Land Access

Intro

For community people, the very idea of losing their land creates strong emotions. Add in the complex business process of land acquisition and resettlement and the experience can be very traumatic.

For you and your company the difference between doing it well and doing it badly will affect the success or failure of your business plan with inadequate attention to the impacts of land access and acquisition is likely to lead to disaffected communities and civil society groups taking action. They might choose to do this by lobbying government and holding up permits and approvals or they may take direct action and stop construction and operations.

On the other hand, if the acquisition and resettlement is managed well it can result in positive results for local people, creating benefits such as better quality housing and new livelihood opportunities.

Guide

Guide to Land Access

WHY LAND ACCESS AND RESETTLEMENT MATTER:

Competition for land is always an issue for companies and communities. Compensation for damage and the displacement and resettlement of communities is a challenging experience for all concerned often leading to conflict over the right to land and its use. For community people, the very idea of losing their land creates strong emotions. Add in the complex business process of land acquisition and resettlement and the experience can be very traumatic. For you and your company the difference between doing it well and doing it badly will affect the success or failure of your business plan with inadequate attention to the impacts of land access and acquisition likely to lead to disaffected communities and civil society groups taking action. Communities might choose to do this by lobbying government and holding up permits and approvals or they may take direct action and stop construction and operations. On the other hand, if the acquisition and resettlement is well managed it can result in positive results for local people, creating benefits such as better quality housing and new livelihood opportunities.

WHAT TO DO:	HOW TO DO IT:
Understand the local context for land acquisition	Obtain information on: land tenure and ownership; land usage; any areas of conflict over land and resources; local land tenure dispute resolution procedures; impact of proposed project on availability of arable land to the community, linked to population and livelihoods; the unit to which compensation will be paid (household, family, individual, clan, community); and who the legitimate landowner representatives are.
Establish rules for accessing land for temporary use that are to be used by everyone on site	It may be that the in-country team has been doing a good job and has established good practices in which case your job will be as simple as updating and broadening to cover the range of increasingly invasive field-based activities that are part and parcel of project assessment - activities such as baseline environmental data collection; bulk sampling or field tests. On the other hand, you may be starting with a blank sheet in which case you need to establish rules around: Notification: Ensure that land owners are aware of what you plan to do and give you permission to enter onto their land before you start work; Compensation: It is crucial that everyone understands compensation payment procedures; how payments are calculated; who the recipients are; why these recipients were chosen; and where and when payments are made. The compensation process must be transparent to all affected parties, but the value of specific payments to individuals and households can remain confidential (if this is what they want). Communication: Ensure that you communicate to the broader community what you are going to be doing in the area before you start work. Sampling activities, baseline measurement programs, household surveys are all open to interpretation and you need to avoid uninformed rumors from becoming the “truth”.
Build a plan for permanent land acquisition	Link all land acquisition and resettlement activities to the project schedule and ensure adequate resources are provided. Surveys; agreement making; payments and moving all take time and have the potential to become critical path activities that hold up construction activities.

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN DO:

Six common mistakes: Many companies fall into the trap of making assumptions that are contrary to accepted international standards governing resettlement, and could leave the company open to human rights related claims and other costs. Common assumptions include:

If land is state land, or has been cleared of people by the government prior to handover to the company, the company has no resettlement obligations;
Only people with legally recognized rights to land need to be compensated;
Cash compensation is usually adequate to cover resettlement impacts;
If problems occur, additional compensation payments will usually resolve them;
Disclosure of information about how land and assets will be valued will lead to escalating demands from affected people;
Provided the company complies with national laws, it has met international standards.

Clarity: It is essential that everyone understands compensation payment procedures; how payments are calculated; who the recipients are; why these recipients were chosen; and where and when payments are made. The compensation process must be transparent to all affected parties, but the amount of specific payments will often be confidential. The procedures must include meticulous record-keeping. In the case of land compensation, it is important to record the following and where possible have the data linked into a GIS system:

name and address of landowner;
purpose and nature of land acquisition (temporary /permanent);
nature of land (cultivated/cash crops; subsistence gardens; forest; orchard; barren; government; waste land; river; streams; seasonal pond; grazing land; improved non-agricultural land);
type, age and condition of current crop;
type and condition of houses and other buildings and their contents;
photos taken prior to access and after access;
consent of the landowner (granted willingly / after some negotiation / needed community leader’s intervention, background notes on negotiation);
compensation paid;
proof of payment (signatures of the landowner, the witness and the government representative responsible for land administration); photo of landowner receiving payment; and copy of payment receipt to landowner); and
landowner satisfaction with the process.

Resettlement: If your initial review identifies that it is likely that people will be economically and / or physically displaced then start the process of developing a Resettlement Action Plan sooner rather than later. Minimising the impacts of land acquisition for project infrastructure matters because landlessness tops the list of impoverishment risks associated with involuntary resettlement, with food insecurity coming in a number five.

Early Access Control: To protect from speculative land acquisition, you could choose to secure all required land up-front, even if the land acquisition could be scheduled over several years. During the intervening period, you could choose to allow ongoing use of the land through the development of annual land-use agreements. The long-term benefits are likely to outweigh the short-term costs.

Establishing Buffer Zones: You might want to consider including buffer zones in the design footprint, providing some clear space between the project and local populations. These buffer zones could take the form of exclusion zones into which entry is forbidden or as zones with designated (and restricted) occupation and land use rights. Use of buffer zones may prevent the development of settlements too close to the edge of the project.

More Resources
Getting more from your baseline studies
If you are serious about managing social risk then establishing a quality social baseline is an absolute necessity. After all, if you don’t know the starting point you can’t measure the change...
- Read More ...
Mining and Land Access
What are we talking about?

Land access needs to be viewed in two parts. Land Access can be temporary and short-term and in the context of mineral exploration is associated with initial reconnaissance, surveying, test-pits and drilling. Camp facilities are usually considered temporary although their use may extend for many years. These activities can cause temporary loss of economic benefit from land use as a result of short-term restricted access for farming and damage to / loss of crops. Temporary land access should not result in physical displacement.

The second aspect is long-term land acquisition and resettlement. This is associated with accessing land required for building new (greenfields) or expanded (brownfield) operations. Large-scale land acquisition, involving large numbers of individuals, significant areas and resettlement is typically associated with greenfield projects, and is a complex and costly (typically running to $Ms) and lengthy (2-5 years) undertaking that must be managed using robust project management processes. The work is usually outsourced to resettlement specialists...
- Read More ...
Mining and Social Licence
Social Licence to Operate is a mining industry concept. The expression was first used by Canadian Jim Cooney in 1997. This was a decade after the landmark 1987 Brundtland Report and a few years after the concept of the triple-bottom-line was first described by John Elkington. Its use has now spread well beyond the mining industry and as has happened with triple-bottom-line and sustainable development, the term "social licence" has been interpreted and used in many ways. Licence to Operate is currently seen by many as one of the biggest risks to the mining and metals industry, just as it was back in the 1990’s when Jim Cooney coined the term...
- Read More ...
EBRD resettlement guidance and good practice
Resettlement can be incredibly challenging, both for those being resettled and for those designing and implementing the process, but managed properly can bring long-term economic and social benefits for affected communities. However this can only happen if there is upfront investment in listening and involving people so as to find solutions that meet their needs. It is only by placing the affected people at the heart of the process and making the effort to understand and accommodate their individual needs and concerns that will facilitate a smoother implementation and will minimise costs in the long run.
IFC Land acquisition and involuntary resettlement handbook
The handbook outlines a framework and methodology for planning, conducting socioeconomic studies for, designing, implementing, and monitoring the entire resettlement and livelihood-restoration process to achieve positive, long-term sustainable outcomes, consistent with the requirements of IFC Performance Standard 5.
IFC PS5: Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement
When companies seek to acquire land for their business activities, it can lead to relocation and loss of shelter or livelihoods for communities or individual households. Involuntary resettlement occurs when affected people do not have the right to refuse land acquisition and are displaced, which may result in long-term hardship and impoverishment as well as social stress. PS5 advises to avoid involuntary resettlement wherever possible and to minimize impacts on those displaced through mitigation measures such as fair compensation and improvements to and living conditions.

The standard and guideline provide a good starting point for anyone working on a project where relocation is being considered. These, and other useful resources are available at the IFC website:

https://www.ifc.org/en/insights-reports/2012/ifc-performance-standard-5
IFC Webinar: Performance Standards 101
A good way to spend an hour getting an introduction to how the performance standards work.

You'll find more useful IFC-generated information here.
Oxfam: mining, resettlement and lost livelihoods
This is a sobering account of the effects of involuntary resettlement told from the perspective of local people.

The report presents experiences of involuntary resettlement from the perspective of people who are recovering from mining induced resettlement. It describes the context within which mining and resettlement has taken place – a setting characterised by poverty, rapid economic growth, limited regulatory capacity and intense pressure on land availability. The study is centred on a coal mine and the resettlement of 738 households, affecting approximately 3,680 people. The resettlement process has involved three companies through two acquisitions over a period of five years. It is a sobering account of the effects of involuntary resettlement.
Zandvliet and Anderson: Getting It Right
This book has been written for corporate managers who are responsible for company operations in societies that are poor and politically unstable. Many such managers are frustrated with the situations they face. They try their best to run effective, profitable and beneficial operations that take account of the needs of all their stakeholders, including local surrounding communities. But, even with their best efforts, they encounter community dissatisfaction, unrest, opposition, and delays and, worse yet, threats and violence. Why does this happen?

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Luc while I was feeling my way during my early days in Ghana and am forever thankful for the lesson (obvious with the benefit of hindsight) that resource development by default creates tension and conflict, and that it is how companies approach conflict – as an opportunity or as a threat – that shapes the ongoing relationship between company and community. Some of the ideas in the book have been particularly sticky:
1. Relationships matter – at a personal and business level this seems a no-brainer but sometimes the connection seems to get lost when it comes to communities
2. Company impacts are never neutral – they can be negative or positive but from the time a company starts work on-the-ground it starts to create change
3. People everywhere get annoyed about the same issues – this one gave me a lot of comfort that I could be confident applying the ideas to my particular circumstances plus, the issues are not complicated – behaving appropriately, taking responsibility for impacts and fair distribution of benefits are the keys
4. Relationships require ongoing effort – again not really earth-shattering news, so it is somewhat surprising how often it happens that over time we take things for granted and it takes a nasty wake-up call to show us how far we’ve gone off the rails
5. Company actions shape the nature of relationships – this last one relates back to the third point, because the reality is that the three issues that most influence a relationship - impacts, benefits and behaviour – are all company-initiated actions, and it is totally within the company’s control to determine what it is going to do and how it is going to act
You can find (and buy) the book online.

Intro

Guide

Guide to Land Access

More Resources

What are we talking about?