03 Integrating lands

Integrating local communities’ lands in Operations

Accurate, validated maps of local communities’ lands

The initiative explored innovative geospatial-based approaches and solutions to collect and share data with collaborating institutions on indigenous and local community (IPLC) lands.

IFAD partner country offices in Tanzania, India and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in collaboration with LandMark, the International Land Coalition, and other national partners implemented new ways to cost-effectively and efficiently strengthen land claims for indigenous peoples and communities.

RESULTS ACHIEVED

Pilot exercises carried out in IFAD Country Offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, India and the United Republic of Tanzania, strengthening partnerships at a country-level
• Tanzania: over 200 maps collected with contribution of local communities, government and other national actors
• India: Field data collection of over 4000 individuals resulting in strengthened tenure and land governance for 5 forest communities
• DRC: Lands mapped representative of 125 villages and estimated population of over 7000 households
Direct connections made with remote communities, overcoming political obstacles to land mapping and ensuring the inclusion and the ownership of communities
Improved data collection, mapping and storing of geographic information of IPLC lands in the pilot countries, including means for monitoring and evaluation to address land disputes and ad hoc challenges
Participatory involvement of IPLC promoted during various phases of a project cycle
Enhanced data flow between IFAD operations; GIS platform, and an innovative IT platform (LandMark)
Effective collaboration with the International Land Coalition members, CSOs, and the LandMark platform

POTENTIAL IMPACT

Strengthened IPLC land rights (legally, socially and politically) and tenure and governance
Improved use of geographic information system information for programmatic oversight and M&E purposes by ICOs
Greater collaboration with partners like LandMark to create open, trusted mapping of IPLC’ lands
Contribution to data creation of hitherto poorly documented areas.
Help unifying advocacy efforts across disparate organizations and groups
Improved monitoring and evaluation, in particular of sensitive areas

CHALLENGE AREAS

Lack of systematic land tenure assessments, communities’ consultation and expertise on GIS technology at ICO level
Political obstacles and sensitivities to access, validate, and share the data
Variable quality, accuracy and reliability of existing maps
Embedding cultural norms, customs, detailed local characteristics in to the maps
The scale of the coverage needed

Recommendations for next steps
(from the project team)

Advanced (Scale up)

We recommend this project be scaled up as an important way to ensure recognition and protection of IPLC lands and invest in inclusive and participatory land mapping and tenure assessment while supporting enhanced data generation and analytics. To do so, IFAD could engage further development partners, governments and CSOs in multi-stakeholder decision-making process to evolve a strategy, develop technological capacity and enable collaboration between project actors, and convene regular meetings and lesson-sharing events. If the project is successful, further funding could be sought and a network of expertise between IFAD and LandMark established.

Lessons learned
(from the project team)

We learned a lot about the enormous possibilities but also the limited use (so far) of GIS technology. Accurate and detailed mapping is vital in the future for local communities to enhance and protect their tenure rights. Since so little of their land is mapped, there is enormous scope for scaling up. Although IFAD can act as a big player in pushing the use of technology forward in its operational areas, collaboration with technology companies and land rights groups will be fundamental for success. Lastly, new innovative thinking is required to incorporate local and traditional knowledge of land and natural resources use to improve tenure security among a community.

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