TMG Research and the World Resources Institute invite you to:

• Explore ways to enrich and improve the national consultations for integrating land tenure into policy decision-making in Madagascar.  

• Examine the challenges and opportunities of UNCCD land tenure decisions for land restoration policies, programmes and accountability.  

• Discuss knowledge and practices on promoting inclusive land policies and mechanisms using data on legitimate tenure rights at the national level. 

• Explore avenues for engaging key stakeholders and policy decision-makers on strategies, approaches and tools to mainstream land data and rights in land restoration, climate, and biodiversity programs. 

Background:

Climate and biodiversity policies drive significant land demand. Recent programmes and initiatives to achieve net zero, mainly relying on the land for carbon sequestration, exacerbate this demand. Yet, in ongoing discussions and negotiations, the land rights of people whose land is targeted by climate, biodiversity and land restoration programmes and initiatives are left often neglected. 

If land rights are not protected in these programmes, climate policies aimed at net zero can threaten livelihoods and even undermine the envisioned carbon sequestration targets. Land-based carbon sequestration policies and programmes, therefore, need to be embedded in a broader understanding of just transitions that explicitly address the recognition of legitimate tenure rights.  

Government capacities to document legitimate land rights in areas subject to land-based carbon sequestration are often limited. Digital, participatory mapping tools are a crucial technology to cut costs of documentation and to empower land users. They are a key instrument for operationalising a broader understanding of just transition.  

Grievance mechanisms are also key, as carbon markets develop more dynamically than efforts to regulate them. The session will present digital, community-based technologies to record rights violations and hold carbon market investors accountable.  

The session will address and discuss these critical issues. And it builds on TMG's experiences gained in monitoring the implementation of the UNCCD Land Tenure decisions in land degradation neutrality areas in Benin, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Niger and Uganda to inform just transitions towards climate neutrality. 

This session was generously funded by Germany's Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development