Over the past two decades, governments have adopted national and international frameworks on issues such as land policy in Africa and responsible regulation of land, fisheries and forests, resulting in more than 70 countries undertaking land reform efforts.
‘Territorial insecurity’ and inequality
However, progress is lagging. Currently, ownership, tenure or use rights to only 35 percent of the world’s land are formally documented, according to the report prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Land Coalition (ILC) and the French agricultural research and cooperation body, CIRAD.
Other evidence includes the more than 1.1 billion people who feel “land insecure” because they believe it is likely or very likely that they could lose their homes or property in the coming years.
“Territorial insecurity is one of the most harmful forms of inequality, which is offset by lower productivity, lower resilience and poorer nutrition.”said Máximo Torero Cullen, chief economist of the FAO.
“Secure land tenure enables sustainable investment and it is the difference between short-term survival and long-term food security.”
Who owns the land?
The State of Land Tenure and Governance is described as the first comprehensive global balance sheet designed to track how land is owned, used and governed.
Reveals that States have legal ownership of more than 64 percent of the land. throughout the world, although this includes customary lands with designated tenure rights but without documented ownership.
Just over a quarter of all land is known to be privately owned. – whether by individuals, companies or groups. The ownership status of the remaining approximately 10 percent is unknown.
Specifically, about 18 percent of the world’s land, or 2.4 billion hectares, is owned by private individuals and corporations.
When agricultural land (about 37 percent of the world’s land area) is considered, the The top 10 percent of landowners exploit almost 90 percent of all cultivated land..
Various property systems
The report also highlights how land tenure systems differ between regions.
For example:
- In sub-Saharan Africa, 73 percent of land is under customary tenure, although only one percent is formally recognized as such, while the majority is undocumented and owned by the state.
- In North America, 32 percent of the land is privately owned.
- In Latin America, 39 percent
- In Europe, it is 55 percent, excluding Russia, where state lands dominate.
Indigenous Peoples, like this girl from the K’iche’ community in Guatemala, contribute their knowledge to combat climate change.
Indigenous Peoples and women
Furthermore, although indigenous peoples and other holders of customary tenure rights occupy 5.5 billion hectares (42 percent of the world’s land), only one billion hectares are documented with clear property rights.
The data also shows that in almost all countries, Women are less likely than men to own or have secure rights to land, whether for housing or agriculture.underlining the importance of formal and legal documents to guarantee your land rights.
“Too many people still live in fear of losing their land and homes.and women and youth remain among the most excluded, a reality that undermines food security, climate action and biodiversity protection, and shows why secure land rights are fundamental to achieving all three,” said Marcy Vigoda, Director of the ILC.
according to custom
The report also provides a detailed examination of customary land systems, which are largely administered by indigenous peoples, pastoralists and tribal groups.
Customary lands include forests, grasslands, wetlands and fisheries, and their governance – once considered archaic or a relic of the past – is increasingly seen as vital to both people and the planet, given its contribution to biodiversity and climate action.
Approximately 4.2 billion hectares of customary lands have been mapped worldwide, representing more than 32 percent of the Earth’s total land mass, excluding Antarctica.
Carbon release alert
These territories “contain approximately 45 gigatonnes of unrecoverable carbon, which You can’t go back in time to avoid climate damage.which is mainly found in forest biomes, or 37 percent of the global total,” FAO said.
In other words, the carbon released cannot be reabsorbed quickly enough to prevent further global warming.
The UN agency noted that customary lands are increasingly threatened by human activity, such as urban expansion, large-scale industrial agriculture, oil and gas extraction and mining.
“Paradoxically, some climate solutions aimed at renewable energy, biofuels, conservation and carbon offsets are increasing these pressures, especially on lands that lack formal recognition or protection,” FAO added.