Civil society organizations are confronting what they describe as dangerous narratives about African land abundance, launching two major reports during the Sixth Conference on Land Policy in Africa that challenge corporate driven development models threatening communal land systems across the continent.
The reports, presented on 12 November 2025 at a high profile side event during the conference, expose how myths of “vacant” and “underused” African land fuel large scale land grabs, ecological destruction and community dispossession while multinational institutions promote policies that undermine customary tenure systems.
The Sixth Conference on Land Policy in Africa, organized by the African Union Commission (AUC), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), runs from 10 to 14 November at the United Nations Conference Centre in Addis Ababa under the theme Land Governance, Justice and Reparations for Africans and Descendants of People of the African Diaspora.
The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa, the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape and the Oakland Institute launched their findings before an audience of African policymakers, researchers and civil society representatives gathered to discuss land governance frameworks for the continent.
The first report, titled Land Availability and Land Use Changes in Africa, was produced by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. It debunks persistent claims that Africa holds vast tracts of unused farmland ready for industrial agriculture, exposing how competing pressures from extractive industries, biofuels production and carbon markets are driving massive land use changes while undermining communal tenure systems that have sustained African societies for centuries.
The second report, Climatewash: The World Bank’s Fresh Offensive on Land Rights, was led by the Oakland Institute. Released in May 2025 ahead of the World Bank’s annual land conference, the research warns that new World Bank programmes ostensibly focused on land tenure and climate goals are clearing pathways for agribusiness expansion, mining operations and speculative carbon markets while dismantling customary and public land governance systems.
The Oakland Institute report documents how the World Bank is appropriating climate commitments made at Conference of the Parties meetings to justify its multibillion dollar initiative to formalize land tenure across the Global South. The institution plans to spend 10 billion dollars on land programmes while pledging to double its agribusiness investments to nine billion dollars annually by 2030.
Drawing on analysis of World Bank programmes from Indonesia, Malawi, Madagascar, the Philippines and Argentina, the research documents how interventions are already displacing communities and entrenching land inequality. The report details how efforts to consolidate land for industrial agriculture, mining and carbon offsetting directly contradict recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which emphasizes protecting lands from conversion and overexploitation while promoting practices such as agroecology as crucial climate solutions.
Professor Ruth Hall from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape facilitated the side event panel discussion. She stated that the idea of land abundance represents a colonial fiction that refuses to disappear, noting that research shows Africa’s lands are already intensively used and deeply valued by millions of rural people. She emphasized that the real challenge is not to unlock land for investors but to protect it for communities and future generations.
Mariann Bassey Olsson of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and Friends of the Earth Nigeria described these policies as the latest front in the capture of African land and resources. She explained that while they are marketed as climate solutions and investment opportunities, they actually deepen inequality, weaken land rights and accelerate ecological collapse. She declared that land represents life, culture and identity, warning that Africa must not trade it away for false climate promises and corporate profits.
Frédéric Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute, warned that the World Bank’s land reform agenda as currently structured would prove disastrous for Africa. He stated that by promoting titling and land commodification under the guise of climate action, the institution is opening doors for foreign interests to control African land and resources while destroying communal systems that have sustained African societies for centuries.
The two reports issued a three point call to action for reclaiming African land. First, they demand rejection of false narratives about unused or abundant African land, calling for a halt to land grabs disguised as development or climate solutions and guarantee of Free, Prior and Informed Consent for all affected communities.
Second, they urge redirecting public and donor finance away from industrial agriculture, extractivism and carbon markets, instead investing in agroecology which restores soils, feeds communities and strengthens climate resilience across the continent.
Third, they call for freeing African land policy from control by international financial institutions and corporate interests, ensuring that land governance serves people rather than profit while protecting communal tenure, women’s land rights and ecological integrity.
The reports reference findings from the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies’ October 2025 Land, Life and Society conference held at the University of the Western Cape. That gathering brought together academics, researchers and civil society organizations from around the globe who highlighted natural resource redistribution questions from their experiences across different continents and contexts.
The Cape Town Declaration, co created by over 250 delegates from 53 countries attending that conference, underscored the significance of prioritizing redistribution to enhance lives of citizens worldwide. The declaration emerged from discussions about addressing land and agrarian reform challenges amid intersecting crises, the rise of authoritarian populism and far reaching financialization processes affecting rural worlds globally.
Panellists participating in the side event discussion included representatives from civil society and academic institutions who examined how these narratives play out in their own countries. They explored strategies for African institutions to resist external pressures to privatize and commercialize land, discussing practical approaches for defending communal tenure systems and ensuring land governance frameworks serve community interests rather than facilitating corporate capture.
The organizers called on African governments and regional bodies to reject land commodification, defend communal tenure systems and reclaim sovereignty over land policy from financial institutions and foreign corporations. They emphasized that successful resistance to these pressures requires coordinated action across multiple levels, from local community organizing to continental policy advocacy.
The timing of these report launches proves strategic, occurring during a conference explicitly focused on justice and reparations themes. Conference organizers noted that in undertaking land related reparations, it remains important to address land ownership and disparities in access, particularly because in most post colonial societies, descendants of colonizers still control large swathes of land and resources while historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities struggle to access land and its resources.
The colonial system facilitated subjugation and brutalization of African people, with fertile and productive land systematically alienated, natural resources pillaged and heritage resources looted by explorers and private collectors. Colonialism also introduced agricultural and livelihood values that undermine indigenous knowledge systems and threaten food security and livelihoods across the continent.
African Union officials participating in the conference have emphasized that land governance in Africa is not simply a technical matter but represents the very architecture of social justice, economic transformation and peace. They stress that addressing inequity in access to land means addressing inequity in access to power, prosperity and participation in developmental processes.
The Sixth Conference on Land Policy in Africa represents a premier platform for dialogue on land governance, bringing together policymakers, researchers, civil society organizations and traditional authorities to advance sustainable land management issues across the continent. The conference occurs biennially, organized through the African Land Policy Centre, a joint initiative of the African Union Commission, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa and the African Development Bank.
