Dr Gaynor Paradza, PARI’s Land Governance Programme Lead, is participating in this conference on transition-effective land governance on 5 May 2025, as part of the World Bank Land Conference 2025.
“There is an urgent need for a just and rapid shift away from fossil fuels to low-carbon economies. This transition will be highly land-intensive, posing competing demands on land use that may undermine the effectiveness and fairness of just transitions in many countries. Billions have already been mobilized to scale investment in critical minerals extraction, renewable energy deployment, biofuel and biomass production, and carbon projects, all of which entail a significant land footprint. True just transition readiness therefore necessarily requires transition effective land governance. This entails responsible and effective land governance that reconciles competing land use demands and addresses the potential environmental, land, and human rights implications of the transition. This session will unpack the key elements of responsible and effective land governance that are needed to ensure that land administration systems are both compatible with and conducive to truly just transitions. The discussion will explore key elements of land governance in the context of the just transition, including: tenure security and recognition, spatial planning, responsible use of approaches to streamline or foreshorten investment approval, inter-ministerial and intra-governmental coordination, and national climate policy instruments. During this interactive roundtable discussion, speakers and participants will discuss practical examples and insights from diverse country contexts where strategies are being deployed to advance responsible and transition-effective land governance.“
