Recognition of the land as a key element of development  and the need of  ensuring tenure security for sustainable development led to the inclusion of land Indicators 1.4.2 and 5.a.1 in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda. Many other goals and indicators are also directly and indirectly linked to the way land is tenured, administered and used. This theme explores the linkage between different tenure regimes in the global south and their positioning vis-a-vis SDG goals and targets. ILDC2022 invites conversations around how SDG agenda (to eradicate poverty, hunger and to ensure gender equality and sustainable resource management along with targets of land indicators) interact with local land tenure and governance regimes, particularly around the tenure continuums, socio-cultural systems and ecological values in the global south. Also to see how these contexts would affect achievement of SDGs in time. Ideas questioning framing of land indicators in SDGs are also welcome. However, this theme not only is about the land tensions and externalities vis-a-vis SDGs, but also about the good practices and positive transformations and impact that land and SDG alignments bring in.

The transition from the conventional to a low carbon economy requires significant change in land use and land management practices. The triggered global need around decarbonisation and clean energy investments are poised to impact not only the way common and communal lands are used or indigenous land tenures are organized, but also would influence the land relations around agricultural, urban and housing lands affecting land rights of women, dalits and marginalized. To unfold the complex interrelationship and just transition, the proposed track aims to cover discussions on global trends around renewable energy, community stewardship, climate finance, pervasive gaps in institutional implementation arrangements and ethical questions with respect to different tenure regimes.

Majority of the population still lacks a legally-registered title in which they cultivate. Secure tenure rights on land is considered as an important driver for investment in agriculture, productivity, robust agri-infrastructure as well as for the social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and strong gender equity in food value and processing chains. However the relations between land tenure and food security remain inconclusive while land use decisions around food production continue to be affected by and get affected by land tenure.
As the globe gears up to align around sustainable food systems in the wake of climate change, global conflicts and pandemics, as hunger continues as a key development concern, this theme invites submissions that investigate if and how land people relations and land administration factor in food policies and actions.

Land tenure has started configuring as a key element in climate change interactions. Although the linkages between climate change and land tenure are complex and indirect, the effects of climate change and variability are felt through changes in natural ecosystems and land use systems. Land tenure remains the driver of land use decisions while the way land is used often influences tenurial regimes and administration decisions.
This theme explores land governance dimensions of climate change, particularly how land tenure and administrations are factored in vulnerability, adaptation and mitigation discourses. As adaptation and mitigation policies and actions target investments in the global south and set the development agenda, this theme invites deliberations that link land tenure contexts and implications to climate actions.

The “soft law” intended to have a direct influence on the governance of the tenure practice by providing an internationally recognized set of principles and by simultaneously encouraging good practices. The land tenure and administration in the global south are increasingly advocating the discourses on formalization, financialisation and individualisation accompanied with global pull/push through investments, policy narratives and technology based innovations. Given the plurality in value, the socio-cultural & historical dimensions, legal pluralism, tenure complexity around the land in the global south, such interactions have invoked a necessity to pay heed for inclusive transformations, exclusion tensions and differential impacts.
This theme would provide space for the protagonists and critiques to join the conversation around more pluralist, inclusive and ‘bottom-up’ processes in land formalization, particularly how the land administration narrative along with the ideas of technology and land-market in politically contested terrains in the south has transformed the land relations with implications on society, culture and ecosystem.