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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.