environmentally sustainable decisions, foster stability and peace and give people the confidence to invest. While there has been some progress in establishing and expanding land tenure security and governance at the international and national policy levels, it has been slow, and its impact on the ground even slower, underscoring the need for stronger political commitment and inclusive policies.
A prerequesite for long-term food security
“Land insecurity is one of the most damaging forms of inequality, paid for in lower productivity, weaker resilience and poorer nutrition. Secure land tenure enables sustainable investment and is the difference between short-term survival and long-term food security,” said FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero Cullen presenting the report.
“Too many people still live with the fear of losing their land and homes, with women and young people remaining among the most excluded,” confirmed Marcy Vigoda, Director of the International Land Coalition.
According to the authors, the new report draws on a wide set of inputs and complements two decades of guidance embedded most notably in the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (VGGT). Moreover, it responded to the growing demand to link land rights with climate action, biodiversity protection, gender equality and rural transformation.
"When we generate evidence with and for all stakeholders, we create the foundation for stronger, more transparent, and more equitable public policies – both nationally and internationally,” Sélim Louafi, Deputy Director for Research and Strategy at Cirad, comments.
Some key facts of the report
- States have legal ownership of more than 64 per cent of land world-wide; this includes customary land with designated tenure rights but without documented ownership.
- A little more than a quarter of all land is known to be owned privately by individuals, companies or by collectives. For the remaining 10 per cent or so, tenure status is unknown. More specifically, around 18 per cent of the world’s land, or 2.4 billion hectares, is owned by private individuals and corporations.
- Globally, when agricultural land is considered (about 37 % of the global land area), the top 10 per cent of the largest landholders operate 89 per cent of all agricultural land in aggregate terms.
- The world’s largest farms, those spanning more than 1,000 hectares, operate more than half of all farmland, while 85 per cent of the world’s farmers manage less than two hectares, or just 9 per cent of it.
- Men are more likely than women to own or have secure rights to land in almost all the countries with data, and the gender gap exceeds 20 percentage points in nearly half.
- Land tenure systems vary enormously across regions. In sub-Saharan Africa, 73 per cent of land is held under customary tenure, with a mere one per cent formally recognised as such and most of the rest undocumented and under state ownership. In Eastern and South-Eastern Asia, state land dominates, at 51 per cent, with only 9 per cent of land in the region privately held. Private land ownership accounts for 32 per cent of land in North America, 39 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 55 per cent in Europe excluding the Russian Federation where state land dominates.
- The gap between real tenure and legal documentation is exemplified by the fact that while Indigenous Peoples and other holders of customary tenure rights occupy 5.5 billion hectares or 42 per cent of the world’s land, only one billion hectares, covering just 8 per cent, have clear ownership rights.
Focus on customary lands
The report examines customary land systems in detail, as befits their large share of the world’s land. These systems – stewarded by Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and tribal groups – do and can deliver significant contributions to biodiversity and climate challenges.
Around 77 per cent of all reported customary lands, equal to 4.2 billion hectares, has been mapped, albeit often only indicatively. Thirty per cent is in North America and Europe, including large tracts in the Russian Federation, 28 per cent in Africa, 18 per cent in Asia and 12 per cent in both Latin America and the Caribbean and Oceania regions.
Those mapped customary territories hold an estimated 45 gigatons of irrecoverable carbon – which cannot be put back in time to avoid climate damage, found mostly in forest biomes – or 37 per cent of the global total.
The report also focuses on the fact that customary lands are threatened by growing anthropogenic pressures such as urban expansion, transport infrastructure, large-scale industrial agriculture, oil and gas extraction and mining. Some climate solutions geared to renewable energy, biofuels, conservation and carbon offsets are increasing such pressures, especially on lands which lack formal recognition or protections. Preliminary analysis shows that 19 per cent of intact forest landscapes, 15 per cent of irrecoverable carbon hotspots, and 7 per cent of key biodiversity areas on mapped customary lands lack formal government recognition.
(FAO/ILC/CIRAD/sri)
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