New blog from Landesa CEO Chris Jochnick; Climate change event recap; Fall Speaker Series in Seattle; Employee Spotlight on Shipra Deo

Land rights play a critical role in achieving climate solutions. Read about our latest work across sectors to underscore how secure, gender-responsive land rights can support climate action below.

Strengthening Land Rights Will Curb Migration

CHRIS JOCHNICK, Landesa — The world’s food supply is under threat. That was the stark warning contained in a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change and land. The signs are already ubiquitous. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are suffering hunger and malnutrition, in turn driving one of the largest mass migrations in recent memory. Enabling people to stay where they are requires, first and foremost, strengthening their right to be there.

Improving food security amid escalating climate change, the IPCC concludes, will require a land-use revolution. Among other things, farmers will need to implement agricultural practices – such as improved irrigation, terracing, and agroforestry – that improve climate resilience, conserve soil and trees, and boost production.

Yet millions of rural dwellers lack the stability or opportunities to invest in such a transformation, owing largely to insecure land rights. As climate change intensifies, their livelihoods thus are becoming increasingly unsustainable, and the food supply increasingly strained. Many rural families can barely survive, let alone escape poverty.

The Climate Crisis, Global Land Use, and Human Rights

Jane Meriwas (Founder of the Samburu Women Trust), Rukka Sombolinggi (Secretary General of the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago), and Karol Boudreaux at the #CLHR19 Conference

NEW YORK — To adapt to and mitigate the effects of a changing climate, it's important that farmers, homeowners, pastoralists, forest dwellers, and anyone else who is tied to the well-being of the land has a voice in decision-making, and the security to invest in sustainable, equitable, climate-smart solutions.

Landesa's Karol Boudreaux (pictured above right) and Scott Schang participated in a day-long conference at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) to discuss the Climate Crisis, Global Land Use, and Human Rights alongside representatives from other local, women's, indigenous, and environmental groups.

If you'd like to learn more, you can watch a recording of the panel (pictured above) on Land Tenure and Land Users: understanding the people at the center of land.

WATCH THE PANEL

Still interested in learning more about the intersection of land rights and climate change?

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Fall Speaker Series

SEATTLE — This fall, come see a rotating panel of international law and development experts engage in an inspiring and informative discussion on the role law and land play in empowering millions of families around the world.

These events are free, open to the public, and recordings will be posted on our Facebook after the event.

	Emerging Land Rights for Rural Families in Myanmar Thursday, October 10 \| 12pm - 1pm Global Washington
	Partnering with Private Companies: Responsible and Sustainable Investments in Land Wednesday, October 23 \| 6pm – 7pm K&L Gates
	Changing Landscapes in China: Land, Policy, and Rule of Law Wednesday, November 6 \| 12pm – 1pm Global Washington

**1.00 Other CLE credit is available to WSBA members.

Four Questions with Shipra Deo

We're doing bite-sized interviews with our staff so you can get a better idea of who they are, and how they help further our mission. Meet Shipra Deo, our Director of Women's Land Rights based in Uttar Pradesh, India, who has worked with Landesa for four years.

Why do land rights matter to you?
Our relationship to land plays a crucial role in determining the quality of life that we live. The more I understand the dimensions of this centrality, the more I value land rights. Especially for women, land rights open doors to a life of dignity and assertion which enable them to access other rights and usher the benefits to family and community.

What is one thing you’ve learned in your time at Landesa?
The most significant thing that I learned at Landesa is to be mindful about addressing issues at the root of a problem rather than the symptoms themselves. It helps catalyze a change in the systems that result in leveraged, large-scale impact.

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