The issue
Rural poor who have weak or no land tenure rights are among the most vulnerable to the direct effects of climate change, both because insecure land tenure reduces the incentives and capacities to take good care of the land to mitigate /adapt to the effects of climate change, and because without secure tenure rights, disasters can easily lead to land loss and migration, also through document loss and land grabbing. Yet, public understanding of the links between climate change, disasters, and land tenure is still very limited, leading to poor prevention and wrong response, and those without land or near landlessness are the most marginalized and voiceless, and are often left out of climate change discussions.
The action
On the request of the GFAR member Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC), a number of members in the GFAR network (including CSOs, farmers’ associations, indigenous people’s associations and international networks), facilitated by GFAR, identified a common priority in the issue of extreme vulnerability of landless or near landless rural poor to climate change led disasters. They also agreed on a common approach to address the issue, based on increased awareness, better documentation, and inclusion of affected communities in decision making.
The Action will start in Asia Pacific, coordinated by the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) in partnership with the Land Portal Foundation and in network with ANGOC’s members, under the aegis of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI).
Extension of the Action to other regions is foreseen based on demand, drawing from the experience of the
first phase, and GFAR, ANGOC and Land Portal will support the scaling out.
Expected results
Outcomes
• Better informed and more inclusively designed climate disaster prevention and resilience policies that factor in land tenure issues.
Objectives
• Create greater awareness on the importance of land tenure rights in the climate change discourse among policy makers and the general public.
• Clarify and stress the role of rural communities in documenting the issue and participating in policy making.
• Make all data from the action open and visible.
• Share good practices drawn from the Action for replication.
In the first phase in Asia, partners will conduct a 6-month pilot case study on Bangladesh, drawing on a range of knowledge products and communications tools, deepening already existing case studies and reaching out to environmental experts, climate change activists and community leaders towards a social media campaign that will culminate in a webinar.
The pilot will produce guidelines and good practices that will be leveraged and scaled out in other regions and countries.
All data, findings and material produced or used in the Action as well as other relevant publicly available resources will be adapted, organized and made available in open access on the Land Portal.
Partners
The Collective Action is starting in Asia Pacific, coordinated by the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ANGOC) in partnership with the Land Portal Foundation and in network with ANGOC partners like the Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), Transparency International, Society for Environment and Human Development, Kapaeeng Foundation, the Association for the Realisation of Basic Needs, the local
Community Development Association and others, under the aegis of the Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI).
ANGOC and Land Portal will support the scaling out to other regions, in coordination with the respective Regional Fora. Reaching out to other global networks like the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) is foreseen in the scaling-out phase.