ILDC 2022 | ILDC

Themes

Net Zero and Land Tenure

Sustainable Food System and Land Tenure

Climate Change, Disaster Management and Land Tenure

Global Land Soft laws and Land Tenure in South

SDGs and Land Tenure

Mr. Dinesh Rabari
Founding Member SAPA, MARAG
Ms. Sujata Thakur
SAPA
Ms. Pawna Kumari
State Secretary of Himachal Ghumantu Pashupalak Mahasabha
Session Organizer:
Dr.M.Homayoun Ludin
Afghanistan Steering Committee Member SAPA
Mr. Dharm Raj Joshi
Nepal Steering Committee Member SAPA
Pastoral agriculture is a way of life for many communities in Asia and over time it has evolved and supported environmental protection of rangeland landscapes and herders’ livelihoods. Moreover, as common pool resources, and in some cases as open access resources, pasturelands whose management is based on rich and diverse traditions of indigenous knowledge of local communities, state regulations and tenure systems can contribute to the social and economic well-being of a country. Specifically, animal husbandry is the main occupation of the pastoralist communities, who are highly dependent on the commons and increased pressures by climate change and land degradation and they have difficulties or are not able to use the commons to feed their cattle during drought and other hard climate events.

Afghanistan As per government data, pastorals form two million of population in Afghanistan, however, this is a very conservative figure, and in contrast they constitute four million population, as per other surveys. Maldhari migrate to more than 2,500 kms at a stretch that extends inside of Pakistan. Historically, during winters, pastorals move from Afghanistan to Pakistan in search of the pasture. With the mounting conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the pastorals are not allowed to migrate to Pakistan. There is a deadly conflict between resident people and pastorals for grazing land. Resident people are not allowing pastoralist to take their livestock for grazing in the common pasture land, which they have been traditionally doing. There is no separate livestock department for pastoralist neither is there a Grazing Land Policy at National Level. There is no specific budget for pasture land and livestock. Afghanistan has pasture as well as forest committees; however, they are not active.

India Commons are a traditional village managed resource (land, water, forests) that provides fuel, fodder, water, fruits, and grazing to the most households in a village. 70 million hectares of land in India are under commons, and 48 to 75% of rural population depends on the commons in some ways or the other. Specifically, animal husbandry is the main occupation of the pastoralist communities, who are highly dependent on the commons for feeding their cattle. About 10% of Indian population is pastoralists, but the Policy on Commons, particularly in the context of the Pastoralists is yet prepared. Additional problems identified include: No clear institutional jurisdiction over the Commons – The biggest losers are women as studies point out that woman actually use the commons much more than men to discharge their domestic duties. While decentralization of powers and functions to the Panchayat Raj may be one systemic answer, the Panchayats are not clearly mandated about their responsibilities under any commons policy. New policy on commons may not l Nepal has a total 3.3 million hectare of the rangelands, nearly 80 % is in high hill. Of the total rangeland, about 27 % is within Protected Areas· and this part of rangeland is also at high risk due to the pressure of the local communities and unorganized grazing and tourism industry. Valuable herbs like Yarsagumba is found in rangeland therefore, there conflicts on ownership and management and there are cases of loss of human life. Furthermore, remoteness, poor management and increasing pressure of human and animals, have led to the further degradation of the rangelands. The ownership of the rangeland belongs to the government, however it is being used by the local communities therefore, there is some confusion on the management of rangeland. Similarly, there is lack of effective enforcement of bilateral agreement on transborder animal grazing with neighbouring countries and grazing fees are reported to be high.
Dr. Usha Ramnathan
Senior Law Researcher and Human Rights Activist
Ms. Astha Saxena
Legal Researcher & Doctoral Fellow, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad
Ms. Rakshita Swamy
Founder, Social Accountability Form for Action and Research (SAFAR)
Session Organizer:
Mr. Sanjoy Patnaik
Land and Forest Tenure Specialist, Foundation for Ecological Security
Tenure security is closely intertwined with livelihood resilience, sustainable use of resources and social protection. Insecure land tenure is known to play a critical role in the (in)ability of local and indigenous communities to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change. Recognition of this fact, coupled with effective advocacy and mobilisation, has led countries to drive domestic policies and enact unprecedented laws (such as in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo) to transform the ability to protect community land rights. Large investments are also afoot to support community tenure, inclusive of pledges to the tune of 1.7 billion dollars being made at the COP26 summit.

For India, the situation on ground narrates a different tale. Despite supporting 350 million rural poor, common lands in India are regarded as ‘wastelands’ and are largely administered by the state. Enabling laws such as the Panchayati Raj Act or the Forest Rights Act are yet to bring a systemic change in how local communities access, use and govern their Commons. Community claims are also not firmly embedded or been institutionalised under key land legislations such as the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013. Recent amendments proposed to India’s green laws such as the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 or the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 are also considered to be unfavourable. While the Indian judiciary has played an active role in protecting the interests of those seeking justice, reflections on the landmark Jagpal Singh case during the ILDC 2021 revealed that the Supreme Court’s promise of Commons is also dallying due to regulatory apathy, multiplicity of claims, complexity of the land tenure system, lack of awareness and macroeconomic pressures.

In this session, we draw from the global momentum towards secure community tenure and explore and critique the foundational norms of India’s legal framework on common lands. With the backdrop of Article 39(b) of the Constitution of India that directs “the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good”, the session aims to answer the following questions and challenge their underlying assumptions:

What key challenges and opportunities exist in India in the context of safeguarding community tenure? What does experience from the ground show?

How should community rights to land and resources be formalised and protected? Can existing global commitments and international frameworks be used to support this process?

What role should the state play? Which institutions and mechanisms need to be established to facilitate the interface between formal state institutions and informal customary rules and practices?

The session aims to enable the land governance community to identify prospects for critical legal empowerment, strategic litigation and policy initiatives that strengthen community tenure.
Ms. Yingkongshon Shaiza
Program Manager in RNBA, Manipur
Ms. Prisca Gonmei
Program Manager, Rongmei Baptist Association (RNBA)
Mr. Holkhomang Haokip
Secretary, Rural Aid Service (RAS)
Session Organizer:
Mr. Simon L. Hrangchal
Development Department Evangelical Assembly Church (EAC), Churachandp
Ms. Akeina Gonmei
Development Secretary, Rongmei Baptist Association, Nagaland (RBAN)
Manipur is divided into valley and hilly areas. Settlement and Land owning system differs from valley to hilly regions. In valley areas most of the lands are individually owned and they have Pata (govt. Issued land document) but in the hilly regions lands are owned by the land owners also differ from Naga to Kuki. Landownership in Naga society is governed by village head that authorise and give permission for settlement in the village in a particular plot. They practice customary land tenure system which differs from village to village also have lands owned by clan (clan land), community land. In Kuki society, the village Chief has complete authority over landownership and village affaires. He is the sole owner of the land, distributes the land to the villagers and has the power to expel any villagers from the village. While land availability is still in plenty considering a comparative low density of population in the hills, access to land varies among the tribal communities under the prevailing customary tenure regimes. The land tenure systems vary across communities, clans and also many times among villages deciding access to land which is critical for livelihoods as well as resilience of hill ecosystems.

Land issue in Manipur is not different from other parts of the country. As land itself is a vast subject, land issue is one of the crucial issues facing in the society between one community to another, between neighbouring villages and also within the village. Due to improper or no demarcation of the land and no documentation conflicts arises among the tribal communities residing in the hills of Manipur. To enhance the resilience of hill ecosystems, settled agriculture and farming is required to be encouraged along with forest conservation. However, the present tenure regime provides limited incentives for the same with required tenure security and evidence required for public services entitlements and for accessing credit and insurance services remaining absent, due to lack of documentation of land relationships, extent and locations. Overlapping land tenure is the rule in the prevailing customary tenure regimes, with land relations spatially and temporally overlapping vis-à-vis uses. Customary tenure regimes also lack provisions for equal land rights for women.

Therefore considering all the above:

Efforts of RNBA over last years have brought in substantive changes around perceptions and practices of land tenure in many villages in Manipur. Entry points among customary authorities now have been carved around scope of improved tenure security around long-term land uses (viz. orchards, terraces etc.) through individual and group rights. Willingness to extend joint rights to spouses and exclusive rights to single women have been also agreed to by many village authorities, so as the provision of group rights to women SHG. Following mapping of such land tenures along with homesteads, authorities and households are now willing to explore a system of village registry with provision of land tenure certificates as evidences of documented tenure to help access public services entitlements.

The initiatives begun around documentation of customary tenure also need to continue particularly in an interdisciplinary and action research mode to bring out right and adaptive reforms around women land rights, overlapping tenure documentation and building village registry.

RNBA took up initiatives for documenting land tenure certificate which includes information of the holder, information of land/plots, existing terms and conditions followed in the village, coordinates and satellite images of the plots mapped using Survey123 app collaborating with Cadasta Foundation.

The plots are mapped by seeking the consent (Free and Prior Consent) from the villagers, land owners and Village authorities. Village authorities, Youth, women, holder and neighbours participated during mapping of plots/parcels to ensure that no conflict arises due to the mapping. Trainings on mapping were provided for the Youths in the village for assisting the Field data collectors (FDC) while collecting information and maps. This ensures participation of community in mapping process.

During the course of such engagements it is now learnt that interfacing with church leaders are also equally important as that with clan leaders, village authorities, as churches over years, have been playing critical role in mapping and recording land uses and tenures, particularly during periodic celebrations. Moreover, they are found to have strategic reformist influence over political power structure and with their receptivity to change, can play a catalytic role to reform land tenure. RNBA is also critically engage in strategic advocacy by building and strengthening state level networks, and also aiming activities around evidence building and engaging with state, financial institutions and connecting to national and international platforms.

Therefore, RNBA diligently working on putting more efforts to add values in terms of process in improving land rights of the community.
Mr. Deepak Sanan
IAS (Retd),Former- Addl Chief Secretary, HP and former Advisor to NCAER, IIHS & CPR
Mr. Dimgong Rongmei
Executive Director, Rongmei Naga Baptist Association (RNBA)
Mr. Arun K Bansal
IFS (retd), Former Addl. Director General of Forests, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Ms. Karishma Shelar
Programme Manager – Farms and Forests, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)
Mr. Siddharth Edake
Senior Manager, Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration Program, WRI India
Session Organizer:
Ms. Joanna Dawson
Rural Futures – Anthropological Visioner, Balipara Foundation
Dr. Ruchika Singh
Director, Sustainable Landscapes and Restoration Program, World Resources Institute India
Nearly 700 million people living in rural India are dependent on forests and agriculture for their livelihoods. Nature-based solutions like forest protection and landscape restoration can help meet key socio-economic and development goals for dependent populations, while also contributing to the conservation of nature and natural resources. Inclusive landscape restoration strategies will be instrumental for India to achieve its international commitments under the Bonn Challenge, Paris Agreement to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 15.3 “land degradation neutral world”. Landscape restoration strategies also underpin key domestic targets such as the vision of doubling farmer incomes, National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture, National Bamboo Mission, and Nagar Van Udyan Yojana, among others.

WRI India’s Restoration Opportunity Atlas showcases that the opportunity is massive across India in more than 100 million hectares of land that could benefit from forest protection and landscape restoration, safely storing up to 3-4.3 gigatonnes of above-ground carbon in vegetation by 2040 (Chaturvedi et al. 2018). However, despite the potential to uptake and scale restoration in India, our assessment based on robust analysis and discussion with key stakeholders indicates that there are several barriers that need to be addressed including 1) assessing needs and building capacities to plan restoration activities, 2) improving policies, reducing barriers and shifting incentives to promote restoration, 3) delivering capital to execute restoration plans and 4) monitoring & evaluating impact of the activities undertaken.

With this background and being in tune with the current ILDC theme that that looks to see how Indian experiences and learning’s can inform the land governance discourses, decisions and actions in global south and vice versa, this session aims to discuss key barriers for landscape restoration based on robust research and on-ground experiences and seek improvement or solutions that can bolster the implementation and scaling of landscape restoration interventions to enhance rural livelihoods, build resilience and mitigate climate risks.
Mr. Ishan Agrawal
General Manager-Programs, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
Mr. Sanjoy Patnaik
Land and Forest Tenure Specialist, Foundation for Ecological Security
Ms. Pooja Chandran
Senior Project Manager, FES
Ms. Namita Mishra
State Coordinator, Raipur, FES
Session Organizer:
Mr. Pradeep Sharma
CMO, Chattisgarh
Ms. Vaishnavi Rathore
Climate and Land Reporter, Scroll.in
Commons (such as community forests, pastures and water bodies) constitute 25 percent of the Indian territory and provide critical support to over 350 million rural poor for their livelihoods. However, a definitive, fit-for-purpose framework to effectively govern and protect India’s Commons is lacking. Formalisation of land rights of local and indigenous communities, which is globally promoted as the pathway to achieve tenure security, livelihood resilience and ecological restoration, is seldom fulfilled. Coupled with lack of incentives, real-time information and sanctions in place for both state and non-state actors, Commons remain some of the most neglected, degraded and encroached lands in India.

However, in the recent past, several instruments have emerged that may accelerate action and mobilise change. Some of these include Panchayat Asset Registers to drive responsible and transparent land management; Prohibitory Order Books to protect common lands from diversions, and; Public Land Protection Cells to settle disputes over common land encroachments. Effective implementation of these instruments involves enhancing capabilities and resources across multiple levels as well as building on the strengths of the land information systems. However, such momentum around land monitoring, coupled with increasing demands for data-enabled policymaking, raises critical questions (such as, whose data and for what purpose?) over the opportunities and risks of open data in common land governance.

This session will explore instruments that are advancing tenure rights, the use of data as a source of empowerment and other tools and mechanisms that aim to support community-led governance of Commons. The discussions aim to address the following questions:

Which institutions and mechanisms are emerging in different parts of India that are improving action and policy on Commons? What key challenges and opportunities can be identified?

What kind of knowledge, data, information systems, technology, relationships and resources need to be leveraged to trigger action for enhanced governance of Commons? How can we enhance their social legitimacy?

Ms. Ranjitha Kumar
Digital Economy Researcher, IT for Change
Dr Ruth Manorama
General Secretary, Women’s Voice, Karnataka
Dr L.S. Ghandi Doss
Department of Social Work, Bangalore University and Institute for Youth and Development
Ms. Leelavati
Secretary KKNSS Bangalore District Committee
Session Organizer:
Mr. MS Shivakumar
Independent Researcher
Mr. MS Shivakumar
Independent Researcher
The lack of affordable access to land and the housing crisis remain issues of concern for numerous individuals and families. This grassroots-led session will be hosted by different community-based civil society organizations working on land- and resource-related issues. It will provide a space for community leaders actively working on land-justice issues to exchange experiences and knowledge on land-governance challenges. The session will draw narratives from different urban and rural communities in acknowledgement of their diverse and distinctive struggles resulting from the changing relationships among land, people, State, and corporates.

Community leaders from different spheres will also share key strategies for building better access to land tenure and addressing landlessness in different districts of Karnataka (or different urban and rural contexts in South India). They will highlight the importance of strengthening access to tenure and implementing locally led land-use plans to conserve resources for sustainable use by all stakeholders.

The session will be jointly led and hosted by Karnataka Slumdwellers Federation, Women’s Voice, Jeevika, and Environment Support Group and Institute for Youth and Development, all of which are based in Bengaluru.
Mr. Brij K Agarwal
IAS Retd., Former Chief Secretary, HP
Ms. Mila Koeva
ITC Associate Professor, University of Twente Netherlands
Ms. Amy Coughenor
Chief Executive Officer, CADASTA
Session Organizer:
Mr. Abhyudaya Saxena
Lead – Deliveries AUS – Aarav Unmanned Systems
The growing use and reliance on modern mapping and digital technologies in land administration mainly aims for the production and management of land tenure data. Technology has stimulated the land rights documentation globally by acknowledging partnerships and capacity building across stakeholders to drive land systems change. The impacts of technology aided land administration are also reflected in food systems, climate action, empowering local communities and women’s land rights. However its use differs based on geography and context. Therefore the session recognises the western technologies and techniques of mapping such as FFP, mobile mapping and specifically on automatic boundary detection, ethical use of technologies , colonial concepts of boundaries and property rights, assumptions around techniques of mapping and participatory data collection, a presumption of literacy (digital, spatial, technological, etc.), and the implications this conveys for practicing ‘responsible’ land administration especially in vulnerable communities, commonly informal settlements or other lands held in extra-legal or customary tenures in the global south.
Mr. Deepak Sanan
IAS (Retd), Ex- Addl Chief Secretary, HP and Ex Advisor to NCAER, IIHS & CPR
Dr. Rudiger Ahrend
Head, Urban Policy, Public Governance & Territorial Development, OECD
Ms. Maria Marealle
Land Expert African Development Bank
Mr. Anshul Mishra
Member Secretary, CMDA, Tamil Nadu
With increasing challenges of rapid urbanization, climate change and natural disasters, there is a
growing need for municipalities to invest in large-scale infrastructure that benefits all, including the
poor and most vulnerable. The New Urban Agenda (NUA) urges the development of quality
infrastructure that is resilient and resource-efficient, key for reducing risks of disasters as well as
mitigating climate change impacts. Rooted in the idea that public investments and government actions
should benefit the general public at large, governments all over the world, have explored various fiscal
and spatial planning instruments. Aligned to this idea, Land Value Capture (LVC) mechanisms have
been implemented in various countries to recover and reinvest land value increases for developing
infrastructure and amenities. Mechanisms like ‘betterment levies’ have been in existence for over a
hundred years, especially in Latin America providing valuable learnings in this regard. In addition to
augmenting investments in physical infrastructure, LVC has also proved to be an integral tool in
achieving positive social and environmental outcomes.

The successful implementation of LVC mechanisms varies in different country contexts, dependent on
land governance systems, legislative and regulatory frameworks. This year at the World Urban Forum
,Katowice, Poland, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in close
cooperation with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP), launched a Global Land Value Capture
Compendium. This compendium describes how LVC mechanisms are used worldwide (in 61
countries), focusing on aspects that are important for systematic adoption, promoting benefits, and
unpacking common challenges on the subject. GIZ contributed to this collaboration by documenting
learnings from 12 countries including Bangladesh and India.

In India, the National Infrastructure Pipeline proposes an investment of over 122 million USD over a
period of five years, 50% of which is estimated for developing regional infrastructure and about 17%
for urban infrastructure. Such investment is expected to directly impact the valuation of land in its

immediate influence zone. Successful cases globally have highlighted the importance of LVC
mechanisms for tapping such land value gains. While traditional value capture mechanisms like
taxations, duties, etc have shown some successes, newer instruments like betterment levy, land
pooling, impact fee and additional development charges have not picked up the required momentum.
Recognizing the necessity to promote faster adoption of LVC mechanisms in India, NITI Aayog is
undertaking the documentation of these mechanisms across different states.
Mr. Prashant Das,
Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)
Mr. James Kavanagh
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)
Dr. Moatoshi
Assistant Professor in Faculty of Law, University of Delhi
Mrs. Irwin Lalmuanpuii Hnamte
Assistant Professor Department of Law, University of
Delhi University
Dr. Chamundeeswari Kuppuswamy
Senior Lecturer, Global Economy Research Lead, Hertfordshire Law School and the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, University of
This panel explores legal pluralism as a governance framework for effectively achieving developmental goals nationally, and internationally. Structural issues such as legal frameworks do not get enough focus in development discussions, and therefore this panel addresses the constitutional and administrative law issues involved in legal pluralism. The thematic areas it contributes to are gender equality, biodiversity conservation, and land management.

This panel is led by the University of Hertfordshire’s Law School and the Office of the Vice-Chancellor as part of their effort to increase international research collaboration.

Abstract – In the North Eastern region, land and its resources are individual or community owned. This system of ownership is customary and constitutionally recognized providing absolute freedom for the management and use of land and its resources. However, legal pluralism of the colonial administration continued post-independence. Thus, the colonial Regulations, Rules and Enactments continued to administer the customs and traditions of land and its resources. These colonial law which the British termed as “Administration of Justice” is an imperialistic and anthropological experiment of legal pluralism. In the wake of global challenges for sustainable development, such experimental laws may not sufficiently balance the dynamic needs of society. This paper endeavours to investigate the colonial and the existing laws interface Agenda 21 in accommodating indigenous people and their communities for sustainable management of land and environment.

Speaker – Mrs. Irwin Lalmuanpuii Hnamte, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Law, Delhi University

Abstract – There are many laws governing biodiversity and conservation of land and natural resources in India. Most of the well-known biodiversity hotspots exist in the rural and tribal parts of India and there is ample documentary and scientific evidence to substantiate these claims. The legal system in place in these areas play a major role in conservation and management of these natural resources. These legal systems may simply be termed folk law, indigenous law, customary law, traditional law or norms constructed by the local communities along with the statutory laws. Instances of traditional or customary law playing a pivotal role in diverse community-based management and conservation of natural resources has been shown but very few are documented. The North East region is unique and is one of the few areas in India where customary laws have been afforded formal recognition by the state statutory laws. This paper is an attempt to look at the role of community and customary law in biodiversity conservation interfacing the importance of sustainable development goals 2030.

Dr. Chamundeeswari Kuppuswamy, Senior Lecturer, Global Economy Research Lead, Hertfordshire Law School and the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, University of Hertfordshire

Abstract – Customary laws of communities in southern India are not protected in the same way that they are in states covered by Schedule VI of the Indian Constitution. Research was conducted into the existence and operation of customary law in a Non-Schedule VI area in South India and many insights on customary law relating to land were derived from this study. This paper presents some of the findings, particularly with respect to female land ownership, and draws parallels with literature on women land ownership in areas within Schedule VI. The paper concludes that in the case of certain sections of the non-Schedule population, land ownership is more governed by customary laws than otherwise, and therefore the neglect of debate about what these laws are, and how to reform of customary laws in relation to land ownership in the non-schedule regions, adversely impacts these sections of the population, i.e. women. This issue has a detrimental effect on development goals in this region. But customary laws can strengthen existing prejudices and hinder gender equality too. Checks and balances, both internal as well as external are needed for customary laws to provide local justice, and be bereft of prejudice and age-old systems of patriarchy.
Session Organizer:
Mr. Vinod Vaysulu
Centre for Budget and Policy Studies
Ms. Bhargavi S Rao
Environment Support Group
Mr. Leo Saldanha
Environment Support Group
Mr. L K Areeq
Additional Chief Secretary, Govt of Karnataka
Over the past few years, frequent floods and water logging have disrupted lives and livelihoods in Bengaluru. The unusually heavy rainfall in 2022 demonstrated the “cascade” that disruptions in critical infrastructure in one location cause in multiple sites and sectors across the metropolis. Bengaluru’s is not an isolated experience. Several urban and rural areas in India are witnessing changes in rainfall patterns, more intense rainfall, and diminishing water availability, which, in turn, negatively affect forests, land and natural resources, and the livelihoods of most vulnerable people in the country. The scale of flood risk in many cities is now so significant that no single solution will provide sustainable resilience. The lessons learnt have important implications both in terms of land-use management and environmental externalities.

This session will examine different flood-related experiences and the learnings from them. It will also highlight the linkages between land-use management, floods, climate change, and sustainable development. It will throw light on the importance of long-term sustainable land-use management practices, and of incorporating lessons learnt from similar experiences within the metropolis and elsewhere. It will also attempt at offering a range of solutions, and of discussing ways and means to improve sustainable use of land and natural resources.

The session will be hosted by the Environment Support Group (ESG), Bengaluru, in collaboration with the Institute for Youth and Development (IYD), Bengaluru, and others. Panelists will include representatives of civil society, researchers, and social and environmental justice advocates.
Ms. Melinda Lis Maldonado
Lawyer, Professor – Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Mr. Rajeev Gowda
Ex-Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
Session Organizer:
Dr. Kundan Kumar
Independent Researcher
Mr. Tushar Dash
Independent Researcher
Mr. Ishan Agrawal
General Manager-Programs for Ecological Security
Ms. Sushmita
Researcher and Journalist
Indigenous peoples’ groups across the world pointed out during CoP26 that despite 80% of the planet’s biodiversity surviving in their territories, they were ignored in the climate dialogues. India is among the top ten countries most vulnerable to climate change. An existential crisis exists for the hundreds of millions of its marginalised people living in climate vulnerable landscapes including the particular effects of climate related events in the lives of indigenous- women, children and other sexual minorities from Adivasi and forest dwelling communities.

India vouched for inclusivity with other Like-Minded Developing Countries (LMDCs) at the CoP26 conference. In his COP26 speech, PM Modi proposed a ‘One-word movement’—L.I.F.E. which he described as Lifestyle For Environment. During CoP27, India has reiterated its commitment to the LIFE principles as well as supported initiatives such as the one on early warning systems. India updated its INDCs in August 2022.

Of particular interest to the issues of climate change mitigation and adaptation are the NBS such as forests. It is estimated that almost a third of greenhouse gas mitigation required to avert catastrophic climate change will come from “nature-based solutions” (NBS) including protecting and restoring forests, peatlands, afforestation, blue carbon, improving agricultural practices etc.

India too has a component of land and forestry based targets as part of its INDC commitment. This discussion will look at the implications of this target for India’s forest communities, as well as the opportunities presented by some its legislations- FRA and PESA- to offer climate solutions through tenure security and strengthening of resource governance. The discussion will highlight narratives and case studies where climate action was carried out in a bottoms up and decentralised manner and the scope for such actions when communities’ rights are recognised.
Session Organizer:
Dr. Jolyne Sanjak
Sr. Director of Global Programs, Landesa
Mr. Zanofer Ismalebbe
Chief – Knowledge Management, UNOSSC
Dr. Nivedita Haran
IAS (Retd)Ex-Addl Chief Secretary, Kerala and Faculty, JNU
Prof. A Narayana
Azim Premji University
Over the past few years, frequent floods and water logging have disrupted lives and livelihoods in Bengaluru. The unusually heavy rainfall in 2022 demonstrated the “cascade” that disruptions in critical infrastructure in one location cause in multiple sites and sectors across the metropolis. Bengaluru’s is not an isolated experience. Several urban and rural areas in India are witnessing changes in rainfall patterns, more intense rainfall, and diminishing water availability, which, in turn, negatively affect forests, land and natural resources, and the livelihoods of most vulnerable people in the country. The scale of flood risk in many cities is now so significant that no single solution will provide sustainable resilience. The lessons learnt have important implications both in terms of land-use management and environmental externalities.

This session will examine different flood-related experiences and the learnings from them. It will also highlight the linkages between land-use management, floods, climate change, and sustainable development. It will throw light on the importance of long-term sustainable land-use management practices, and of incorporating lessons learnt from similar experiences within the metropolis and elsewhere. It will also attempt at offering a range of solutions, and of discussing ways and means to improve sustainable use of land and natural resources.

The session will be hosted by the Environment Support Group (ESG), Bengaluru, in collaboration with the Institute for Youth and Development (IYD), Bengaluru, and others. Panelists will include representatives of civil society, researchers, and social and environmental justice advocates.
Mr. Pranab Ranjan Choudhury
Secretary ILDC ,Founder NRMC-CLG(Intellecap Subsidiary)
Ms. Anaclaudia Rossbach
Director Latin America and Caribbean, Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
Session Organizer:
Mr. Gustavo Marulanda
Head, Geographical Institution Agustin Codazzi (IGAC)
Mr. Bryan Triana Ancinez
Lawyer, Universidad del Rosario, Colombia
Ms. Ana María Santofimio
Sociologist & Journalist, Geographical Institution Agustin Codazzi (IGAC)
Ms. Rocío del Pilar Peña Huertas
Academic Coordinator, Observatorio de Tierras
Ms. Margarita Varón
Founder and Chief Executive Officer – CEO – of Colombia Rural
Session Organizer:

Ms. Apurva Duddu
Governance Specialist, ISB
Ms. Jayanti Buruda
Community mobilizer, Malkangiri
Dr. Satish Gogulwar
Co-founder of Amhi Amchya Arogyasathi
Session Organizer:
Mr. Satya Prasanna
Operations Lead, ISB
Mr. Abhijeet Parmar
Technology Lead, ISB
This session will present experiences of coordinating with multiple government partners at different scales to secure CFR titles at the landscape level, design technological solutions to increase efficiency and reduce drudgery, create community-owned women-led enterprises for Seasonal Forest Products, and enable formal linkages between communities and large-scale industrial buyers of forest-based raw materials at competitive prices.

The Initiative on the Forest Economy is creating investment pathways in community-owned forests to achieve high growth rate of jobs and wealth through a model of rural industrialization based on opportunities in the rural economy, especially focused on forest-based industrial value chains. The success of our vision depends on interventions in partnerships with governments, academia, businesses, and civil society. We have several active collaborations with government agencies, academic institutions, private companies, and civil society organizations; we look forward to expanding this network through new partnerships.

Seasonal Forest Products (SFPs) provide regular incomes for more than 200 million people in India and constitute the essential industrial raw material for multiple sectors, such as processed foods and confectionary, pharmaceuticals, alternative medicine and wellbeing, cosmetics and perfumery, and paper and pulp industries. However, these livelihoods are enmeshed in the informal sector, creating diseconomies of scale and perverse incentives for sustainability. The Initiative on the Forest Economy seeks to forge linkages between communities and industry through formal integration into industrial supply chains. The proposed initiative leverages synergies between public policy goals, statutory provisions, private sector engagement, and market opportunities in India’s forested landscapes. It engages forest-dwelling communities through their collective ownership over forests and empowers women’s groups through bank linkage and entrepreneurship to create forest-based livelihoods, jobs, and incomes. The proposed approach employs nature-based solutions to enhance the livelihoods of rural communities through forest-based enterprises while protecting them against market risks by embedding livelihoods within a framework of community forest ownership. This entire process will promote women’s collective enterprises in rural areas and ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials to industry.

We envision a new forest-based economy in India, one which is productive, sustainable, inclusive, and empowering. The team at ISB aims to create economies of scale that strengthen the relationship between businesses and forest communities. We have a three-pronged approach: First, we will build and formalize linkages between major stakeholders in existing value chains for forest-based industrial raw material. Second, we will facilitate institutional and technological capacity building of communities. Third, we will create incentives for market integration to lead to sustainable forest management. This vision will contribute towards meeting India’s global commitments for sustainable development.
Prof. A Narayana
Azim Premji University
Ms. Reshmi C Panicker
Collegiate Education Department, Government of Kerala
Mr. Sahaji Gadhire
Astitva Samajvikas Va Sanshodhan Sanstha
Ms. Bitopi Dutta
UPES, Dehradun
Mr. Ambuja Tripathy
University of Delhi
Mr. Karan Gulati
Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and a lawyer in Delhi
Ms. Sanjoy Patnaik
Land and Forest Tenure Specialist, Foundation for Ecological Security
Ms. Troy Caruna
Director of Programs, Center for Values in International Development
Session Organizer:
Ms. Namita Wahi
Senior Fellow, Centre for Policy Research
Ms. Shipra Deo
Director -Women’s Land Rights, Landesa
“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” declares article one of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by United Nations General Assembly in 1948. Its preamble recognises the inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of all humans as the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world.

Incidentally, the constitution of India was designed at the same time when these pronouncement about human dignity were made at United Nations.

How did the discourse on equality and dignity at the global level impact the positioning of land in Indian constitution. What do these rights mean for people of various identities (such as women, scheduled tribes, transgenders) and in various contexts? How do the practical realities of these rights impact freedom, justice and peace in India?
Ms. Shreetamma Guptabhya
UNDP,India
Mr. Geetanjoy Sahu
Centre for Science Technology & Society, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai
Mr. Alex Paul Menon
IAS, Tamil Nadu
Session Organizer:
Mr. Ramesh Sharma
Ekta parisad
Mr. Tushar Dash
Senior Scholar on FRA
Rights over forest land and associated natural resources have always been contentious in India’s
development discourse. The glorious history of adivaisi rebellion and their successes actually set the
foundation for the Forest Rights Act in India. And therefore, understanding of historical context and
drawing the lessons from past is a pre-condition for undoing historical injustice. Without
comprehensive understanding of historical injustices, any political or administrative process towards
recognizing pre-existing rights may not secure justice for the community.
15 years after the enactment of Forest Rights in India, we need to introspect on the political will,
administrative efficiency, Adivasi participation and the‘initiatives’ taken by the State to achieve the
objectives of the Forest Rights Act and current ‘state of affairs’. The current status of the
implementation of the Forest Rights Act depict the multi-dimensional challenges and compel us to
undertake this initiative of recognition of rights in a mission mode.
Let us initiate a meaningful discussion to understand the milestones of successes and speed-breakers
in between the milestones.
Ms. Seema Purushothaman,
Azim Premji University
Dr. Ranjan Kumar Ghosh

Associate professor, Center For management In agriculture, IIM
Dr. Rajiv Pandey
Head Division of Forestry Statistics, FRI Dehradun
Dr. Sudhanshu Singh
IRRI South Asian Regional Research Center, Varanasi
Session Organizer:
Dr. Yugank Goyal

Associate Professor Director, Center For Knowledge Alternatives FLAME University , IIM Ahmedabad
Prof Anil Gupta
Founder National Innovation Foundation
Global production, supply, and consumption of food contribute to nearly 31 per cent of human-induced global GHG emissions, making it the second largest contributor after energy. The major sources of emissions within food systems are synthetic fertilizer and manure use, crop residues, gaseous expulsions by livestock, diversion of forests and pasturelands, tropical forest and peat fires, and refrigeration and transport of food. This share is getting higher, making it more difficult to account for products like renewable bio-energy, which are sourced primarily from crops such as maize and sugarcane. In India, intensive cultivation of popular crops such as paddy, wheat, and sugarcane deplete two of the most fundamental resources that sustain human existence — land and water. On the other hand, livestock rearing, mostly for meat and dairy, is especially hazardous as methane gas (CH4) emissions have 28 times more global warming potential than carbon dioxide (CO2). This session will deliberate on how can the need for feeding the human population be balanced with both human and environmental health?

Objectives

Share and exchange knowledge and best practices on issues related to agri-food systems, climate change, sustainable development, net zero goals, hunger and nutrition to address issues and vulnerabilities due to greenhouse gas emissions.

Explore innovations and solutions to address the issues of sustainable development and achieve net zero goals in agri-food systems.

Provide a platform for networking between researchers, policymakers, entrepreneurs, civil society, students and other stakeholders to enhance cooperation

Promote research and entrepreneurship for sustainable solutions in food and agriculture

Dr. Arabinda Kumar Padhee
Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare,
Ms. Patricia Mukhim
Editor, The Shillong Times
Mr. Tim Hanstad
Co founder,
Landesa and CEO,
Chandler Foundation, USA
Ms. Namita Wahi
Senior Fellow, CPR and Founding Director, Land Rights Initiative
Mr. Ambrish Mehta
Trustee, ARCH Vahini
Seventy-five years since India became a constitutional democratic republic, almost 60 percent of Indians depend upon land for their livelihood. Land is not only the most important economic resource for most Indians, it is central to individual and community identity, history, and culture. Worryingly, land conflict is ubiquitous in India today and threatens India’s economic development and social and political stability. Millions of Indians are affected by conflict over land, which threatens investments worth billions of dollars. Land disputes clog all levels of courts in India, accounting for the largest set of cases in absolute numbers and judicial pendency. Conflicts between laws, and individual and government failure to comply with the rule of law, create legal disputes. Yet, the number and extent of land laws in India is anyone’s guess, because there is no existing publicly available comprehensive database of land laws. This in turn restricts citizen access to the laws that govern one of the most important aspects of their lives, thereby hampering the realisation of the constitutional promise of participatory democracy.

Earlier this year, the Land Rights Initiative launched the web and mobile versions of the Mapping Indian Land Laws website, India’s first-ever comprehensive exploratory online archive of officially authenticated copies of all central and state laws from a geographically representative sample of eight states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Punjab, and Telangana. From laws pertaining to land reforms and land acquisition to revenue and taxation and land use; forest and mining laws to laws applicable to Scheduled Areas; from laws promoting and regulating urban and infrastructure development to laws dealing with evacuee, enemy, ancestral and religious property, this vast legal apparatus governs the lives of the people of India, and their interactions with each other and the state. Embedded in the website is a subject-wise classification of all the laws according to over thirty parameters and Hindi and English language summaries of the laws for easy comprehension by a lay audience.

The panel will feature a presentation of the MILL website followed by a discussion with a distinguished group of panelists on the importance of the MILL website in mitigating land conflict, creating an informed citizenry, and deepening democracy pan India and with particular reference to the states of Assam, Gujarat, Punjab, and Meghalaya. This panel discussion will mark the launch of LRI’s “Know Your Land Laws” series featuring panels, lectures and workshops involving a deep dive into the MILL website.
Mr. Pranab Choudhury
Secretary ILDC, Founder NRMC-CLG (Intellecap Subsidiary)
Mr. Tim Hanstad
Chandler Foundation (Introduction)
Mr. Vinod Agarwal

Retd IAS
Dr. Penalver Eduardo
Seattle University (Key note Speaker)
Dr. T. Haque was the founding Chair of the India Land Development Conference (ILDC), the largest land conference in India and South Asia established by a collaborative initiative of local and global land-institutions, ILDC promotes inter-sectoral and inter-disciplinary conversations on land and development. ILDC’s audience draws in researchers, practitioners, governments, businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals working on or interested in land related issues. It aims to further, intensify and change land conversations, catalyse cross-learning and amplify innovations. By triggering connections and facilitating networking among land-actors and institutions, ILDC contributes to coordinated and impactful research, innovations, advocacy and actions for improving land tenure security and achieving SDGs. Sixth ILDC will be held during Dec 7 – 9 this year in hybrid mode, to promote south-south cross learning around land governance issues, practices and innovations.

Sixth ILDC as an event, is dedicated to the memory of Dr Haque (please read here and here) and will begin the India-focussed deliberation on 8th Dec 2022 at 13.30 PM IST, with a plenary discussing Professor T Haque’s work and contribution to land governance in India, particularly to discuss how is thinking and legacy are more relevant now

in the new Reality.

This session will witness participation of a panel of eminent experts— researchers, land administrators and civil society leaders—who have worked with Dr Haque to share their insights and thoughts, in the context of a post-pandemic world, on Dr Haque’s legacy on land issues as India and the world look for economic revival, for achieving Net-Zero emissions through restoration and nature-based solutions and also in ensuring a hunger-free world through sustainable food systems.
Mr. Yon Fernandez de Larrinoa
Head, Indigenous Division, UN FAO, Rome
Ms. Maria Paola Rizzo
Land Tenure Division, UN FAO, Rome
Ms. Carla Garcia Zendejas
Director, People Land & Resources, CIEL, USA
Session Organizer:
Mr. Phoolman Chaudhry
Representative, UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues UNPFII
Mr. Ramesh Sharma
Ekta Parisad
The establishment of land governance regulating access to, use of and control over land responsibly
to the equal benefit of all plays a key role in the realization of human rights as well as in the
achievement of key development objectives. The enjoyment and regulation of land tenure rights and
the realization of human rights are closely interwoven.
Land governance contributes to the achievement of the following development objectives: poverty
reduction, food security, gender equality, economic development, sustainable infrastructure,
balanced territorial development, sustainable cities and communities (including adequate housing),
responsible consumption and production, climate change mitigation and adaptation, environmental
protection, resilience, post-disaster/post-conflict redevelopment as well as social stability, peace and
security.
The following frameworks have been identified as the most relevant key international frameworks
for land issues:
 The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG)
 The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and
Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGT)
 The New Urban Agenda (NUA)
 The Framework and Guidelines on Land Policy in Africa (F&G)
 The Guiding Principles on Large-Scale Land-Based Investment in Africa (LSLBI Principles)

Other recent important frameworks are: Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Pinheiro
Principles, Sendai Framework, COP 21 Paris Agreement, and Aichi Biodiversity Framework. (Long)
before these frameworks were established, a broad range of international instruments and
resolutions – voluntarily as well as binding – had been negotiated focusing on specific aspects of land
governance, their provisions being still relevant for today’s interventions in the land sector and some
of them receiving additional/new support through the new development agenda.
This is high time to understand the potential scope of these international frameworks and configure
the laws & policies accordingly. Let us initiate a meaningful discussion around broad spectrum
international frameworks and mechanisms which ultimately helpful towards securing land &
livelihood rights to the marginalised communities.
Serene Ho
RMIT
Michael Ayebazibwe
Executive Director, ACTogether, Uganda
Session Organizer:
Kerstin Sommer
UN Habitat
Many urban slum formalization projects in the Global South are implemented based on the proposition that private ownership of land allows individuals to gain access to official sources of benefit, credit, and collateral for loans to accomplish desirable outcomes. However, these projects that pursue land registration and titling do not truly address the challenges faced by the slum dwellers, nor grapple with the fact that many countries and communities in the Global South are likely to be practicing some kind of communal tenure, or have pre-existing formal tenures (i.e., are being re-formalised). Hence, there is a need to pause and critically reflect on whether these projects meet the needs of governments, businesses, and communities and deliver intended present and future benefits in rapidly developing cities of the Global South. Some of the areas that will be discussed include but are not limited to:

Data provenance and data governance

Urban land use dynamics and land systems/capabilities

Social outcomes (e.g.gender inclusion, participation, housing, land markets, etc)

The session contributes to global debates on the in/formal binary in urban land contexts, centering experiences from the global south.
Mr. Sunil Simon
Technical Advisor for Asia, Caritas Austria
Mr. Pranab Choudhury
Secretary ILDC, Founder NRMC-CLG (Intellecap Subsidiary)
Dr Ranjan Ghosh
Chairman, Centre for Management in Agriculture IIM, Ahmedabad
Session Organizer:
Mr Prabal Sen
Caritas India
Ms. Sabine Wardha
Head of Asia and Middle East Department,Caritas Austria
South Asia’s recent agricultural transitions are unprecedented – they are not only influenced by market but also triggered by climate change and very recently by COVID 19 pandemic. Market forces are increasingly influencing the nature of farming through their expanding grip over research, extension, and technology. Starting from the choice of crops to level of diversification, to type of inputs use and intensity of mechanisation, all are now market influenced. Market forces are also determining the type of farmer – who can continue to farm, remain viable, adaptive, and resilient– through defining the scale, efficiency, surplus and access to financial services, which are the new policy and investment drivers. Identity and hierarchy of farmers are also dictated by land administration policy of the government making record of land ownership/tenancy, an eligibility criteria to be farmer and to get access to public services, entitlement as well as formal finance, market, and compensation. Climate change has also given rise to vector borne diseases resulting in new and increased viral loads causing new epidemics and pandemics. Smallholders, especially women, tenants and other vulnerable section of the communities are the most vulnerable to the climate change and pandemics – given their blurred identity as farmers and low capacity to bear the shock or come out of the stress. Market influences, together with climate change and pandemics, have started significantly impacting the way agriculture is being practiced by the dominant smallholder farmers – more particularly the women and tenant farmers, those with limited access to and control over land.

On one hand they are constrained to access formal finance, technology, subsidies, and direct benefit transfers, available to land holder farmers, reducing their competitive advantage as producer in the market while increasing their vulnerability to the risks due to climate change and pandemics. On the other, these forces are also directly fast changing the agriculture practices by changing farming practices (viz. use of livestock), cropping patterns (viz. high value crops), input use (viz. high external input agriculture), farm environment (viz. protected cultivation) and farming knowledge (viz fast changing & externally sourced). In the process they are taking farming control out of farmers. These have significant impact on small farmers’ food and nutritional security, livelihood opportunities and resilience capacities.

Caritas Organizations are working in South Asia with smallholder famers in building resilience to climate change and food security. SAFBIN, as a regional program, working with small farmers especially women in four South Asian countries to promote land tenure security, agroecological practices, collectivization, farmer-led research, and partnerships to ensure food and nutritional security, farm income enhancement and resilience. In this proposed session at ILDC2022, CARITAS INDIA SAFBIN propose to discuss how these transitions are impacting small farmers and within them how differently the landowners, women and tenants in these countries and how are they adapting to these transitions.
Dr. M. Prabhakar
Principal Investigator, NICRA, ICAR
M. Mercedes Stickler
Senior Land Administration Specialist – Africa World Bank
Ms. Nilam Patel
WGWLO
Ms. Sailabala Panda
PRADAN
Session Organizer:
Ms. Pinaki Halder
National Director of Programs ‑ India Landesa
Ms. Shivani Gupta
Co-CEO, Womanity Foundation
The session aims to bring together WLR investors and actors to discuss cross-cutting impact pathways of WLR and seeks to examine if documenting/adding women’s name in land records is a means or remains as an end in land formalisation or WLR initiatives viz. legislation or projects. While the goal of enhancing WLR usually aims towards achieving larger gender goals such as improved land tenure security among women, economic empowerment of women, reduction in domestic violence, improved dignity of women farmers, better food security and nutrition outcomes etc., many interventions seem to end with giving women a land record, without monitoring if that led to these ends. Drawing from experiences of global south, the panellists in the session will share their experiences and perspectives to analyse the WLR pathways in the lens of impacts.
Dr. Wytske Chamberlain
Van der Werf LAND-at-scale , Utrecht University
Ms. Renato Cymbalista
Brazil
Mr. Sanjoy Chakraborty
Temple University, US
Prof Ramya Ramanath
Associate Prof. & Chair, International Public Service, DePaul University
Session Organizer:
Mr. Sanjay Kumar
IAS
Mr. Partha Mukhopadhyay
CPR New Delhi
This session focusses on deliberating on elementary, albeit necessary questions about the urban land markets in the Global South. Case studies from India and Brazil will be presented to explore how the term urban land market is understood in practice and how it unfolds against the backdrop of a vastly informal urban labor market. In Indian cities as much as 80 percent of the working population is employed in the unorganized sector, and they in turn mostly access housing and land through informal means. This session focuses on understanding, how the informal labour market shapes the land and housing market, how does such land/property markets operate? What are the institutions / agencies that steer and are engaged in the transactions in such markets and to what effect?

Globally, only about 30 percent of the land have de jure land titles (source?). The tenure issues are highly complex in the cities of the global South, especially so because of the absence of robust land registration, administration and management systems. In the near absence of any statutory spatial plans, the cities are mostly shaped by the claims made through de facto rights or by user rights and not so much by de jure rights. There are contestations among the uses allocated to a single piece of land and these are constantly negotiated reflecting societal power structures. In such a scenario, how does the land market function and what is the role of the public institutions in steering such markets?

The subject on urban land is vast and can be unpacked using a variety of lenses. In this session, the discussion focuses on the following specific questions:

How do the urban poor access land in cities?

Who are the various stakeholders /agencies they engage with?

Is it possible to accord social function to urban land when this is also a major source of speculative investments?

Objectives of this session are to:

Understand the term urban land market in India / global South

Present who supplies the urban poor with land in the sub-national level in India/ Brazil

Present the idea of non-speculative land market.

Mr. Manikandan KP
Institution Builder, IHF
Mr. Chandan Kumar Jha
FABLE, IIM Ahmedabad
Ms. Vartika Singh
FABLE, IIM Ahmedabad and IFPRI
Ms. Prantika Das,
FABLE, IIM Ahmedabad and IFPRI
Session Organizer:
Mr. Westen A.C.M. Van Guus,
Utrecht University
Mr. M Prabhakara
NICRA ICAR-CRIDA
Four of the five focus areas at the COP27 climate talks are linked to the global food system. The unified agriculture, food and land use sector – together called AFOLU – alone accounts for 21-37% of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities worldwide. This shouldn’t be surprising: traditional agricultural practices that power the global food system, including logistics and transport, have a large carbon footprint. But as climate commitments gather momentum, we can’t afford to lessen our focus on the world’s hunger crisis either – exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, war and inflation. In this context, a food-systems approach is critical for addressing the climate crisis, such that the world is on track to achieving both net-zero and zero hunger within this century. In this session researchers share recent findings from food system modelling work under Food Agriculture Biodiversity Land use (FABLE) Pathways, Food System Economic Commission’s (FSEC) India Case Study and the development of Sub-National Decision-Making Tool in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund. The session ends with insights about the role of land use change and land rights in food systems transformation.

Mr. Ishan Agrawal
General Manager-Programs, Foundation for Ecological Security (FES)
Mr. Steven Lawry
Senior Associate, CIFOR
Mr. Sanjoy Patnaik
Land and Forest Tenure Specialist, Foundation for Ecological Security
Session Organizer:
Mr. Smiti Sahoo
Investment Manager, LGTVP Foundation
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) mechanisms have been emerging as a dominant theme in the recent past for ensuring support for conservation efforts in the longer run. In the context of carbon markets, especially, PES mechanisms have evolved several models of payments for those who are sequestering carbon. This assumes importance, especially for indigenous and rural communities.

The lives and lifestyles of indigenous local communities are intrinsically linked with the natural environments that they live in. Their relationship with their surrounding natural resources defines their economic, social and cultural systems. Their experiential knowledge of the ecosystem is gained through long-standing connections to the land. It is their primary source of food, medicine, fuelwood, livestock grazing, construction material, welfare, security, culture and spirituality (Veit, 2021).

Civil society has invested heavily in helping communities across India to build the local knowledge and capacity necessary for people to collectively agree on and implement land use practices that contribute to better conservation outcomes locally. This work has resulted in better-managed soils, water, and forests, and importantly, additional but uncounted carbon sequestration and other intangible ecological services in rural areas across India.

In a year long inquiry, FES has identified three key barriers for communities to benefit from PES mechanisms, especially for carbon. There are a) barriers to their agency, b) to the knowledge and c) lack of equitable platforms. Lack of secured tenure and lack of recognition of community institutions and stewardship by the market creates disincentives for communities to participate in the PES markets. Their knowledge or wisdom behind the land-use patterns is not recognized. While they are the ones who need to learn about complex evidence building for ecosystem service payments. Moreover, there is no level playing field between people and the market players.
Mr. Gunanka D.B, IFS
Joint Secretary, Department of Planning and Additional Project Director, Meghalaya Community Based Forest Management and Livelihood Improvement Project, MBDA, Shillong
Mr. Arun Kumar Bansal, IFS
Former Addl Director General of Forest, Govt. of India
Mr. C.L. Das, IFS
CEO & PD, CREFLAT Project (KfW), Tripura
Mr. K.Hrishikesh Singh
Asstt. Chief Technical Advisor, Community Forestry and Water Conservation Society Manipur (COSFOM), Manipur
Mr. Prasada Rao Vaddarapu, IFS
Director – Livelihoods and Capacity Development, SCATFORM (JICA), Tripura
Land has been a source of contention for indigenous peoples living in the Eastern Himalayan region, which encompasses North East India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Myanmar. In these hill areas, the land tenure system is generally controlled by customary rules, which differs greatly from the system that prevails in other regions.

The influence of both endogenous and exogenous factors has gradually diminished access to land resources by the indigenous communities. With most of the land falling under customary ownership, the prevailing formal legal system has made the indigenous tribes as encroachers of the land that they have cultivating for generations. Lack of access to and rights over land remained a barrier to avail essential public services including compensation for land acquisition and rehabilitation. Concerns such as land alienation, involuntary relocation and a lack of effective rehabilitation remain neglected and/or side lined in absence of appropriate land policy.

On the other hand, within the community-held land, which traditionally had been accessed as ‘CPR’ are now increasingly being fragmented and privatised following expansion of government schemes of plantation crops such as rubber, tea, arecanut, etc. While these schemes are accessed by the better off households within the community, shrinking of CPR are affecting land accessed by the poor with emerging inequalities within the indigenous communities. In some cases, even water, considered as CPR, is being privatised (as the source of water is located in the private land). Sensitization of the need for protecting the CPR has been agenda of some of the externally-aided projects, experiences of which would be flagged in this session.

The region is rich in biodiversity but vulnerable to anthropogenic pressures. The region is also host to growing number of rural poor who are dependent on forest and ecosystem services for their livelihood. Local and global efforts to integrate poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation in the Eastern Himalayas remain challenging but with promising opportunities as well as pockets of emerging localised success stories. To eliminate the regional inequalities, while respective country government and bilateral/ multilateral agencies such as JICA, KFW, IFAD, World Bank etc are investing in the region with focus on infrastructure development, natural resources management, livelihoods improvement, financial inclusion etc., lack of rights over land causing economic loss for the indigenous communities and the conflicts continues to remain due to unclear policy for reaping the benefits from these long term investments. In addition, concerns such as land alienation, compulsory displacement due to infrastructure development projects, and a lack of appropriate rehabilitation are also ignored and/or abandoned while creating land policy.

This session will primarily explore how economic transformations induce the reinterpretation of customary relationships to land, as well as highlight the critical issues and challenges that the communities face due to a lack of clear land ownership, and how they adopt, resist or negotiate with these challenges. In addition, the session will also explore existing practices and possibilities for adapting global soft laws around land viz. Fit for For Purpose (FFP), VGGT, Responsible Investment Guidelines and Technology aided Formalization influence the southern land governance.
Session Organizer:
Mr. Anurag Gupta
Principal, Intellecap
Dr. Vincent Darlong
Former Vice VC, MLCU
Mr. Pravanjan Mohapatra
Principal, Intellecap
Mr. Senthil Kumar, IFS
Project Director (HRD), NFMP (JICA), Nagaland
and Possibilities Of Adaptation Of Global Soft Laws North East-MLCU
Diya Uday
Anand Iyer Urban Services for Transformation Pvt. Ltd., and Technical Advisor, Janagraha
Ms Lara Shankar Chandra
Way Forward Coalition
Session Organizer:
Ms. Baisakhi Sarkar Dhar,

Senior Research Associate CPR
The lack of affordable access to land and the housing crisis remain issues of concern for numerous individuals and families. This grassroots-led session will be hosted by different community-based civil society organizations working on land- and resource-related issues. It will provide a space for community leaders actively working on land-justice issues to exchange experiences and knowledge on land-governance challenges. The session will draw narratives from different urban and rural communities in acknowledgement of their diverse and distinctive struggles resulting from the changing relationships among land, people, State, and corporates.

Community leaders from different spheres will also share key strategies for building better access to land tenure and addressing landlessness in different districts of Karnataka (or different urban and rural contexts in South India). They will highlight the importance of strengthening access to tenure and implementing locally led land-use plans to conserve resources for sustainable use by all stakeholders.

The session will be jointly led and hosted by Karnataka Slumdwellers Federation, Women’s Voice, Jeevika, and Environment Support Group and Institute for Youth and Development, all of which are based in Bengaluru.

Session introduction: Dr L.S. Ghandi Doss

Moderator: Dr Ruth Manorama

Speakers: PG Govindarajulu of Jeevika and two other names of urban community leaders to be confirmed soon.

Closing remarks: Shivakumar
Dr. Vincent Darlong
Former Vice VC, MLCU
Ms. Sahiti Sanaka
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) & Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE)
Ms. Lekshmi M
TISS
Ms. Hiral Dave
Cohesion Foundation Trust
Mr. Holkhomang Haokip
Secretary, Rural Aid Service (RAS)
Mr. Yadu CR
Christ University, Bangalore
Mr. Adharsh M
Deputy Collector (Revenue), Karaikal, Puducherry
Mr. Vinod Agarwal
IAS Retd
Dr. D Sajith Babu, IAS
Director, Institute of Land and Disaster Management, Govt. of Kerala
Mr. S Chockalingam
Director General, YASHADA
Mr. Gopal Krishnamurthy
Additional Commissioner of Survey Settlement and Land Records (Rtd), Government of Karnataka
Ms. Chitra Hanstad
Senior Philanthropy Officer – Asia, Landesa
Ms. Dhruvi Shah
CEO, Axis Bank Foundation
Ms. Shilpa Kumar
Partner and Property Rights Lead of Omidyar Network, India
Ms. Shivani Gupta
Co-CEO, Womanity Foundation
Future Landscape of Funding Land Ecosystem: How can investments on Land can be leveraged to achieve Global Goals around SDG and Net-Zero, while improving Local Impact

The session on ‘Future Landscape of Funding Land Ecosystem: How can investments on Land can be leveraged to achieve Global Goals around SDG and Net-Zero, while improving Local Impacts’. The objective is to engage with some existing and potential funders and other key actors like NGO leader/academician, Gender lens investors etc to deliberate on the trends, challenges and opportunities in this ecosystem. The idea is to go beyond the existing paradigms around funding around institutional and technical pathways for inclusive and tenure security, to appreciate criticality of investment around land for climate change resilience, enhanced access to finance, better adoption of nature-based solutions and youth and women’s economic empowerment etc. This session is designed to trigger an expanded understanding of Donors and actors around each others’ priorities vis-a-vis land ecosystem, leading to expanded donor engagements and resource availability.
Global Goals around SDG and Net-Zero, while improving Local Impact
Ms. Gemma Betsema
Senior Programme Advisor, LAND-at-scale
Ms. Andita Listyarnini
Asia Communications Officer, International Land Coalition (ILC)
Mr. Kumar Sambhav
Journalist and founder of Land Conflict Watch
Mr. Nitin Sethi
Journalist Land Conflict Watch
Mr. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu
Associate Professor, Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST
The session aims to understand the changing landscape of reporting around land, examine global trends and discuss how the media should respond. For instance , over last year, reports around renewable energy related conflicts are going up. It is being discussed that there will be a next round of land grab in the global south for energy and carbon as the rush for Net-Zero intensifies. Post pandemics and with the Ukraine crisis, the food production pattern and areas are likely to shift, so as the way urbanization would spread. Will just transition and landscape restoration help the tribal and forested geographies? Are the global land formalization/ privatization / digitization drive using technology and through private sector participation improving land tenure security of the poor, women and marginalized? Taking note of these global developmental and environmental trends in general and those in the land sector in particular, this session would reflect upon if and how they are influencing media reporting and if and how media would respond in future as 2030 or 2050 close in?
Ms. Srilekha Ati
Founder & Director CitySpeaks Foundation
Ms. Margaret Mengo
Director of Operations (Africa) , Habitat for Humanity International
Session Organizer:
Mr. Innocent Antoine Houedji
Executive Director, Youth Initiative for Land in Africa (Yilaa)
Mr. Francis Xavier
Principal, MBIS Patna
Africa accounts for 60% of arable land. Moreover, 65% of the active population works in agriculture and the sector contributes only 36% to the overall GDP of the 54 countries. According to the World Bank (2008), agriculture accounts for 40% of exports, generates an average of 35% of GDP and employs up to 70% of the working population in West Africa. Moreover, in Burkina Faso, women represent 52% of the population and 83% of them work in this sector providing 60% of agricultural production (Ministry for the Advancement of Women, 2016 ; Institute of Statistics and Demography (INSD, 2010). Also, very few women have access to land for production. Indeed, only 8.2% of women are individual landowners compared to 45.5% of men (Stratégie Nationale de Promotion de l’Entreprenariat Féminin, 2015) and 32% of women in unions own land (INSD, 2010). In general, the observation, even if bitter, is that women practice agriculture on land obtained in the form of gifts for temporary exploitation (loan, lease). They are very rarely landowners. They are often given a piece of land to produce in order to feed the family and provide for its primary needs and especially those of its children (health, clothing and schooling). In some cases, women may own land when they are old and widowed. In Burkina Faso, does law 034-2012/AN of 2 July 2012 on agrarian and land reorganisation sufficiently guarantee women access to land ? What are the major challenges that women face on a daily basis in terms of access to land ? Finally, what solutions and recommendations can be made to guarantee equitable access to land for women ?
leadership in slum development
Mr. Ravi Bhushan
Joint PhD Candidate, BITS Pilani
Mr. Ismael Pare
Country representative Officer, Youth Initiative for Land in Africa (YILAA)
Mr. Ramesh Sharma
Ekta Parishad
Mr. Tim Hanstad
CEO, Chandler Foundation
Mr. Deepak Sanan
IAS (Retd),Former- Addl Chief Secretary, HP and former Advisor to NCAER, IIHS & CPR
Dr. Shekhar Shah
Vice Chair, Academic Advisor Council, Indian School of Public Policy, New Delhi
Prof. A Narayana
Azim Premji University
Session Organizer:
Ms. Everlyne Naraise
Afria Region Director, Landesa
This valedictory plenary is envisaged as an OPEN HOUSE . Here everybody willing to speak can share their thoughts and insights about Land, People & Development in 2030 in 2-3 minutes pitches. The idea is to have a thought provoking ending to ILDC2022, with participants bringing in an inter-disciplinary and futuristic land agenda in the concluding plenary
Mr. Pranab Ranjan Choudhury
Secretary ILDC, Founder NRMC-CLG (Intellecap Subsidiary)

Agenda

Our Advisors

Tim Hanstad

Co founder, Landesa and CEO, Chandler Foundation, USA

Dr. Shekhar Shah

Vice Chair, Academic Advisor Council, Indian School of Public Policy, New Delhi

Dr. Nivedita Haran

IAS (Retd), Ex-Addl Chief Secretary, Kerala and Faculty, JNU

Mr.Avinash Mishra

Advisor Water & Land ,
NITI Aayog

Deepak Sanan

IAS (Retd), Ex- Addl Chief Secretary, HP and Ex Advisor to NCAER, IIHS & CPR

Mr. S B Dangayach

Executive Director, CSRC Nepal

Dr. Usha Ramnathan

Senior Law Researcher and Human Rights Activist

Mr.Jagat Basnet

Executive Director, CSRC
Nepal

Our Partners

The theme of the sixth edition of ILDC in 2022 was “Global Pulls on Local Lands : Southern Perspectives”. The objective was to further and expand the scope of South-South Exchange around land conversations and cooperations, that began during the last episode, while the focus of the deliberations continued to be on India.

ILDC2022 focused on implications of global pulls from instruments like SDGs, Net Zero, Sustainable Food Systems, COVID19 pandemic and Ukraine crisis on land tenure and administration in the global south. It also explored how the Global soft laws around land viz. Fit for For Purpose (FFP), VGGT, Responsible Investment Guidelines and Technology aided Formalization influence the southern land governance. In addition, the conference discussed how the land actors in the global south respond to, adopt, resist or negotiate with these global pulls. Across the different tracks, ILDC2022 deliberated around land tenure issues through the lenses of (de)colonization and market agendas and examine the interactions with customary/ informal land tenure contexts with implications on land rights of poor, indigenous communities, women, forest dwellers, pastoralists, fishers, tenant farmers, slum dwellers in the global south. The conference focused on South America to expand the Southern perspectives, going across the Atlantic, adding to Asian and African perspectives that were exposed to in ILDC2021.