This blog by Martina Santschi and CSRF calls for a conflict-sensitive engagement on communal land tenure, especially the use of rangelands, forests, and wetlands in South Sudan. As such, the blog is relevant for aid actors who engage in livelihood support, development, infrastructure building, support to returnees, refugees and IDPs, housing land and property issues, and conservation organisations.
Settling and farming creates visible marks through buildings, roads, cleared land, ploughed soil, vegetables and grains growing in fields, leftovers of grains after the harvests and fences. However, grazing, the use of savanna and forest products, hunting and fishing leave less visible traces in landscapes.
Against this backdrop, colonial and postcolonial administrations, the private sector, aid actors and conservation organisations have tended to categorise land that was not cultivated or settled, such as rangelands, forests or wetlands as “wasteland” or “unused land” in South Sudan and other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.[1] Even though, this land has been governed by customary law rights under communal land tenure and its use has been essential for the livelihoods of many.
Land tenure in Sudan and South Sudan
South Sudan includes different ecological and livelihood zones and is rich in biodiversity and natural resources. In Sudan, the colonial and postcolonial state asserted ownership of unoccupied and unregistered land with, for example, Land Settlement Ordinance (1905), the Land Settlement and Registration Ordinance (1925) and the Unregistered Land Act in 1970.[2] Based on the latter, the postcolonial government of Sudan gazetted protected areas and forcefully appropriated waste swathes of land for large scale agriculture and oil exploration. As a result, the government displaced thousands of small-scale farmers and pastoralists, undermining their livelihood and contributing to armed conflict over land, also with Southern Sudanese agro-pastoralists bordering northern Sudan.
In 1983, the Southern-led Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) headed by John Garang took up arms against the Government of Sudan. The Sudanese state’s approach of asserting ownership over land, exploiting natural resources including oil and starting to construct a channel for the river Nile constituted major incentives for many Southerners to join the SPLM/A. The SPLM slogan “land belongs to the community” reflects the SPLM’s approach to land tenure and the importance of communal landownership in South Sudan.[3]
The SPLM-led government of South(ern) Sudan, established in 2005, has enshrined and recognised communal land tenure in subsequent constitutions and the 2009 land act which legalizes “the holding of lands collectively under customary norms.” [4] Customary law-based communal land tenure has continued to govern land tenure in rural areas in South Sudan up to the present day. Against this background, South Sudanese communities tend to perceive themselves as rightful owners of their communal land, including rangelands, forests and wetlands, with the right to engage in farming, pastoralism, fishing, hunting, collecting of firewood and other types of natural resource use and spiritual activities on it.
Communal land, livelihoods, identity and socio-cultural importance of land
The majority of South Sudanese rely on subsistence farming, which also includes shifting cultivation, livestock keeping, fishing and gathering wild foods as main sources of livelihood.[5] Related to this, around 75% of the population depend on access to land, water sources, fishing grounds and forests for food, water, and sources for energy primarily firewood.[6] They access this land and resources mostly based on communal land rights. In rural areas up to the present day, communities tend to own land communally: controlling, sharing, and defending arable land, pastures, forests, hunting grounds, and water bodies within the areas they assert. To manage communal land and natural resources, communities follow specific rules and norms.
During the lean season and times of economic hardship caused by civil war and other forms of crisis, a large diversity of rangeland, wetland and forest products have been essential for survival in South Sudan. Crisis-affected families, including female headed households in different parts of South Sudan rely on fish, game or wild foods such as water lilies, honey, shea butter and tree leaves during times of crisis.[7] Many also make a living by selling these products in addition to grass for thatching huts, firewood and charcoal. While these strategies support livelihoods, some negatively impact biodiversity and contribute to climate change.[8]
In early 2025, around 6.1 million people are expected to be acutely food insecure.[9] Armed violence, insecurity, displacement, economic crisis and climate-changed induced extraordinary floods and droughts contribute to high levels of food insecurity in a context of shrinking aid.[10] Against this backdrop, losing access to land and natural resources in rangeland, wetland and forest further undermines the livelihood of many in crisis.
Moreover, access to rangeland, wetland and forests of their ancestors is essential for South Sudanese to access medical plants and materials for construction and household tools, for fostering communal identity and for conducting socio-culturally relevant activities. Given the limited access to health care services in South Sudan, medicinal plants remain significant for communities.
Increased conflicts over land and administrative territory
In the last few decades, conflict over land and administrative territory has increased in South Sudan. Pasture has been contested between different communities in the past leading to communal violence, particularly during the dry season when grass and water tend to get scarce. Similarly, arable land has become increasingly disputed within and between communities, as well as individuals.[11] Different factors have contributed to this phenomenon, including the return of many displaced by civil wars and other forms of armed conflict, the increased commercialisation of land, conflict and climate change. Climate change has led to a decrease in yields and access to pasture and, as a result, displacing communities to the land of other communities.[12]
Moreover, in some parts of South Sudan, communal land tenure has increasingly come under pressure by competing interests with other forms of natural resource use by individuals, companies, state actors, and international conservation organisations. These competing forms of natural resource use include oil exploration, mining, forestry/logging, large-scale farming, and, increasingly, conservation.[13]
Due to legal ambiguity and inconsistencies, legislation does not necessarily provide clear guidance on some of the processes around land allocation, natural resource use, and on how to address competing interests.[14] In relation to conservation, for example, some relevant bills have been drafted but not yet passed by the relevant authorities. As a result, legislation passed by the government of Sudan and the SPLM’s Civil Authority of New Sudan seemingly continues to apply. Moreover, existing legislation on natural resource use is not consistently implemented in practice, neither is it well known at the local level.[15]
Concerns were also raised around the draft land policy presented to the public in 2023, which points towards the government’s changing approach towards communal land tenure, suggesting that it “belongs to people, but the government will regulate land.” This formation has caused public outcry and fears that the government plans to weaken communal land use rights.[16]
Legal ambiguity, unclear boundaries of communal land and administrative territory, different, partly conflicting, views about legitimate ownership of communal land and competing visions of development and land use: all these elements pose a risk to communal land tenure and risk to contribute to disputes over land.
Conflict sensitivity consideration about land use
From a conflict sensitivity perspective, actors supporting or engaging in natural resource use affecting communal land tenure may engage in the following activities:
- analyse the legal setting and different claims on land which may include customary law-based entitlements
- study different types of land and natural resource use and how they are managed, including the right to settle, farm, pass through, temporarily graze with livestock, use water, fish, collect firewood, hunt, use grass and other forest and savanna products, access graves and other important spiritual locations and engage in cultural activities
- analyse the livelihoods of the involved communities and how the planned natural resource use impacts on these livelihoods and identify potential alternative income generation
- identify competing claims and interests and analyse the conflict dynamics around these different claims, including their own role in these contestations
- engage with the community on the land use and consult with them if there’s a need to expand the boundaries of the land use, be it for protected areas, large-scale farming or any other activities
- identify strategies to mitigate potential conflicts of interests, and identify the legitimate and credible institutions that can mitigate these conflicts
- engage with key actors, including communities, in a participatory and conflict sensitive way ahead of activities and include conflict analysis and conflict sensitive approaches in the design of the activity and through the implementation of the activity (see for example: David Deng’s Handbook on Community Engagement).[17]
[1] Alden Wily, L. (2011). The law is to blame’: the vulnerable status of common property rights in sub -Saharan Africa. Development and Change, 42(3), 733-757.
[2] Leonardi, C. & M. Santschi (2016). Dividing Communities in South Sudan and Northern Uganda: boundary disputes and land governance. United States Institute of Peace. Rift Valley Institute.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Alden Wily, L. (2011).
[5] For example, FAO/WFP (2023). Special report: 2020 FAO/WFP Crop and food security assessment mission (CFSAM) to the Republic of South Sudan, 16 May 2024. The World Bank Group (2024). South Sudan: Natural Resources Review.
[6] The World Bank Group (2024).
[7] See for example, Arensen, M. (Anon). Indigenous Solutions to Food Insecurity: Wild Food Plants in South Sudan. OXFAM. Kenyatta, C. & A. Henderson (2001). The Potential of Indigenous Wild Foods. Workshop Proceedings, 22-26 January 2001. Reach (2024). SOUTH SUDAN: Shifting livelihood coping strategies in Greater Upper Nile June 2024 “We survive through the water.”
[8] Leonardi, C. et al. (2020). Fuelling Poverty: The challenges of accessing energy among urban households in Juba, South Sudan. The World Bank Group (2024).
[9] UNOCHA (2025). South Sudan: Humanitarian Snapshot January 2025.
[10] UNOCHA (2024). South Sudan Floods Snapshot.
[11] Leonardi, C. & M. Santschi (2016).
[12] Ibid. Muorwel, J. K., Pospisil, J. & V. I. Monoja (2023). Caught Between Crises in South Sudan: Flood-Induced Migration of Dinka Bor Cattle Herders into the Equatoria Region. Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Tiitmamer, N., Gworo R. & T. Midgley (2023). Climate change and conflict in South Sudan: Community perceptions and implications for conflict-sensitive aid. Conflict Sensitivity Resource Facility.
[13] See for example, BTA (2024). Country Report South Sudan. Winter, P. (2024). How do local communities conserve wildlife in South Sudan? Conflict sensitive considerations for conservation agencies. CSRF.
[14] See for example, Deng. D. (2011). ‘Land belongs to the community’ Demystifying the ‘global land grab’ in Southern Sudan. Land Deal Politics Initiative.
[15] See for example, Deng. D. et al. (2012). Establishing a Mining Sector in Postwar South Sudan. United Institute of Peace. The World Bank Group (2024).
[16] Tiitmamer, N (2023). The South Sudan’s New Land Policy: Contestations and Critical Issues for Considerations in the Constitution Making Process. The Sudd Institute.
[17] Deng, D. (2012). Handbook on Community Engagement: A ‘good practice’ guide to negotiating lease agreements with landowning communities in South Sudan. South Sudan Law Society.