Land and Conflict

Again in 2005, as in 2003 and 2004, the International Land Coalition has been pleased to organise a Ministerial Roundtable on Land Issues during the High Level Segment of ECOSOC.  In each year we have organised these sessions with co-chairs from leading partners organisations.

ECOSOC 2005 HIGH-LEVEL SEGMENT
Ministerial Roundtable - Final Report
New York , 30 June 2005

Co-chairs: Ms. Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, Director of UN-HABITAT New York Office and Mr. Bruce Moore, Director, International Land Coalition (Land Coalition)

Co-organizers: Land Coalition, UN-HABITAT and UN-DESA

Access to land, natural resources and property has an enormous impact on the fight against hunger and poverty, the empowerment of women, and on peace and security. It contributes to improved environmental sustainability, as well as access to social, economic and political institutions and capital for poor men and women.

Conflicts over land and resources are increasing in frequency and intensity, and have a negative impact on people's livelihoods, causing displacement, damage to the environment and loss of life. Land conflicts are complex and their sources are numerous, including structural or historically-based inequalities, political and territorial disputes, communities that are in competition with extractive industries, and differences between statutory and customary laws.

Insecure land rights can also result from prolonged violence and conflict-related displacement. This has contributed to an increase in "man-made" food emergencies over the past decade, with more than 30 countries facing such emergencies as of 2004.

The Ministerial Roundtable on "Land and Conflict" sought to focus attention on these important issues. The meeting was co-chaired by Ms. Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, Director of UN-HABITAT's New York office, and Mr. Bruce Moore, Land Coalition Director. It brought together 20 participants from ministerial delegations, UN agencies, civil society and other institutions to address the links between development, land and property rights, and conflict resolution.

Conflicts over land reflect power disparities, participants noted throughout the meeting. In "vertical conflicts," it can be very difficult for poor men and women to negotiate from positions of relative strength. There are also many examples of "horizontal conflicts," which pit poor households and communities against one another. The Land Coalition, through its intergovernmental and civil society members, works to level the playing field for poor families, so they can influence decisions on land that directly affect them.

The experience of UN-HABITAT, including its role as focal point for implementation of the Habitat Agenda, illustrates how land is frequently at the center of ensuring sustainable human settlements and access to basic services, and that land and property rights is a critical issue in post-conflict situations. In post-conflict environments, such as Afghanistan , Kosovo , Iraq and Somalia , land ownership documents were lost, taken or destroyed. Where land administration documents were recovered, they were incomplete, inaccurate or altered. This prevented displaced populations from returning to recover land, houses and businesses. Similar cases occurred in areas affected by the 2004 tsunami. These problems are often exacerbated by weak or absent rule of law.

Conflicts over land reflect inequities in rural and urban areas. Where poor men and women lack power to negotiate and participate in the decision-making, there is a greater risk that their land and property can be stolen or illegally occupied. Women and children are particularly vulnerable to forced or illegal evictions, as well as displacement during periods of armed conflict. An integrated approach to land and development that emphasizes participation - especially by women - in decision-making on land and resource use can help to mitigate these risks.

Indigenous peoples are among the most vulnerable groups with respect to land and conflict, as was noted by the guest commentator from the Amerindian Peoples' Association (APA), a civil society organization in GUYANA that supports indigenous communities to secure their resource rights, and by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The close links between land and indigenous peoples' spirituality is not often recognized by governments. Laws and guidelines do not adequately protect indigenous rights to ancestral lands and access to water and forest resources, particularly where customary laws concerning land and natural resources are unwritten. Conflicts between indigenous communities and extractive industries arise when free, prior and informed consent is not respected; furthermore, economic benefits from these commercial activities are rarely enjoyed by indigenous peoples themselves.

Participating ministerial representatives noted that the issue of land and conflict poses significant challenges for governments. In BRAZIL , the government has moved to increase monitoring and improve law enforcement in the Amazon rainforest, although the vast area involved makes this a difficult task. Preservation of indigenous land-use knowledge and management, protection of biogenetic diversity and improved market access can contribute to environmental sustainability and poverty reduction.

In SOUTH AFRICA , land issues are intensely political and reflect a desire to redress historical inequities in land distribution. This not only requires political will, but also an accurate diagnostic of needs. The state must develop its capacity to act efficiently and to create new and more participatory processes - this is necessary for all citizens to feel they have a stake in their own development and their own future. It is a challenging task to convince parties involved in land disputes that there can be solutions that benefit all.

Land conflicts and lack of secure land access in THE PHILIPPINES is a contributing factor to land degradation. Colonial rule concentrated both land and power in the hands of the few, a condition that persists today and fuels conflicts over land and agrarian resources. Where land-poor farmers occupy uplands areas and convert forest lands for agricultural use, there can be a negative impact on people in the lowlands and long-term environmental damage, such as erosion. Large landowners are frequently local rule-makers, and without adequate resources the government has faced difficulty in purchasing for redistribution to landless families.

KAZAKHISTAN has much experience related to conflict prevention and environmental degradation. Kazakhstan will meet all MDGs except for Goal 7, ecological sustainability, largely because of environmental problems inherited from the Soviet era. International assistance is needed for environmental restoration, particularly around the Aral Sea .

JAMAICA highlighted the needs to address communal ownership and improve data collection and storage, as well the question of coordination and good cooperation with regard to land ownership.

Land conflict and land access also challenge UN agencies in their work. FAO's experience affirms that land access is an important predictor of poverty and food security, and land is often a contributing factor in conflicts, particularly in creating "latent" disputes from which violence later emerges. In post-conflict environments, destruction of land records and communities' institutional memories - often the basic register in rural areas - place vulnerable groups and families at particular risk. On top of death and destruction, local authorities are in disarray and both formal and informal cadastres lost.

UNEP's work has shown that there is a clear correlation between poverty and environmentally burdening activities, particularly when there is a risk of forced eviction (e.g., dam construction). Conflicts also arise where changes in the local or national distribution of power are not reflected in the distribution of land rights. Secure land tenure not only encourages economic production, it also can reduce environmental degradation.

In IFAD's experience, while secure access to land is a key objective, it has not yet been addressed in a way that adequately brings together all stakeholders. There is a need to share information and experiences among countries and institutions, recognizing that the meaning of secure land access is very much context-dependent and that bottom-up approaches to policy reform are needed, particularly when addressing land-related conflict.

Governments, as enforcers of laws, are often seen as a major party in resolving this conflict. DESA's experience, though, suggests that modern laws are often imposed on communal and tribal laws, bringing legal systems into conflict. There is a need for tripartite or multi-stakeholder forums, so that impartiality of governments is ensured.

The Ministerial Roundtable identified several key challenges and opportunities for addressing land-related conflicts, and improving the security of land and property rights for vulnerable groups. These included:

• Women are particularly vulnerable to losing rights to land, property and natural resources. To ensure equal access to land and property by women, it is necessary to address power disparities between men and women, and improve women's access to decision-making.

• There is a need to support and strengthen civil society groups that are strong advocates for the land and property rights of women, indigenous peoples and other marginalized groups.

• In post-conflict situations, the protection of land and property records should be addressed immediately and fully integrated into peacekeeping activities, and formalized on the agenda of any interim government . The experiences of HABITAT and FAO can provide lessons on challenges faced in re-establishing land administration in post-conflict environments.

• Rebuilding the "institutional memory" of land tenure systems should draw on both statutory and customary tenure arrangements. In some contexts, customary law will have more direct bearing on actual practices concerning land access than statutory law, and should be acknowledged and better understood.

• Governments, international financial institutions and commercial bodies must respect the internationally recognized principle of "free, prior and informed consent" when considering project activities on indigenous lands. IFIs should scrutinize project proposals carefully to ensure that the rights and concerns of indigenous peoples are fully reflected.

• Improving secure access to land presents different challenges and opportunities depending on the specific context. International agencies in particular should avoid a "one-size-fits-all" approach, which itself may generate conflict. Wider exchange of information and experiences among government, civil society and intergovernmental agencies can broaden the range of options available to countries and communities.

• The growing links between rural, urban and peri-urban areas are often overlooked, and should be given more attention in identifying both causes and potential solutions for conflict over land and property rights. Stronger alliances between organizations focused on rural and urban poverty can encourage an integrated approach to strengthening land rights.

• Despite the close links between secure land access and nearly all of the MDGs, the draft outcome document for the September 2005 plenary meeting remains silent on these issues. Governments should raise these issues during the plenary meeting and encourage the outcome statement to identify the importance of land, property and natural resource rights in realizing internationally agreed-upon development goals.

List of participants

Government representatives:

1. H.E. Ernesto Aranibar, Bolivia
2. Benedicto Fonseca , Brazil
3. Norma Taylor-Roberts, Jamaica
4. Barlybay Sadykov , Kazakhstan
5. Jimmy Blas, The Philippines
6. H.E. Xolisa Mabhongo , South Africa
7. Javier Garcia de Viedma, Spain
8. Johanna Brismar Skoog , Sweden

UN Agency representatives:

1. Navid Hanif, DESA
2. Kostas Stamoulis, FAO
3. Lennart Båge, IFAD
4. Hui Lu, Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
5. Klaus Toepfler, UNEP
6. Peggy Nelson, WFP

Other participants:

1. Martin Cheong, Amerindian Peoples Association, Guyana
2. Georgina Pozo Rivas, Government of the State of Mexico
3. Mona Serageldin, Institute for International Urban Development, Harvard University
4. Necla Tschirgi, International Peace Academy

Co-hosts:

1. Axumite Gebre-Egziabher, UN-HABITAT
2. Bruce Moore, International Land Coalition