ADVANCING LAND RIGHTS THROUGH THE RIO CONVENTIONS: OPPORTUNITIES AT NATIONAL LEVEL

21 MARCH (UNCCD) | 8 APRIL (UNFCCC) | 30 APRIL (CBD)

WITH SPANISH AND FRENCH INTERPRETATION

Rooted in deep structural inequalities, the climate, biodiversity, and land degradation crises collectively pose some of the gravest threats currently facing the planet and its people. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) - also known as “the Rio Conventions” - provide a global policy space for governments and other stakeholders to discuss commitments and define the instruments to address such existential challenges.

Secure land and territorial rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities, afro-descendant communities, pastoralists, small farmers, fisherfolks and other women and men who live on and from the land, are increasingly recognised in such global policy spaces as functional to the solutions of these crises, as well as critical to protect vulnerable groups against top-down conservation or mitigation policies.

The International Land Coalition is hosting a series of three online dialogues bringing together the experiences of its members and National Land Coalitions coupled with technical input by policy experts, to shed light on how civil-society organisations can best take advantage of these emerging policy spaces to advocate for land rights on the national level.

UNCCD DIALOGUE | 21 MARCH 2024 | 2.00-3.15 PM CET

Land rights have been recognised as critical towards achieving the goal of Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) in an effective and equitable way, as confirmed by decisions recently adopted by the Conference of the Parties (COP) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD): decision 26/COP14 on land tenure in 2019 acknowledges the importance of tenure security to enhance the implementation of the convention; decision 27/COP15 in 2022 explicitly recognises the need for promoting equal tenure rights and access to land, for everyone but particularly for those in vulnerable situations such as Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, women, youth, small-scale farmers and pastoralists. Subsequently, UNCCD and FAO produced a technical guide for the integration of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT) into the implementation of the convention and LDN.

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have therefore the opportunity to engage national implementation processes and frameworks, such as National Action Programmes (NAPs) and Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), to advocate for appropriate recognition of land rights as an instrument to alleviate and counter the Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought (DLDD) crisis. 

This session will bring together stakeholder representatives, policy experts and CSOs to learn from technical experts and share experiences about how national policy spaces generated by the implementation of UNCCD and LDN can be seized to advance tenure security and land rights.

UNFCCC DIALOGUE | 8 APRIL 2024 | 3.00-4.15 PM CEST

It is estimated that 50% of land on the planet is held, used or managed collectively by Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities, farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolks and forest keepers - yet only 10% of it is formally acknowledged. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are recognised for their success in protecting their lands and territories, and manage around 300 billion metric tons of carbon. Without tenure security, they are prevented from protecting their land against land use change, driven primarily by agriculture and resource extraction.

At the same time, secure land rights are key to avoid potential negative consequences that may arise from land-based actions for climate mitigation in the context of energy transition or carbon markets that may lead to forced evictions and/or the absence of Free, Prior and Informed Consent - as well as to form the basis for any related benefit sharing negotiations. 

For the reasons above, it is crucial that communities living on and from the land are capable of engaging the policy spaces opened up by the UNFCCC national implementation processes such as National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), and of using these as instruments to secure their land rights. 

This session will bring together stakeholder representatives, policy experts and CSOs to learn from technical experts and share experiences about how national policy spaces generated by the implementation of the UNFCCC can be seized to advance tenure security and land rights.

CBD DIALOGUE | 30 APRIL 2024 | 3.00-4.15 PM CEST

In the biodiversity policy arena and in particular in the framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), during the Conference of the Parties (COP) 15 in December 2022 member states adopted the historic Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). Beyond conservation and restoration targets, the framework includes powerful language on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, including to their lands, territories, resources and traditional knowledge, and Free, Prior and Informed Consent,; customary land use practices, effective participation of IPs and LCs in decision-making and spatial planning, gender equality and equal rights to land and resources of women, access to justice and protection of environmental land rights defenders, and commitments to sustainable agricultural practices, including agroecology.

While the monitoring framework will be at the centre of COP 16 in late 2024, the national implementation of the Convention as well as the GBF continues to be reported through governments’ National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), many of which currently in the process of being updated in line with the GBF. 

This session will bring together stakeholder representatives, policy experts and CSOs to learn from technical experts and share experiences about how national policy spaces generated by the implementation of the GBF can be seized to advance tenure security and land rights.