ESS 7 Land tenure, displacement and resettlement

Objectives

• Avoid the adverse impacts from land or other natural resource acquisition, or restrictions on land or natural resource use, and in situations where avoidance is not possible, minimize and mitigate these impacts.
• Prohibit forced evictions. 
• Conceive and execute resettlement activities as sustainable development programmes, providing sufficient resources to enable displaced persons to benefit directly from these programmes.
• Ensure that resettlement activities are planned and implemented collaboratively with the meaningful and informed participation of those affected.
• Avoid infringing on or extinguishing tenure rights of others, including legitimate tenure rights that may not be currently protected by law (e.g. Indigenous Peoples tenure rights, customary tenure), when recognizing or allocating tenure rights to land and other natural resources.
• Enhance and restore the livelihoods and living standards of all displaced persons, and improve the living conditions and overall socio-economic status of impoverished people who have been displaced, as well as persons belonging to marginalized, disadvantaged and vulnerable groups, during land expropriation, consolidation, investment, rural development programmes and land reforms.
• Recognize all land and natural resource users with a legitimate claim, including claimants who have informal or customary tenure rights.
• Provide means for the affected to voice their grievances ensuring there is a functioning mechanism in place to receive, process, resolve, communicate and record grievances.

Key definitions

• Land tenure: relationship, whether legally or customarily defined, among people, as individuals or groups, with respect to land and associated natural resources. Land tenure systems determine who can use what resources for how long, and under what conditions.
• Displacement: forced movement or relocation of individuals or communities.
  • Physical displacement: relocation, loss of residential land, or loss of shelter.
  • Economic displacement: loss of land, assets, or access to assets leading to loss of income sources or other means of livelihood.   
• Involuntary Resettlement: physical and economic displacement where the affected people (individuals or groups) do not have the right to refuse being displaced. Involuntary resettlement may cause long-term hardship and impoverishment, as well as profound changes in social dynamics.   

Other safeguards