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A people-centered call to action: Promoting secure tenure rights for inclusive land governance, climate resilience, and conflict resolution

Published

9 months ago

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We, the members of the International Land Coalition Africa, while reaffirming our support to the Global Land Forum 2025 Declaration, issue this urgent call to action, united in our conviction that secure land rights are a foundation for transformative agrarian reform, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems, climate justice, and the dismantling of extractive, exclusionary models of development.

Across Africa and the world, land is not a commodity, land is life. It shapes identity, culture, food, energy, shelter, and survival. Yet, land is increasingly contested, commodified, and concentrated, fueling inequality, marginalization, and conflict. Climate change and biodiversity collapse deepen these injustices, disproportionately affecting Indigenous Peoples (namely hunter gatherers, forest dwellers, pastoralists… in line with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples-UNDRIP) and Local Communities, smallholder farmers, victims of colonialism, youth, and women, those least responsible for this crisis.

The livelihoods of these communities are at risk due to disruption of their food and livelihood systems. Secure tenure rights are essential for inclusive governance, ecological stewardship, and equitable access to land and natural resources. They empower communities to invest in sustainable agriculture, participate in democratic land governance processes, safeguard biodiversity, and pursue climate adaptation and mitigation rooted in justice.

The urgency for inclusive land governance has never been greater. Resource scarcity, land and water conflicts, and the impacts of climate change are colliding with flawed governance systems and unchecked extractive development. These dynamics act as threat multipliers, undermining peace, increasing displacement, and accelerating environmental degradation.

Yet, hope endures. Across continents, communities are organizing to reclaim their rights, restore degraded ecosystems, transform food systems, and chart pathways away from fossil fuel dependency and exploitative land use. What they need now is bold political will, transformative policies, and genuine partnerships rooted in justice and solidarity.

From commitment to bold action.

We reaffirm our collective commitment to advance secure land tenure for all as a lever for inclusive land governance, food sovereignty, ecological restoration, sustainable land use, energy justice, and conflict prevention. Secure tenure fosters stability and a sense of belonging, enabling communities to sustainably steward their land, defend biodiversity, and engage meaningfully in shaping their futures.

We call on all actors to act urgently, courageously, and in alignment with the aspirations of communities who are at the forefront of land and climate justice.

1. Governments and policymakers: lead on land governance and transformative just systems

  • Champion equitable land redistribution that uplifts smallholder farmers, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples, and pastoralist communities.
  • Decolonize land laws and governance systems to reflect the rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as Local Communities Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities knowledge systems, and their lived realities.
  • Recognize and legally protect customary and collective tenure systems as safeguards against conflict, displacement, and ecological breakdown.
  • Strengthen protection of land and environmental defenders from violence, criminalization, and impunity.
  • Ensure that land-based investments are rooted in fair policies and laws, transparent governance, uphold tenure arrangements and land rights, improved livelihoods and take into account the FPIC principles.
  • Urgently solve land-related court backlogs, enforce land related court decisions and invest in alternative dispute resolution and alternative justice systems grounded in community norms.
  • Align national land governance with regional and global frameworks (such as the Agenda 2063 of the African Union (AU), the AU Framework Policy on pastoralism, the Voluntary Guidelines on land governance, etc.) to advance land justice and climate action.

2. Civil society movements: drive people-centred transformation

  • Mobilize land policies rooted in human rights, agroecology, and the self-determination of rural communities.
  • Elevate the leadership of women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and pastoral communities in land and climate governance.
  • Promote family farming and community-based food systems as anchors of agri-food transformation and biodiversity protection.
  • Empower youth through education, organizing, and innovation in land justice and regenerative economies.
  • Strengthen grassroots movements and connect them with regional and global platforms for solidarity, learning, and advocacy.
  • Embark on advocacy actions to protect and defend their land, natural resources and territorial rights
  • Connect struggles and actions of solidarity
  • Lobby other actors support to advance their land and territorial rights.

3. Private sector: invest in land, people, and the planet, ethically and transparently

  • Commit to responsible investment practices anchored in free, prior, and informed consent.
  • Reject all forms of land grabbing, forced evictions, and extractive development.
  • Collaborate with communities to advance regenerative agriculture, landscape restoration, and fair, inclusive value chains.
  • Ensure transparency, accountability, and equity across land-based business operations and supply chains.
  • Transition away from extractive energy models toward just, locally rooted renewable solutions.

4. International organizations and donors: support long-term, justice-oriented transformation.

  • Foster inclusive, multi-stakeholder processes to co-create pathways for sustainable land governance and transformative just food systems, agrarian reform, food system resilience, and just energy transition.
  • Provide sustained financial, technical, and political support for land and tenure reform led by communities and civil society.
  • Center local knowledge and voices in international land, food, and climate dialogues.
  • Protect and amplify land and environmental defenders and ensure accountability for violations.

5. Individuals: stay informed, engaged and in solidarity.

  • Learn about the intersections of land justice, climate change, biodiversity, and sustainable food systems.
  • Stand in solidarity with communities defending land, ecosystems, and livelihoods.
  • Use your voice, networks, and platforms to challenge land injustices and advocate for just transitions.

Together for a just future

The journey toward land governance and transformative just food systems and a just response to the climate and biodiversity crises, begins with people, those who live on and from the land. Let us listen to their voices, uphold their land rights, and act in solidarity to ensure land is governed for dignity, sustainability, and peace.

This is our moment to act boldly. Land cannot wait. Communities cannot wait. The planet cannot wait.

Source: International Land Coalition-ILC

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NGO WORK

Two dead as Siaya protests against gold mining firm turn tragic

Published

1 week ago

on

April 7, 2026

By

Ikolomani residents protesting against eviction plan to pave space for British mining company Shanta Gold on November 12, 2025. Two people died in similar protests in Gem, Siaya County.  Isaac Wale | Nation Media Group

Two people were shot dead on Monday in Gem–Ramula, Siaya County, after villagers staged a protest over an alleged eviction they linked to Shanta Gold Kenya Limited.

Area police boss Charles Wafula confirmed the incident, stating that the victims were among a group alleged to have attacked a police post after the officers moved in to disperse the demonstrators.

According to Mr Wafula, the demonstrators, angered by what they described as an illegal resettlement by the company, stormed the station during the protest, prompting officers to intervene.

“The individuals had organised a demonstration but they did not notify the police. Our officers moved in to contain the situation, but the group began attacking both officers and Ramula Police Post, damaging several items, including vehicles,” Mr Wafula said.

However, a local rights organisation has sharply contested the police account, portraying the killings as unlawful and unprovoked.

In a statement, the Community Initiative Action Group Kenya said the two victims identified as Henry Otieno and Jack Omenda were part of a peaceful protest against what they termed a forced eviction from their ancestral land.

“The community had gathered peacefully to demonstrate against Shanta Gold Limited’s attempt to relocate them without their consent,” said the lobby’s Executive Director Chris Owalla.

The group further alleged that police officers opened fire without warning following a confrontation with residents at Ramula Market.

“Witnesses state there was an exchange between the community and police after which officers opened fire, killing Henry and Jack on the spot,” Mr Owalla said.

The rights group also accused senior police officers including Mr Wafula and Charles Emodo of Directorate of Criminal Investigation, of disregarding a court order that had halted evictions and mining operations in the area.

According to Mr Owalla, the Environment and Land Court in Siaya had, on February 5, 2026, issued conservatory orders barring any involuntary resettlement of residents in Ramula and its environs, pending the hearing of a petition.

The organisation is now calling for investigations by the Independent Policing Oversight Authority and the the Director of Public Prosecutions, alongside an independent autopsy on the victims.

Fear of evictions

The unrest is rooted in long-standing tensions over planned gold mining operations by Shanta Gold in the region. The company is seeking to establish a large-scale extraction project – one that residents fear could uproot communities and erode livelihoods carefully built over generations.

Similar scenes of unrest were reported in November 2025 in Ikolomani, where locals protested against possible relocations linked to the same company.

Shanta Gold has previously signalled its intention to invest in a multi-billion-shilling project in western Kenya, targeting high-grade gold deposits expected to yield significant output over several years.

Source: nation.africa

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NGO WORK

Tanzania: Commissions call for mass eviction of Indigenous Maasai from world-famous tourist destinations.

Published

4 weeks ago

on

March 19, 2026

By

Two presidential commissions have recommended the mass eviction of Maasai people from some of East Africa’s most iconic conservation areas and tourist destinations.

The commissions were established by Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan following previous evictions of Maasai pastoralists from parts of the world-famous Serengeti ecosystem, and large-scale protests in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area in 2024.

Now, despite a global outcry at the earlier evictions, the two Commissions have:

  • Backed the previous evictions and called for them to continue, including in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Ngorongoro and neighboring Lake Natron.
  • Described the long-standing Maasai presence in the area as an “environmental pressure” that needs to be reduced.
  • Threatened local NGOs that support the Maasai, accusing them of “spreading misinformation or propaganda” because they “conflict with government interests.”
  • Called for the “relocation” of all “non-conservation activities” [in other words, Maasai occupancy of the land] outside the conservation areas.
  • Called for existing recognition of the Maasai people’s right to live in the Ngorongoro area to be removed.

An anonymous Maasai spokesperson said today: “We are blamed for environmental degradation while the unchecked expansion of tourism is ignored. Forced relocation, disguised as policy, has deprived our people of basic rights and dignity. We reject any continuation of these measures and condemn the Commission’s failure to reflect the voices, realities, and rights of our people.”

Still from a video showing the Maasai protesting the violent evictions from their ancestral lands, 2022.

The authorities maintain that these are “voluntary relocations.” However, the Maasai have overwhelmingly rejected being moved.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When it was established, the ancestral right of the Maasai to live there with their cattle was explicitly acknowledged. But UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has backed the so-called “voluntary relocations”, and UNESCO endorses the “fortress conservation” model that underpins Tanzania’s approach.

Survival International Director Caroline Pearce said today, “These commissions were a sham, a gimmick designed to give Tanzania’s violent persecution of the Maasai a veneer of respectability. It was widely predicted that they’d back further evictions: the whole saga just confirms that colonial-style fortress conservation is alive and well in Tanzania today, and enthusiastically endorsed by UNESCO.

“These recommendations give the green light to more evictions, in Ngorongoro and beyond. And while the Maasai are robbed of their lands and livelihood, the government, tour operators and so-called conservationists will enrich themselves from a landscape emptied of its original owners.”

Source: survivalinternational.org

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NGO WORK

Sham Presidential Commissions Rubber Stamp Tanzanian Government’s Efforts to Evict Indigenous Maasai from Ngorongoro Conservation Area

Published

1 month ago

on

March 18, 2026

By

  • March 12, 2026, Presidential commissions’ reports recommend dismantling longstanding Maasai rights in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) – rubber-stamping the Tanzanian government’s plans for widespread evictions to expand tourism.
  • President Hassan pursues a so-called “voluntary” relocation program, despite extensive evidence that communities are being forced to leave through the withdrawal of essential services and livelihood restrictions.
  • The government announced a crackdown on civil society groups critical of its plans, raising concerns of further repression of land defenders and NGOs speaking out against forced displacement.
  • Maasai communities remain steadfast in the defense of their land, livelihoods, and way of life, vowing to continue resistance against attempts to force them from their ancestral territories.

Oakland, CA – In reports submitted on March 12, 2026 to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan, commissions tasked to assess land disputes in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA) and review resettlement plans, dismissed rights of the Indigenous Maasai to their ancestral lands. They instead advance recommendations that further marginalize their rights in order to expand safari tourism.

“The commissions’ recommendations are based on outright lies about the environmental impacts of the Maasai, while completely ignoring the real damage caused by rapid tourism expansion,” said a Maasai elder. 1 “If these extremely biased and reckless recommendations are implemented, it will be the end of our people in Ngorongoro.”

Immediately after the reports were submitted, park rangers started harassment of residents in the grazing areas of Ndutu with the intent to force them to leave for tourism expansion. Three community members were reportedly beaten and arrested while others received notices to vacate.

Recommendations are a crafty attempt at changing 1959 legislation that created the NCA as a multiple land use area – explicitly enshrining the right of the Maasai to live and graze cattle in the area. The Maasai were promised that “should there be any conflict between the interests of the game [animals] and the human inhabitants, those of the latter must take precedence.”

The President has accepted the recommendations and stated she “will act on them” – a decision that will have a catastrophic impact on Maasai communities. The government has signaled its intention to drastically reduce Maasai presence in the NCA and relocate what it calls “non-conservation activities” outside the area. Towards this goal, the President has indicated an expansion of the “voluntary” relocation program.

For years, the Oakland Institute has shattered government myths about “voluntary” resettlement –exposing serious flaws with relocation plans that are being forced upon communities. To pressure residents to leave, the government has stopped basic medical, education, and water services while restricting access to grazing land for pastoralists. Massive mobilizations by the Maasai against this forced resettlement expose the government’s lie that people are leaving willingly.

Beyond the NCA, the commissions also recommend further restrictions on livelihoods, threatening the future eviction of Maasai communities living near Lake Natron and Loliondo. “These sham findings are the latest attempt by the government to rapidly expand its brutal fortress conservation model across the country, threatening hundreds of thousands of Indigenous lives in blind pursuit of tourism dollars that have failed to trickle down to improve the lives of the poor Tanzanians and the local communities,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.

In another alarming development, the government is attempting to silence local NGOs by reviewing their registration status and monitoring their activities to force them to operate “in alignment with national conservation objectives.” The move reflects the regime’s ongoing persecution of civil society and broader crackdown on dissent, carried out through state violence and arbitrary detention. Major opposition parties remain outlawed in Tanzania, while government critics have routinely disappeared. Following the rigged October 2025 national elections, the government violently suppressed pro-democracy protests and state security forces killed thousands of civilians.

As previously warned by the Oakland Institute, both commissions lacked independence given they were dominated by government personnel and had very limited Maasai representation. The commissions’ reports – which have not been made public – were orally presented to the government nearly one year after they were due to provide findings.

“These commissions have no credibility. From the start, they were tasked with rubber stamping the government’s plans to evict the Indigenous Maasai so their land can be a safari and hunting playground for the rich foreign tourists. One cannot be fooled by their “findings” and international solidarity must be mobilized to uphold Maasai’s rights to their ancestral land,” warned Mittal.

Source: oaklandinstitute.org

Related posts:

The Oakland Institute Calls on the Tanzanian Presidential Land Commissions to Respect & Ensure Rights of Maasai Living in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Tanzanian Government’s Sustained Campaign Against the Maasai in Loliondo and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area URGENT ALERT: Tanzanian Government on a Rampage Against Indigenous People Tanzanian Government Continues Violent Repression of the Maasai in Loliondo Despite Worldwide Condemnation Call to Sever Ties with Tanzanian Government Over Latest Human Rights Abuses Against the Maasai
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