HiiL

Conflict Prevention and Documentation of Shared Land Use

Land is a vital resource for both farmers and herders, serving as the foundation for livelihoods, food security, cultural identity, and economic survival. In many communities, farmland, grazing areas, water points, and migration routes are shared or overlap, often without clear agreements, records, or formally recognised arrangements. This lack of clarity contributes significantly to misunderstandings, competition, and recurring conflicts between farmers and herders.

The absence of systematic registration and documentation of shared land-use arrangements makes it difficult to determine who can use which land, when, and under what conditions. Informal practices, verbal agreements, weak record-keeping, and limited involvement of authorities further increase the risk of disputes, encroachment, crop damage, and retaliatory violence. These conflicts disproportionately affect vulnerable groups, including women, youth, and smallholder farmers, and undermine social cohesion, security, and local development.

Conflict prevention requires proactive, inclusive, and transparent systems for identifying, registering, and documenting shared land use rights and practices. By clarifying access rights, migration routes, grazing reserves, farming boundaries, and seasonal use arrangements, communities and institutions can reduce uncertainty, build trust, and promote peaceful coexistence.

This section of the guideline provides practical guidance on how communities, traditional institutions, women leaders, farmers, Herders, youths and relevant actors from both the formal and informal sectors can work together to prevent conflicts through participatory mapping, registration, documentation, and recognition of shared land use arrangements. It emphasises people-centred, gender-sensitive, and locally legitimate approaches that strengthen accountability, promote fairness, and support sustainable and peaceful management of land and natural resources.