Post Type: Blog

Read the full-length op-ed published in GIS Resources magazine. This version has been edited for length and clarity.

Bangladesh is a land-scarce country with a high-density population. As the majority of the population still lives in rural areas and depends on agricultural activities for their food and livelihoods, proper rural land management is critical to their well-being. However, land use changes and the impacts of climate change are rapidly reducing the amount of arable land, which has major implications for food production. Bangladesh requires an increased investment in sustainable land use planning to both increase economic growth and ensure food security for its growing population.

Since 2019, SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya, a joint project of NASA and USAID  implemented by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), has provided technical support to Bangladesh to develop and use a national land cover monitoring system to track land cover changes across the country. The land cover monitoring system uses open-source satellite imagery to generate land cover maps annually. Bangladesh uses the land cover maps to monitor forest inventory and plans to expand to using them to strengthen sustainable rural land use planning.

Changing Rural Landscapes

In villages across Bangladesh, human populations are expanding, creating greater demand for housing. To meet this demand, houses are now being built on fertile agricultural land, a limited resource. Restoring agricultural land or forest land is extremely difficult after it has been converted to other uses like housing.

Haphazard planning of rural dwellings negatively affects Bangladesh’s village ecosystems. Houses built on floodplains or canal banks cause stream bank erosion, flooding, and obstruction of water flow. Because village infrastructure cannot handle heavy rains, water accumulation causes flooding. The densely built areas also disrupt natural habitats and contribute to air and noise pollution. These risks are compounded by the impacts of climate change–Bangladesh is the seventh most affected country in the world by extreme weather events.

Detailed spatial land-use planning is critical to counter threats from changes in rural land use. Spatial land-use planning is a collective effort to develop and approve land-based activities. It provides a basis for the creation of zoning laws and defines specific uses of land that balance economic priorities with protecting the natural environment, strengthening living conditions, conserving natural resources, and  promoting social cohesion. It requires up-to-date information on how land has changed over time, such as from forest to agriculture or agriculture to urban.

How Geospatial Technologies Help

Geospatial information is a critical component of land use planning and sustainable natural resource management. Geographic information systems (GIS) integrate diverse Earth observation imagery, spatial data (including land cover maps), and information on how human activities have historically affected and currently affect land use over time. GIS also makes it possible to project how anthropogenic environmental changes may affect land use and land cover in the future. It can be used to develop suitability maps for agricultural and infrastructure development by analyzing factors such as soil type, slope, water availability, and existing infrastructure.

Land use mapping and spatial planning allow decision makers to  assess complex alternative development scenarios and model possible future changes, providing a basis for making informed, evidence-based decisions for rural land use.

As one of the world’s most flood-prone countries, Bangladesh also needs flood risk and flood shelter suitability maps for different climate change scenarios. Geospatial data provide decision makers the information they need to choose building sites that do not encroach on productive land, are not at risk of being submerged in floodwaters, and are reachable by human populations.

Appropriate and effective land use planning, implementation, and management can ensure rural development that is sustainable, environmentally sound, and strengthens food security. SERVIR is committed to ongoing collaboration with partners in Bangladesh to achieve these goals.

This blog was originally published on Climatelinks. 

USAID is helping farming families title their land and access licit economic opportunities in exchange for eradicating their coca crops.

When Víctor Ruíz heard that a massive land formalization initiative was coming to Cáceres, his municipality in Antioquia, he never imagined the impact it would have on his community. Throughout his life, Ruíz has grown coca, the main ingredient in cocaine. His family farm extends over 79 hectares, and they usually reserve three hectares for these illegal, yet lucrative crops.

But now Víctor, president of the Los Lloros community action board, will no longer grow coca. When he has his registered land title, he understands there is a range of opportunities that could benefit his family, his community, and his region.

“The most important thing for landowners is to have our land titled,” says Ruíz. “If we don’t have land titles, we can’t access state resources. We know that a plot of land that does not have its documents up to date is not going to obtain benefits.”

A Disconnected Past

The lack of a legal connection to their property facilitates the decision to plant illicit crops, says Ruíz. When combined with the municipality’s history of violence and the lack of goods and services provided by the state, informal land markets aggravate the economic situation of thousands of farmers who feel there are no viable options to access competitive markets and improve their lives. As a result, growing coca plants is less a crime and more a sensible choice for survival. It’s a vicious circle in which the two elements of an absent government and illicit trade have inexorably led to a worsening of the security situation.

“It is no secret to anyone that, nationwide, not just here in Bajo Cauca, there is a lot of illicit cultivation,” says Ruíz. “If that plot or farm has these crops, it is logical that they will not be legalized until they are eradicated.”

For Colombia’s National Land Agency, the Cáceres parcel sweep has made it clear just how difficult it is for some communities to go from one village to the next. Parcel sweep operators visited every parcel in the municipality, exposing the needs of locals to access legal markets with their products.

Cáceres, Center of Transformation

Reaching communities with these services depends on the leadership of people like Víctor Ruíz. As president of the community action board, Ruíz was involved in the parcel sweep as a community manager. His role is to motivate local residents to voluntarily eradicate coca crops. His participation is fundamental to making them see why obtaining a registered land title is what they have dreamed of for years.

The land titling component of the 3T Strategy has already begun delivering land titles to rural families in Cáceres and will continue throughout 2023.

Like Víctor, there are 20 social leaders who worked in the massive property sweep as community managers in Cáceres. Edid Medina is a community manager and president of the community action board in the village of Vijagual. She also encourages her community to voluntarily eradicate coca and plant other crops such as cassava and corn on their land. For her, having a title deed to her land represents hope and is the document that supports her when she needs to acquire a loan or apply for a subsidy to improve her home.

“After uprooting the coca, what we have is a grass pasture. Right now, we are planting corn, rice and cassava. I have the hope that you can go to any bank, anywhere, and with a land title, you don’t come empty-handed, you come with hope,” she says.

A Voluntary Choice

In Cáceres, POSPR implementation identified 1,263 parcels covering 58,600 hectares that are subject to agrarian reform processes, and 1,024 applications for access to land by landless families.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

The Municipality of Santander de Quilichao is delivering land titles and improving compliance with land restitution rulings

In the early 2000’s, the small town of Lomitas, located in southern Colombia, was the epicenter of several years of paramilitary operations. The violence took the lives of many and displaced hundreds more. When residents returned to their lands, their crops were destroyed and their animals were gone. What’s worse, their properties were in the hands of several sugarcane companies.

Orfanis Sandoval returned to Lomitas in 2008 to find her house had been destroyed. Sandoval’s land was first owned by her grandfather more than 60 years ago. Her father inherited the land, and she and her siblings inherited it from her father.

“Before my father died, my siblings and I decided who would get what pedacito (piece) of land. We worked hard and built what we could,” explains Sandoval.

In 2012, with the support of Colombia’s Land Restitution Unit, the Sandovals and the people of Lomitas began a multi-year legal battle to recover their land and seek compensation for their suffering. Over the years, restitution judges have issued several rulings in their favor, including orders for reparation measures that benefit the entire community. More than 20 restitution rulings have come down in favor of the town, including one that requires the Government of Colombia to title their property.

The Guarantees of a Land Title

The titling of the victims’ property is an essential part of land restitution rulings and provides people with a guarantee that their property cannot be stolen from them again. In 2023, Orfanis Sandoval and some of her neighbors received the land titles that were promised to them under the restitution rulings. The land titles, which were delivered more than five years after the initial ruling, may have taken longer if it weren’t for the efforts of the Municipal Land Office.

The municipality of Santander de Quilichao is the main city in the mountains of northern Cauca, approximately 80 kilometers south of Cali. The Municipal Land Office was created in 2017 with USAID support and plays a prominent role in land administration as liaison with Colombia’s National Land Agency as well as with the victims of Lomitas.

Equipped with the capacity to quickly survey a property or research the history of a property deed, the land office team overcomes the typical challenges associated with land administration in Colombia, and they do it from the Municipal building.

The Santander de Quilichao Municipal Land Office has delivered over 600 land titles and mobilized nearly US $15 M in public funding for infrastructure and city improvements thanks to secure land tenure.

“The mere presence of the Land Office is important. We are the social workers who reach out and coordinate with victims in Lomitas, and we provide assistance to the National Land Agency when they come to make technical visits to the parcels being titled,” explains Bernardo Pinzón, a social worker in Santander de Quilichao’s Municipal Land Office.

Over the last decade, USAID has invested resources and expertise to strengthen Santander de Quilichao’s capacity to respond to land restitution rulings. USAID helped create a localized Land Restitution Subcommittee, which supports compliance with restitution rulings. Thanks to the land administration experts embedded in the administration, the municipality has developed and implemented a portion of the collective and individual measures contained in the ruling, proving to be crucial for the community.

The Municipal Land Office has formalized community spaces such as the soccer field, and the municipality built a children’s playground. USAID and the municipality have also organized service fairs in the community, where health entities offered vaccinations to children and adults, dentists provided check-ups, and banks offered financial products.

“Knowing that the public spaces of Lomitas have been legalized by the Municipality gives us the chance to enjoy them without worrying about landowners showing up to claim they own the land,” explains Orfanis Sandoval. “We have more confidence to hold community events.”

“Now we are the owners of the property, and they can’t take that right away. Now we can plant our gardens without fear. We can have chickens. We can invest in ourselves and not feel like we could lose it all again.

Our community feels that the Municipality has been aware of our issues. And we hope that more residents will get the same opportunity.”

-Orfanis Sandoval, Community Leader in Lomitas, Santander de Quilichao

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

USAID is providing the Colombian government with the tools to improve land administration and reduce deforestation in the Amazon

More than half of Colombia is forested, and the majority is concentrated in the Amazon. The country’s forests are one of its most valuable resources, but are threatened by the expansion of cattle ranching, illicit crop plantations, and illegal mining. All of these activities drive deforestation and put rural communities in a vulnerable position.

In the northwestern corner of Colombia’s Amazon rainforest, the government is fighting land grabbing for cattle ranching in an attempt to protect the ecosystems and biodiversity of the country’s treasured wilderness. As land is cleared, ranchers dig deeper towards protected areas like the Chiribiquete National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering more than 4 million hectares.

A 2021 special investigation by the International Environmental Agency found a connection between illegal deforestation and the region’s armed conflict. According to the investigation, illegal cattle production has increased threefold since 2015, and in a four-year period, 17,000 hectares were cleared in the buffer zones surrounding areas of Chiribiquete National Park.

To counter deforestation, the government first requires knowledge about land and forest use in these areas. The USAID Land for Prosperity Activity is providing the government with tools to improve land administration in and around the park, starting with updating the cadaster of the Chiribiquete National Park and its buffer zones.

Chiribiquete is home to many iconic species including Jaguar, Puma, Lowland Tapir, Giant Otter, Howler Monkey, Brown Woolly Monkey. A high level of endemism occurs, and the number of endemic species is likely to rise substantially once new research programs are implemented. (Photos: PNN Colombia)

“The country needs to know how much land we have, which of it is public and which is private, how much it is worth, how it contributes to productivity, environmental conservation and the country’s development.”

–Gustavo Marulanda, Director of Colombia’s catastro authority IGAC.

USAID has supported the government with high-quality aerial photography, on a scale of 1:10,000, of more than 500,000 hectares of land currently occupied by rural families in Chiribiquete’s buffer zones. With more accurate photography, the government can improve deforestation monitoring, community engagement, and law enforcement.

Proper land use management and administration in protected areas like national parks disincentivizes illicit crop cultivation. The strategy is based on the logic that addressing land tenure issues and strengthening sustainable rural development will disincentivize further deforestation and promote biodiversity conservation and climate change mitigation.

“The Government of Colombia conducts periodic flights to identify the deforestation and illegal occupation areas. These are public parcels that need to be identified to control and restore the area while reducing the possibility of affecting the natural and cultural heritage.”

-Carolina Jarro, deputy administrator in the National Parks Authority.

In the remaining area of Chiribiquete, USAID is supporting aerial photography to survey more than 3.7 million hectares. The scale of the aerial photography for the forested areas of the park is 1:50,000. Once the entire area has been surveyed, the government will validate the information only after carrying out free, prior, and informed consent methodologies with indigenous groups living in the park.

“Protecting the uncontacted indigenous groups in this territory is a challenge because of the risk of cultural loss after contact with land grabbers,” explains Jarro.

Despite the fact that limited scientific research has been undertaken in the property, data available shows that 2,939 species have been recorded, according to the UNESCO. (Photos courtesy of PNN Colombia and Colombia Oculta).

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

A USAID facilitated Public Private Partnership looks to expand production and market linkages for lime producers in the Eastern Plains of Colombia

Colombian Limes

From mojitos to margaritas, limes have played a role in how society interacts for generations. Today, limes are ubiquitous with bars and restaurants and featured in cuisine across the globe thanks to a unique citrus taste, and the demand for limes grows every year.

There are only seven lime orchards with export registrations in the Department of Meta, located in the Eastern Plains of Colombia.

The Lime PPP

Under the PPP, these two groups of smallholder farmers will receive new skills and knowledge about tree maintenance, post-harvest processing, and agribusiness to improve the management of 120 hectares of lime orchards. Two fruit exporters, including Merlet, signed onto the partnership to provide farmers with market channels abroad like Europe and USA.

In Meta, farmers face issues with proper orchard management, a lack of technical support, and little investment in irrigation systems. With no collective marketing schemes, each producer must pay logistical and operational costs to bring the product to the local market.

“Meta’s growers are facing challenges to deliver larger quantities on time and with traceability, that is, certification,” explains Eastman. “The opportunity is to work together on large deliveries. There is a lot of land in Meta, and the lime has already proven that it is a good product that our customers like and want more.”

The Lime PPP in Meta seeks to strengthen the lime value chain in Meta by transferring skills and strengthening the knowledge of production systems and agribusiness. PPP stakeholders will develop the business capacities of producers and focus on youth.

Orchards Expanding

The PPP includes a chorus of public sector support, including the Rural Development and Territorial Renovation Agencies (ARD, ART), the National Agricultural Institute (ICA), and Agrosavia, which is the government’s agro research and innovation agency. In addition, the PPP is building on the work carried out by the Sinchi Amazonic Institute of Scientific Research (SINCHI), which is using European Union funding to expand coverage of lime orchards in Puerto Lleras.

“As an environmental research institute, SINCHI is participating in the PPP to transfer skills, raise awareness, and train on issues around environmental management, sustainable development, sustainable production systems, and guidelines for territorial management,” explains Uriel Murcia, agriculture investigator for SINCHI.

For the regional government’s Secretary of Agriculture, José Zárate, the PPP represents a valuable opportunity to learn about and improve understanding of export markets.

“Knowledge of the market does not mean we just produce more limes because they will pay us more, but also understanding that the international market is governed by supply and demand,” says Zárate.

“The stakeholders of this PPP also include the Chamber of Commerce and the academic partners. We have to capitalize on the allies who are here to facilitate how we view the market, allowing us to make better decisions and be more accurate.”

José Zárate, Sectretary of Agriculture in Meta’s regional government.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

A USAID-facilitated public private partnership is supporting agribusiness in the sesame value chain in post-conflict Colombia.

In Colombia’s Caribbean region, sesame was often viewed as a secondary crop that farmers planted in the months following a cotton or tobacco harvest. Sesame is known for resiliency, and farmers covered their fields with it to improve soil health and moisture retention. In the late 80s, as tobacco markets diminished, and then in the 90s, when the Montes de María region erupted in violence, farmers all but forgot about sesame cultivation.

In its heyday in the eighties, experts estimated that farmers in the Montes de María region (Sucre, Bolívar, and Córdoba) produced up to 25,000 MT of sesame each year. Three decades later, sesame production has been reduced by 95% to just 800 MT in 2021.

Besides being one of the most drought tolerant crops in the world, sesame cultivation is low risk, in that it offers high returns for little investment. Today, sesame enjoys high demand for its oil that is used in a variety of cuisines and global sesame markets are stable. Thanks to a public private partnership in the sesame value chain, facilitated by USAID, Colombian farmers are getting a new opportunity to cultivate high quality sesame for export.

The PPP, which is valued at nearly USD 1.8M, was signed in March and includes 21 farmer associations representing 565 farmers (41% women). The objective of the PPP is to increase planting and production of sesame to 2,000 MT by 2025. As farmers increase production, a chorus of public sector partners are supporting the value chain and local capacity.

Colombian food retailer and exporter Sumapaz Foods joined the partnership to provide purchasing agreements with the associations. Sumapaz Foods works with vulnerable groups and victims of the conflict to offer a diverse portfolio of Colombian products to gourmet food retailers in Europe and beyond.

“Through this PPP, we hope to close the gap that has existed due to middlemen buyers. With direct sales, now we are ensured fair prices. That is why we are excited to be part of this partnership, it builds our confidence and gives us a guarantee to continue our work to plant and harvest sesame.”

– Yoleida Salcedo, a member of a the Pativaca Women’s Association, a group of 35 women who grow a variety of products including sesame.

Cutting out middlemen is a benefit, but the women of Pativaca are organized for an additional reason: women’s empowerment. Many of the members are single mothers with families to support.

“We no longer just procreate and take care of the children. That was a thing in the past. We are awake and capable of making business, leading our own projects, and putting food on the table for our children,” says Salcedo.

For Salcedo, sesame has been a part of her community for her entire life, but only recently did the women focused on turning it into a business. With support from the PPP, women’s associations like Pativaca will receive technical assistance in agronomy and business administration. They will also participate in the creation of a regional sesame seed bank that will help to guarantee sesame quality and traceability.

“For us, sesame is on the table at every meal. Thanks to this partnership, our vision is changing and we see opportunities. We no longer see it as a product that feeds our families, it will create revenue, and we are making business.

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure

Robust safeguards help manage social risks during USAID land tenure programming and contribute to the social well-being of ethnic communities

A Forgotten History

In 2022, The USAID-supported parcel sweep in Ataco provided the remaining seven communities the opportunity to make a case to the government for their land rights. To do this, USAID adhered to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) best practices to assure the community agreed to participate. FPIC is a right that indigenous and Afro-descendant communities have to say yes or no to any proposal that could affect their territory and social structure.

Seven Pijao communities in Ataco worked with the parcel sweep teams to meet the requirements to request the creation of protected indigenous reservations, including: Brisas de Atá; Mesa de Pole; Ico Valle de Anape; Kalapicá Ambulú Territorio Sagrado; Ancestral Pijao Buena Vista; Caciques de Agua Dulce; and Casa de Zinc.

The FPIC strategy is inclusive and participatory and demonstrates a successful intercultural dialogue around land and territory. Following the FPIC process, which included meetings with more than 100 Pijao leaders and community members, the remaining seven Pijao communities voted to participate in the parcel sweep, and worked with teams to survey their land. With the technical information, the seven Pijao reservations, representing some 600 families, presented requests to the National Land Agency to create protected reservations for their communities.

“The parcel sweep helped us to strengthen our land claims and defend our territory. This shows that we can work as a community and reach agreements through dialogue and that we can indeed achieve differential treatment as indigenous people,” says Rosmira Luna, 60-year-old governor of the Pijao indigenous cabildo in the Mesa de Pole village.

Keys to success include respect for the Pijao’s autonomy and self-determination, a series of consultations with Pijao leaders, and the wide participation of the community.

“Now we can finally move forward with the reservation.” –Rosmira Luna, Pijao indigenous cabildo in the Mesa de Pole, Ataco, Tolima

USAID developed the parcel sweep method in partnership with contributions from the National Land Agency and Colombian land agencies. The initiative seeks to update the nation’s rural cadaster, resolve land conflicts, and deliver land titles to rural landowners, and helps the government meet the commitments made in the 2016 Peace Accords.

In the process, USAID updated the parcel sweep methodology with guidelines on working with ethnic communities. The guidelines will improve the government’s application of FPIC in relation to land formalization and are part of fulfilling USAID’s guiding principles to promote the rights of indigenous groups in relation to Colombian land laws.

In late 2022, the Ataco parcel sweep finished field work, identifying 11,843 parcels covering approximately 100,000 hectares. As the parcel data is processed, it is then sent to the National Land Agency, which determines which parcels are immediately subject to formalization. With an estimated 5,000 parcels ready to be titled, the Ataco parcel sweep is Colombia’s largest land formalization initiative yet.

“For us it was important that LFP and the agencies came to consult with our community in Ataco, because it is a fundamental right and part of the governance of our indigenous territories. With USAID we achieved success in the support for the documentation to constitute the seven Pijao communities’ reservations before the National Land Agency. If it were not for USAID it would not have been possible.” 

-Diana Maritza Figueroa, Governor of the Kalapika Ambulú sacred territory of the Pijao (Ataco)

Cross-posted from USAID Exposure