Who owns the world’s land? Legislation to cement communities’ historic rights stalls
An indigenous woman holds her child while trying to resist the advance of Amazonas state policemen who were expelling the woman and some 200 other members of the Landless Movement from a privately-owned tract of land on the outskirts of Manaus, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon March 11, 2008. PHOTO | REUTERS
While land that is legally designated or owned by indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local communities worldwide between 2015 and 2020 has risen in acreage, in sub-Saharan Africa the opposite applies, says a report by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI): It decreased by 2.4 million hectares (Mha) – from 9.6 percent of land across the 23 countries in Africa analysed as of 2015 to 9.4 percent of land across the same countries in 2020.
The report, titled “Who Owns the World’s Land?” is the result of a study that analysed land increases across 73 countries and highlighted increases in 21 countries. Kenya and Liberia were among the countries driving most of the significant gains.
