Insecure tenure, unfair investment and exclusion feed off each other, so we work on them together
Customary tenure
Communities across the Mekong manage their land and forests under customary rules. Where the law doesn’t recognise those rules, encroachment and investment can override them.
Most countries in the region now have laws that recognise customary tenure. Our alliances focus on getting them applied, using community mapping, Free, Prior and Informed Consent, and the ASEAN Customary Tenure Guidelines.
Responsible investment and private sector engagement
Investment in land can raise rural incomes. But without safeguards, it has also driven farmers into debt, cost families their land and cleared forests.
We work with governments and business to discourage the worst investors and reward the best. In practice, that means fairer contract farming, stronger cooperatives, loans that don’t put land at risk, and supply chains that meet EU deforestation rules.
Gender equality
Women play central roles in farming, forest management and community resilience in the Mekong. Many still lack secure land rights or a say in decisions about land.
Gender equality is built into all our work. That includes backing women’s leadership in land institutions, local administration and cooperatives, pushing for gender-responsive safeguards, and screening every grant proposal for gender.
Photo: Bart Verweij
Regional and global exchange
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam face many of the same land challenges, and the pressures behind them are increasingly regional. Few Mekong organisations take part in global land rights networks.
Through joint research and practical exchanges, our alliances learn from each other. We work with them to adapt ASEAN guidelines to each country and bring local voices into regional and global debates.
