Last week, the International Land Coalition (ILC) hosted its 9th Global Land Forum in Jordan - the first large in-person meeting of the land community for three years. The main focus of the Forum was on the climate crisis and the role of strong land rights in adapting to and mitigating climate change. However, it also focused on those issues traditionally championed by those working on land rights: gender equality and social inclusion, peace-building, food security, tenure security, land governance and the continued plight of those defending land rights and the environment.

Mike Wiggins Jr, Bad River CEO and Tribal chair said of the removal: “No amount of compensation is worth risking Wenji-Bimaadiziyaang- an Ojibwe word that literally means ‘From where we get life.’ It’s time to end the imminent threat the company is presenting to our people, our rivers, and gichi gami (Lake Superior). It’s not only an infringement of our sovereignty, but a burden felt by our people having to engage in the perpetual chase for the next pipeline rupture. It’s time to stop the flow of oil immediately.”

In the past few weeks, a number of water protectors have seen criminal cases dropped by prosecutors in so-called Northern Minnesota after alleged actions taken to stop the Line 3 pipeline in defense of the water, the climate, and the treaty rights of the Anishinaabeg people. Violating Anishinaabe treaty territories in Minnesota, the new stretch of Line 3 was approved without full consent or proper impact studies, threatening safe water sources for millions. It carries the carbon equivalent of 50 coal plants. More than 68,000 Minnesotans testified against this plan.

Join Prindex's event at the Global Land Forum, read thoughts from Prindex Co-Directors Anna Locke and Malcolm Childress on what they hope the Forum will achieve, and explore our work around the event's key themes.

Thanks to all who participated in Land Portal and Global Land Alliance’s webinar “Invisible and Excluded: Risks To Informal Wives And Partners From Land Tenure Formalization And Titling Campaigns In Latin America”. We hope to continue to raise awareness on risks to informal wives during land tenure formalization campaigns. The webinar builds off of Global Land Alliance’s paper Invisible and Excluded: Risks to Informal Spouses from Land Tenure Formalization and Titling Campaigns,

Global Land Alliance’s March 2022 edition of our Parcel Post contains articles entitled: “Invisible And Excluded: Risks To Informal Wives And Partners From Land Tenure Formalization And Titling Campaigns In Latin America”, by Jen Duncan, Laura Bermudez, and Kevin Barthel; “Indigenous Land Defense at Peehee Mu’huh: “Green Energy" Demands Encroach on Paiute and Shoshone Territory” by Christen Corcoran;

International Womens Day 2022. Land rights formalization and titling campaigns have improved land tenure security for millions of rural people over the past decades. But while many have benefitted, others have been left out, and risks are often highest for women.

In this episode of the Land Up! podcast we ask where we land up on gender equality. We spoke to human rights lawyer Faith Alubbe, land economist Nana Ama Yirrah and Mokoro Principal Consultant and Land Portal Board Member Dr Elizabeth Daley about women's land rights with a special focus on widows in Africa.

The latest IPCC climate report mentions tenure security a whopping 58 times. This is a welcome shift in emphasis from the UN – strengthening land rights is a just and sustainable way to protect vulnerable landscapes in the climate fight, and one that works. By the report’s own estimate, time is almost up. As we push closer to the point of no return, the world needs to stop talking and start acting. Ramping up the recognition of land rights could help us preserve enough of the natural world to pull us back from the brink.

The Global Land Alliance (GLA) and the Land Portal Foundation invite you to join this webinar on 16 March, 2022 to learn about the risks to informal wives during land tenure formalization campaigns.

In this first episode of the Land UP! podcast, we ask: where do we land up on climate change?

We spoke to Indigenous climate activist Dr Myrna Cunningham Kain, the Guardian's global environment editor Jonathan Watts and Prindex Co-Director Anna Locke about diversity, representation, and climate justice at COP26.

Last summer in the US, an estimated 15 million people were at risk of eviction. Similar problems have been seen in rental markets around the world. Just ahead of the pandemic, Prindex’s global survey found that 1 in 3 renters worldwide fear eviction – an estimated 272 million people. The pandemic has undoubtedly pushed this figure up.

Nigerian politicians like to talk about creating ‘megacities,’ but it’s hard for people living in the country’s slums to see their place in this vision of the future. Voiceless in the policy debate, their homes get bulldozed in the name of urban regeneration. Making them owners instead of subjects of research on urban land rights could give them the direct line to policymakers they so desperately need.

Prindex Global and leading think tank NCAER will announce a new initiative today at the India Land and Development Conference 2021 to enhance land and housing rights in India. The project will go state by state mapping government performance on land records against people’s perceptions of their rights to drive policy progress in the country.

The Washington Post published an article on Nov 19, 2021 highlighting Africa’s rapid urbanization rates projected between now and 2100. GLA and Prindex’s partner Dr. Taibat Lawanson of the University of Lagos was cited in the article:

The mood is mixed coming out of Glasgow. There’s relief that the world didn’t step back from the 1.5°C goal and that rich countries will provide more climate finance. There’s delight that the check-ins on progress will now happen every year. There’s resigned acceptance that the coal phase out was phrased down to make it into the final text.

Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples have been stewarding Earth’s lands for millennia. Maintaining their sovereignty over their lands is not just a pressing human rights issue, it is now also recognized as a powerful climate change solution.

On the face of things, this is the first time that nature and biodiversity have achieved real prominence at a climate COP. Following a strong focus on forests and land use during the World Leaders’ Summit, COP26 included a dedicated Nature Day on the weekend. In between these two moments, a series of declarations and commitments were released:

From Nov 2nd to 3rd 2021, Global Land Alliance’s Victor Endo and Monica Ribadeneira Sarmiento were in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic participating in the seventh Inter-American Conference on Cadastre and Property Registry (original language “Conferencia Interamericana de Catastro y Registro de la Propiedad”) known as CatConf2021.

Yesterday for the first time at a UN climate summit, world leaders shone a spotlight on forests and land. Heads of state, corporate moguls and philanthropists lined up to announce huge figures to protect nature and halt and reverse forest loss.