Invitation to participate to the Rangelands Observatory
The Rangelands Observatory
The International Land Coalition (ILC) believes that a fair and effective monitoring of ongoing processes of land acquisitions in rangeland areas involve and carry specific implications.
To this aim, a Rangeland Observatory (RO) is being established with the intent to support a thorough understanding of current trends – and also to enhance informed and participatory decision making on land use and investments in rangelands, and on the related trade-offs involved.
WHY focusing on rangelands
Rangelands are traditionally perceived and defined as under-utilised, un-occupied and free from use rights. Such definitions obviously forgets the extensive and seasonal utilisation of the inhabiting communities - while hiding economic interests to take control over them.
It is interesting to note that rangelands are traditionally appreciated most for their underground resources (i.e. oil and minerals) or for their wildlife – rather than for the products of their traditional users - such as the grazing systems which support the livestock economies in important regions of the world. Accordingly, for many years development interventions and investments have tried to challenge and restructure rangelands utilisation, rather than support existing patterns.
More recently the encroachment of commercial interests on rangelands has dramatically increased through the ‘land acquisition schemes' that national governments are conceiving to make land available to foreign investors for a number of commercial purposes, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The scale and intensity of this process is raising awareness at different levels, as it directly impacts on the inhabiting communities, whose livelihoods are already threatened by growing population pressures, variations in climatic patterns and other trends. Access to land is a primary driver of the increased vulnerability of rangeland users – as recent crises attest.
Rangeland communities are particularly vulnerable to loosing their rights to land due to the mobility and seasonality of their livelihood patterns, and also due to the fact that their rights have been hardly formalised in papers and laws.
After the underground resources, the wildlife, the livestock, now it is the land and water resources altogether that are targeted by external interests. While opportunities might exist to turn these investments sustainable, current trends indicate that this process represents oftentimes a dramatic threat to rangelands and to their users and often leads to problems of conflict, food insecurity as well as the degradation of the natural resource base.
WHAT is the Rangelands Observatory
A Rangelands Observatory is therefore being established with the intent to look into these dynamics. It is in fact believed that a fair and effective monitoring and evaluation of the processes of acquisitions, conversion and fragmentation of rangeland ecosystems is needed in order to provide a thorough understanding of the trends and their implications – and also to enhance informed and participatory decision making on land use and investments in rangelands, and on the trade-offs involved.
This project is a pilot designed to mobilise a network of organisations to actively contribute to building a global observatory with quantitative and qualitative data on land and investment in rangelands. This will provide an information base which in turn can be used to create opportunities for more informed and participatory decision making on tenure, land use and investments in rangelands, and the trade-offs involved. The project thus links monitoring of trends in rangelands use and conversion with securing land rights for rangelands users.
More specifically, the objectives of the Rangeland Observatory are:
1) To mobilise a network of global, national and local organisations with an interest in monitoring land acquisitions and tenure securitisation in rangelands, and using data generated to inform policy dialogue;
2) To begin building a web-based database of land acquisitions and securitization of tenure rights in rangelands, linked to the on Land Observatory and Land Matrix projects;
3) To publically present emerging information, with a particular focus on best practice and recommendations for policy-makers, key change agents and other practitioners.
HOW you can contribute and benefit
The Observatory aims at collecting, processing and making available existing data and information on land acquisition schemes in rangelands – through an approach that interfaces scientific analysis, communication methodologies and advocacy. A launching workshop will soon be launched to gather momentum and define how to proceed further.
Through a ‘crowdsourcing’ approach, direct contributions from users from anywhere in the world are needed to develop and update the Observatory database. Organizations, communities, agencies, administrations, institutes operating at regional as well as at national and local levels represent our main constituency. Small grants will be made available to local organisations and wider networks operating in ‘hotspot’ areas to facilitate the collection of more qualitative and geo-referenced data such as poverty, biodiversity, access to water, etc. A particular emphasis on understanding gender dimensions will be encouraged.
Would you like to take in the project ? Opportunities include providing data, share information, documentation and contacts, hosting research, or being a focal point for a particular rangeland ‘hotspot’ vulnerable to large-scale conversion. Organizations, communities, individuals and administrations interested in taking part in and contributing to this Initiative are encouraged to contact the Rangelands Observatory project at [email protected].
Please send us by SATURDAY 15/12 an introductory short paper indicating
a) the nature and the functioning of your organization,
b) its objectives as well as the activities,
c) what you would like the Observatory to contribute to your actions,
d) any other idea or material that might assist in joining forces.
This would represent the first step of our partnership and collaboration.
Please feel free to circulate this invitation to other organizations / individuals that are concerned about these themes.
Michele Nori, coordinator
[email protected]
The Rangelands Observatory
The International Land Coalition (ILC) believes that a fair and effective monitoring of ongoing processes of land acquisitions in rangeland areas involve and carry specific implications.
To this aim, a Rangeland Observatory (RO) is being established with the intent to support a thorough understanding of current trends – and also to enhance informed and participatory decision making on land use and investments in rangelands, and on the related trade-offs involved.
Rangelands are traditionally perceived and defined as under-utilised, un-occupied and free from use rights. Such definitions obviously forgets the extensive and seasonal utilisation of the inhabiting communities - while hiding economic interests to take control over them.
It is interesting to note that rangelands are traditionally appreciated most for their underground resources (i.e. oil and minerals) or for their wildlife – rather than for the products of their traditional users - such as the grazing systems which support the livestock economies in important regions of the world. Accordingly, for many years development interventions and investments have tried to challenge and restructure rangelands utilisation, rather than support existing patterns.
More recently the encroachment of commercial interests on rangelands has dramatically increased through the ‘land acquisition schemes' that national governments are conceiving to make land available to foreign investors for a number of commercial purposes, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The scale and intensity of this process is raising awareness at different levels, as it directly impacts on the inhabiting communities, whose livelihoods are already threatened by growing population pressures, variations in climatic patterns and other trends. Access to land is a primary driver of the increased vulnerability of rangeland users – as recent crises attest.
Rangeland communities are particularly vulnerable to loosing their rights to land due to the mobility and seasonality of their livelihood patterns, and also due to the fact that their rights have been hardly formalised in papers and laws.
After the underground resources, the wildlife, the livestock, now it is the land and water resources altogether that are targeted by external interests. While opportunities might exist to turn these investments sustainable, current trends indicate that this process represents oftentimes a dramatic threat to rangelands and to their users and often leads to problems of conflict, food insecurity as well as the degradation of the natural resource base.
WHAT is the Rangelands Observatory
A Rangelands Observatory is therefore being established with the intent to look into these dynamics. It is in fact believed that a fair and effective monitoring and evaluation of the processes of acquisitions, conversion and fragmentation of rangeland ecosystems is needed in order to provide a thorough understanding of the trends and their implications – and also to enhance informed and participatory decision making on land use and investments in rangelands, and on the trade-offs involved.
This project is a pilot designed to mobilise a network of organisations to actively contribute to building a global observatory with quantitative and qualitative data on land and investment in rangelands. This will provide an information base which in turn can be used to create opportunities for more informed and participatory decision making on tenure, land use and investments in rangelands, and the trade-offs involved. The project thus links monitoring of trends in rangelands use and conversion with securing land rights for rangelands users.
More specifically, the objectives of the Rangeland Observatory are:
1) To mobilise a network of global, national and local organisations with an interest in monitoring land acquisitions and tenure securitisation in rangelands, and using data generated to inform policy dialogue;
2) To begin building a web-based database of land acquisitions and securitization of tenure rights in rangelands, linked to the on Land Observatory and Land Matrix projects;
3) To publically present emerging information, with a particular focus on best practice and recommendations for policy-makers, key change agents and other practitioners.
HOW you can contribute and benefit
The Observatory aims at collecting, processing and making available existing data and information on land acquisition schemes in rangelands – through an approach that interfaces scientific analysis, communication methodologies and advocacy. A launching workshop will soon be launched to gather momentum and define how to proceed further.
Through a ‘crowdsourcing’ approach, direct contributions from users from anywhere in the world are needed to develop and update the Observatory database. Organizations, communities, agencies, administrations, institutes operating at regional as well as at national and local levels represent our main constituency. Small grants will be made available to local organisations and wider networks operating in ‘hotspot’ areas to facilitate the collection of more qualitative and geo-referenced data such as poverty, biodiversity, access to water, etc. A particular emphasis on understanding gender dimensions will be encouraged.
Would you like to take in the project ? Opportunities include providing data, share information, documentation and contacts, hosting research, or being a focal point for a particular rangeland ‘hotspot’ vulnerable to large-scale conversion. Organizations, communities, individuals and administrations interested in taking part in and contributing to this Initiative are encouraged to contact the Rangelands Observatory project at [email protected].
Please send us by SATURDAY 15/12 an introductory short paper indicating
a) the nature and the functioning of your organization,
b) its objectives as well as the activities,
c) what you would like the Observatory to contribute to your actions,
d) any other idea or material that might assist in joining forces.
This would represent the first step of our partnership and collaboration.
Please feel free to circulate this invitation to other organizations / individuals that are concerned about these themes.
Michele Nori, coordinator
[email protected]
