Join the Ford Foundation, the Land Portal Foundation, the Tenure Facility and the Thomson Reuters Foundation for a webinar on May 20th. The link between “environmental imbalances” and “emerging infectious diseases” is well established in literature; studies have shown that activities associated with deforestation, and subsequent biodiversity loss, contribute to the spread of disease vectors and associated diseases. Maintaining intact forest cover and preventing the associated consequences of deforestation, would reduce virus emergence events.  There are many other good reasons to do it: forests store carbon, protect wildlife and sustain peoples' livelihoods. 

This event is the second of a series of webinars organised under the “Land Dialogues” series, a Tenure Facility, Land Portal, Ford Foundation and Thomson Reuters Foundation initiative promoting the importance of recognizing legal ownership of Indigenous Peoples and local communities land rights as a prerequisite for achieving national and international goals for forest governance, food security, climate mitigation, economic development, and human rights. 

For more information and registration, visit the website of The Land Portal

Over 100 ILC members are organisations that represent 56+ thousand communities and more than 71 million people around the globe. They directly represent and are accountable to land users, whether it is at local level as small grassroots, or at a bigger scale as regional farmers federations. These organisations are at the heart of the ILC's mandate, with the Coalition putting them at the centre of decision-making and supporting their engagement in ILC activities.

Each day you will learn from the experience of different people working on and for their land rights:

• Monday 24 of May: exchanges from Pastoralists to Pastoralists
• Tuesday 25 of May: exchanges from Women to Women
• Wednesday of 26 May: exchanges from Youth to Youth
• Thursday of 27 May: exchanges from Indigenous People to Indigenous People

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

• Who are the organisations directly representing land users, and what’s special about them?
• What are their main challenges and success stories?
• How do they engage with the Coalition and contribute to its achievements?
• How can ILC best support their efforts to secure their rights to land, territories and natural resources?

THIS LAB IS FOR

ILC members and non-members, especially those representing directly land users; partners, NGOs and INGOs that support the work of these organisations.

For more information, click here

3rd Mekong Regional Land Forum

Land tenure in Mekong forest landscapes: advancing the recognition of customary rights and responsible investment practices

Online and in Chiang Mai (Thailand), Hanoi (Viet Nam), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Vientiane (Lao People's Democratic Republic) and Yangon (Myanmar)

26-27 May 2021

Recent global disruptions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic have highlighted the dependence of Mekong region communities on land and forest resources. More widely recognised than ever, secure tenure and access to land and forests are preconditions for the sustainable management of the resources. The 3rd Mekong Regional Land Forum will bring together reform-minded actors within and beyond the region to engage in in-depth, interactive debate on issues that cut to the core of local tenure security and community resource management. 

Day 1 of the Forum will focus on advancing customary and collective forest tenure rights. The first of these sessions will compare and examine experiences and approaches within national tenure regimes of the Mekong countries. The second session will situate these experiences within global trends, emphasising the potential for regional platforms such as ASEAN to foster more inclusive and grounded policies for the sustainable management of forests, with diverse benefits including securing local livelihoods, gender equity, and national commitments to biodiversity and climate change.

Day 2 of the Forum will focus on a key determining influence over smallholder tenure security within the Mekong countries: how to manage and respond to patterns and practices of investment in Mekong forest landscapes. The third session is aimed at ‘demystifying’ principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent, principles that are designed to protect the rights of communities to land and resources while also protecting investments by avoiding land conflicts. The fourth session will highlight the potential effectiveness of tools such as the ASEAN Guidelines for Responsible Agricultural Investment in Food, Agriculture and Forestry (ASEAN-RAI) in steering agribusiness investments in Mekong forest landscapes towards a more sustainable future.

Each Forum session will be organized in four parts:

1. An expert review of the topic, complemented by two case study presentations

2. A panel discussion including experts and representatives from government and civil society, followed by questions from the public to the speakers and panellists.

3. In-person and online break-out groups, allowing further time for debate among participants around a specific experience, topic or question.

4. Summarization of key take-aways from the sessions to stimulate further action

The sessions will take place online, with in-person events in each of the Mekong countries. All the sessions will be in English, simultaneously translated in four languages: Khmer, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnamese. Participants at the in-person events in each country will have the opportunity to debate and exchange in their own national language, while online discussions will be in English only. 

The event will use innovative tools to ensure an interactive experience and offer multiple means to share questions, answers and debate during the sessions and beyond.

Please visit the website of the Land Portal for more information.

How to increase women’s participation at community level: success stories from the ILC Network

Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment | Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture

Next Training: June 15-25, 2021
Location: Online   

Download the 2021 Executive Training Brochure here. Please find the application link here. We are accepting applications on a rolling basis until March 31, 2021.

CCSI’s Executive Training on Sustainable Investments in Agriculture provides an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the challenges and opportunities of agricultural investments. The program is designed to equip participants with the necessary knowledge and skills to address some of the key challenges posed by international investments in agriculture, and to encourage a rich dialogue about practices from around the globe.

Who should attend?

This interdisciplinary program is designed for mid-level public sector officials and civil society representatives from low- and middle-income countries, whose responsibilities relate to investments, agriculture, land, or rural development. Representatives of bilateral development agencies, foundations, intergovernmental organizations, UN agencies, and the private sector may also be admitted.

The training is delivered in English. All participants must be able to communicate fluently in English.

When and how will the training be delivered?

The training will take place from June 15-25, 2021.

While the Executive Training is usually held in-person at Columbia University, the 2021 program will be held online.

The virtual training will include asynchronous and synchronous learning and peer-to-peer sharing components:

• Short and interactive live training sessions will take place each business day from June 15-25. These sessions will be dedicated to engagement with course lecturers and practitioners, and to peer-to-peer sharing. A detailed schedule of live sessions will be shared with participants in early 2021.
• Background materials for each training topic, including video presentations and readings, will be shared with participants through a dedicated course platform and available for review by participants in advance of the live sessions.

What are the program fees?

The training will be made freely available to accepted participants who fall into the following categories:

• Non-profit organizations (must be registered as a non-profit in your jurisdiction)
• Government officials from low- and middle-income countries

A program fee of USD $500 applies to all other accepted participants, including those who fall into the following categories:

• Government officials from high-income countries
• Private sector
• Funders (including bilateral development agencies and foundations)
• UN agencies
• Intergovernmental organizations

Please note that CCSI adheres to a strict cancellation and refund policy for all executive trainings. Details of the cancellation policy applicable to online trainings will be posted on this website page in November 2020.

How can I apply?

Complete and submit this application form.

Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis until March 31, 2021. We encourage applicants to apply early in order to secure a place.

Faculty

The course draws primarily from among faculty and experts at the Earth Institute at Columbia University. Outside experts also teach specific topics related to their expertise. Faculty from the past trainings have included:

• Luiz Amaral, Director, Global Solutions for Commodities and Finance, World Resources Institute
• Ward Anseeuw, Senior Technical Specialist (Knowledge, Learning and Innovation), International Law Coalition; Research Fellow, CIRAD
• Joseph Bell, Of Counsel, Hogan Lovells US LLP
• Karol Boudreaux, Chief Program Officer, Landesa
• Ronald Chari, Counsel, World Bank Group
• Lorenzo Cotula, Principal Researcher, IIED
• Sonkita Conteh, Director, Sierra Leone Program, Namati
• Esther Delbourg, École Polytechnique
• Heather Eisenlord, Human Rights Director, ISLP
• Joshua Fisher, Director, Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity
• Laura German, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Center for Integrative Conservation and Research, University of Georgia
• Bruce Gilchrist, Partner, Hogan Lovells US LLP
• Michael Jarvis, Executive Director, Transparency & Accountability Initiative
• Kiersten Johnson, Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor, USAID Bureau for Food Security
• Jon Lindsay, Lead Counsel for Land and Natural Resources, Environmental and International Law Practice Group, World Bank
• Simon Mason, Senior Research Scientist, Climate, Disasters, International Outreach, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
• Tiernan Mennen, Vice President, Governance and Rights, Abt Associates
• Ángel G. Muñoz, Associate Research Scientist,Climate Variations and Predictability, International Research Institute for Climate and Society
• Mark Musumba, Associate Research Scientist, Agriculture and Food Security Center, Earth Institute, Columbia University
• Carolyn Mutter, International Program Manager, Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP)
• Amanda Richardson, Co-Founder and Program Director, Resource Equity
• Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
• Alex Ruane, Research Coordinator and Climate Team Lead, Agricultural Model Intercomparison and Improvement Project (AgMIP), NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
• Tess Russo, Portfolio Lead and Research Scientist, Global Good, Intellectual Ventures
• Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director of the Center for Sustainable Development, University Professor at Columbia University, and Senior UN Advisor
• Senior legal, economics, and technical staff of CCSI

Date: 20 - 25 June 2021
What impact is the coronavirus pandemic having on the geospatial industry worldwide? The current situation is unique. There are no textbooks from which we can learn how to master such a crisis. The impact varies from country to country and from organisation to organisation. Such a change in reality brings challenges and opportunities. During FIG e-Working Week we want to focus on the surveyor and the challenges they have in an unstable, uncertain, unpredictable world and with what technology, methods and procedures they face these new developments. How do surveyors adapt to these unexpected circumstances and what have we learned so far from these challenges?

This special e-Working Week will be accessible from all over the world, allowing the whole FIG Community with over 250.000 members from 120 countries to join in the event.

More information

Land, Crisis and Resilience

30 June – 2 July 2021
Online

The LANDac Annual International Conference offers a podium for knowledge exchange between researchers, practitioners and private sector representatives interested in land governance for equitable and sustainable development. Anticipating that the COVID-19 global crisis will continue to restrict travel and large-scale events, the LANDac Annual International Conference 2021 will be held in an online format.

This year’s conference ‘Land, Crisis and Resilience’ focusses on the challenges that global, intertwining crises pose to land governance systems, processes and actors. The global pandemic and the expected economic decline play out simultaneously with ongoing effects of climate change and persistent food insecurity. The COVID-19 pandemic put land access and land governance under pressure, and both uncovered and deepened underlying problems. While we have only started to document the impacts of the pandemic on rural and urban livelihoods, we also need to ask how it plays out in relation to these other crises, chronic (such as poverty) or acute (e.g. climate-related hazards). To this background, the conference addresses three interconnected questions:

• How do different global crises impact land access? (And where do we see the biggest problems?)
• How does the land governance landscape respond? (And where does it need to do better?)
• What can we learn about resilience in response to these intertwined crises? (And how could land governance support that?)

LANDac Annual Summer School

Land Governance for Development

Every summer, LANDac organises the ‘Land Governance for Development’ Summer School in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The next Summer School will take place between the 5th – 16th July 2021.

Background
Large-scale acquisition of land in the global South has received a great deal of interest in the last few years. Especially following the food crisis (2003-08), and stimulated by the growing demand for biofuels, pressure on land continues to increase. This course provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the ‘land rush’ within the more general context of land governance in Africa, Asia, and Latin America: the history and drivers, the diversity of stakeholders and networks involved, the urgency and current challenges, and innovative governance solutions.

The large-scale acquisition of land in the global South – often referred to as land grabbing – has received much attention from academics, policy-makers, and media in the last years. Especially following the food crisis (2003-08), and stimulated by the growing demand for bio-energy, pressure on land in developing countries has increased quickly. Besides the demand for agricultural land, current land acquisitions are also related to tourism development, the rush for minerals and oil, industrial development, urbanization and nature conservation. Local populations often seem defenseless in this ‘rush for land’ and governments lack capacity to address the challenges. As a result, access to and use of natural resources, particularly in the developing world, is being transformed irreversibly.

Land governance in developing countries has to deal with the multiple pressures and competing claims in balancing economic growth, environmental protection and social justice. This course provides a multidisciplinary analysis of the ‘land rush’ within the more general context of land governance in Africa, Asia and Latin America: the history and drivers of the processes, the diversity of stakeholders and networks involved, the urgency and current challenges, and innovative governance solutions.

The course
The course is organized by the Netherlands Academy for Land Governance (LANDac), a network of organizations interested in how land governance may contribute to sustainable and inclusive development. MSc students, PhD students and professionals from development organizations and related projects will acquire up-to-date knowledge on new land pressures and learn how to place these in broader theoretical contexts and policy debates. Participants learn about best practices in land governance from different perspectives and on multiple levels, from local to international. Topics are discussed in interactive mini-courses, lectures and solution-oriented workshops. The design of the course allows for participants to closely work together with professionals, experts and fellow students from a variety of backgrounds.

The tutorials in the two-week course provide a general overview of important themes such as the global land rush, land governance, land administration and land issues in post-conflict situations. This overview is complemented by a mix of case studies that illustrate issues and trends in specific contexts, cases highlighted in previous LANDac summer schools include (trans)national land investments in Indonesia and the Philippines, government-led land acquisition and resettlement policies in India, and World Bank policies on land. The course also investigates the trend of foreigners buying real estate for residential tourism in Costa Rica, land governance solutions in countries with weak institutions such as Burkina Faso, challenges for participatory land governance in Mozambique, and coping with urban pressures on agricultural land in Vietnam. Topics are discussed from a range of perspectives, blending insights from Dutch and international academics with those of development practitioners, representatives of farmers’ organizations and government policy advisors.

More information
Take a look at the Summer School webpage for more information on this year's programme, or visit the Utrecht University Summer School website for more information and registration.

Update
The 2021 Summer School will take place online.