Climate change, land rights and the fight for social and environmental justice in the Arab region

 

Land grabbing involves large-scale land acquisitions through purchase or lease by foreign or domestic sources for environmental (green) or other purposes. This is an emerging form of land dispossession that threatens to amplify existing inequalities and injustices and aggravate the negative impacts of climate change in many countries of the Global South. However, theoretically grounded empirical research on resistance to this phenomenon is limited.

With a focus on the Arab region, particularly Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt, this research project aims to fill a knowledge gap by providing interdisciplinary analyses and evidence-supported arguments and recommendations derived from the lived experiences of the communities, organizations, groups and individuals who are fighting land grabbing in the region.
It aims to shed light on different forms of resistance to land grabbing and to assess their effectiveness. It questions the legal and institutional processes that are facilitating, or blocking, green and un-green grabbing and the roles played by state and non-state actors and concerned communities. It comprises three stages: identification of critical regional challenges; country-level issues and case studies analysis; and policy debates and research dissemination.

This project will help form a long-lasting multidisciplinary network of scholars, practitioners and policymakers and advocates of just transition and responsible land governance. It is expected to have significant influence on national and regional public policy agendas and regulatory frameworks related to land and land rights, and also to have a positive impact on mainstreaming climate change, gender equality and social inclusion into climate action at the national and regional levels.