The study urges stronger political commitment to secure land rights as countries grapple with climate change, biodiversity loss, gender inequality and rural transformation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The report, produced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Land Coalition and France\u2019s agricultural research institute CIRAD, reveals that only 35% of land worldwide has formally documented ownership, tenure or use rights. Despite more than 70 countries undertaking land reforms since the early 2000s, progress remains patchy and slow.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than 1.1 billion adults worldwide consider it likely or very likely that they will lose their homes or property in the coming years. The authors warn that such widespread \u201cland insecurity\u201d undermines productivity, weakens resilience and aggravates poverty and malnutrition.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLand insecurity is one of the most damaging forms of inequality, paid for in lower productivity, weaker resilience and poorer nutrition,\u201d said Maximo Torero Cullen, FAO Chief Economist. \u201cSecure land tenure enables sustainable investment and is the difference between short\u2011term survival and long\u2011term food security.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report, The Status of Land Tenure and Governance, is the first comprehensive global stocktake of how land is owned, used and governed. It finds that States legally own more than 64% of the world\u2019s land, including customary land administered under traditional systems without formal documentation. Just over 25% is known to be privately owned by individuals, companies or collectives, while the tenure status of roughly 10% remains unknown.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Private individuals and corporations own around 2.4 billion hectares, equivalent to 18% of global land. When agricultural land is analysed separately, the inequalities become starker: the top 10% of the world\u2019s largest landholders operate nearly 90% of all cultivated land.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The report warns that without stronger protections, inequality will worsen as demand for land intensifies and climate pressures grow. It urges governments to adopt inclusive, transparent and gender\u2011responsive land\u2011governance systems to ensure land remains a foundation for development rather than a driver of insecurity.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–UN\/ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":27039,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-27038","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"More than a billion people worldwide fear they could lose their land or housing within the next five years, according to a new United Nations (UN)- backed report that highlights the deepening global land insecurity despite two decades of policy progress.\u00a0","published_date":null,"news_description":"More than a billion people worldwide fear they could lose their land or housing within the next five years, according to a new United Nations (UN)- backed report that highlights the deepening global land insecurity despite two decades of policy progress.\u00a0","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27315,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/27038\/revisions\/27315"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=27038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}