Land Governance, Natural Resources and Climate Change in the Arab Region

This report explores some of the critical challenges that converge at the intersection of climate change and land governance. Some of these challenges are droughts, desertification, disaster risk, land and water management, land degradation and restoration, soil erosion and conservation, biodiversity, and food security. In examining these challenges in the context of the Arab region, the report aims to:

• Create new knowledge based on existing sources of information and data as well as expert experiences and recommendations.
• Contribute to contextualizing and developing internationally negotiated frameworks on land governance and climate change in ways that recognize land tenure-related challenges in different regional geographic contexts.
• Help relevant central governments, local authorities, and concerned civil society organizations in the Arab region to understand, better, the interrelation between climate-related challenges and land and natural resources management (specifically, water).
• Stimulate policy debates and encourage further research on the topic, particularly policy-oriented research that seeks to promote effective land management and administration tools to protect the land tenure rights of vulnerable groups against climate change effects.

The report builds on the recommendations of key international frameworks related to climate and land that Arab countries have endorsed. It also relies on relevant literature and well-founded arguments that consider good land governance as a crucial factor in stabilizing vulnerable communities and enhancing their resilience to shocks and stresses, including the adverse impacts of climate change on land and property rights. The report covers urban and rural areas, agrarian and pastoralist communities, natural resource-based conflicts, forced migration, and displacements. Questions of access to and control over land and natural resources are core concerns throughout the report in view of land inequalities and plural land tenure arrangements that characterize Arab countries.