News in 2023
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Strategy Workshop on Women's Land Rights and the Rio Conventions
3-5 July 2023, Berlin, Germany
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Clarissa Augustinus, FIG Ambassador and
Co-Chair of FIG
Task Force on Climate Compass, represented FIG by at a
meeting organized by UNCCD, TMG and the Bosch Foundation, which
took place in Berlin, Germany from the 3-5 July, 2023. It was a
strategy workshop focused on Women’s Land Rights and the 3 Rio
Conventions. A wide range of organizations were represented
including governments, United Nations and not for profit
organizations. United Nations representatives included the
United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the
United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, and the
most well-known of all the 3 Rio Conventions, the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, also known as UN
Climate Change).
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The UN Environment Programme (UNEP), UN-Women, the UN Food and
Agricultural Organization (FAO), UN-Habitat/Global Land Tool Network and
the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as CIFOR-ICRAF were
also present. FIG has partnered with some of these organizations before,
but many of the environmental organizations were new, including the
not-for-profit environmental organizations. Not for profit land
organizations at the meeting with which FIG has partnered included
Landesa, Huariou Commission, Land Portal and the International Land
Coalition.
Building synergy and a shared understanding
The objectives of the workshop were to (1) build synergy across the 3
Rio Conventions on climate, biodiversity and desertification regarding
land and particularly women’s land rights at national and international
levels (2) build a shared understanding of the financial and operational
aspects that need to be addressed to embed women’s land rights and
grassroots and civil society initiatives, in country level climate,
restoration and biomass-related carbon recovery (e.g. reforestation)
projects.
All the governments linked to the 3 Conventions, known as the Conference
of Parties or COPS, have committed to engage in more gender-responsive
designs and implementation of measures to achieve their respective
goals.
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Regarding the CBD, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity
Framework, agreed in 2022, set 3 gender related targets. Target
3 which focuses on equitable governance, indigenous people and
local communities.
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Target 22 which focuses on representation in decision making, land
rights, women and gender-responsive. Target 23 which is about gender
equality, land access, decision making, land rights and women’s
leadership. At the same
time CBD parties, or governments, also agreed to set up a Gender Plan of
Action with the objective of increasing all women and girls’ rights to
ownership and control over land and access to natural resources and to
water, to support the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
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The Parties or governments linked to UNCCD at its COP14 in
2019 made a landmark decision to link land tenure to its work on
land degradation.
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Decision 26 linked work done on tenure through the Voluntary
Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries
and Forests in the Context of National Food Security to UNCCD’s work on
land degradation, drought and desertification. It recognized that land
governance is a fundamental component of sustainable land management.
UNCCD’s COP15 in 2022 expanded this and Decisions 3,22,27 promote
gender-responsive approaches for land restoration and land degradation
neutrality interventions. A Gender Action Plan was also set up.
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The Climate Convention’s (UNFCCC) COP 23 in 2017 adopted a Gender Action
Plan. A number of Decisions about gender were made at COPs 24,25,26 and
27, with an Intermediate Review of the Implementation of the Gender
Action Plan being agreed at COP27 in 2022. None of these Decisions
include a reference to land.
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The Berlin workshop participants recognized that land rights, including
women’s land rights, are vital for the design of sustainable development
and for all 3 Rio Conventions to achieve their goals. Women,
particularly women in local communities, need to be part of the
assessment, (co-)design, implementation and monitoring of projects, to
ensure the achievement and maintenance of these goals. Just as there is
work on “A just transition for energy.’ There also needs to be ‘A just
transition for land’, and women and vulnerable groups are central to
such a just transition.
At the workshop FIG was asked to facilitate the world café and break
away sessions to identify implementation approaches to link (sub-)
national land rights and climate, restoration and biomass-related carbon
recovery in projects. This was one of the 5 main focus areas of the
workshop. A report will be produced by the organizers of the meeting
outlining the findings from the different working groups.
At the closing session FIG indicated that it was open to partnerships
and was looking for capacity development opportunities for its members
on the issues being discussed. FIG also invited meeting participants to
attend the upcoming
Climate Compass Task Force webinars.
Clarissa Augustinus
July 2023
