Babette Wehrmann, GTZ Land Management
Land conflicts often have extensive negative effects on economic, social, spatial and ecological development. Land conflicts can have disastrous effects on individuals as well as on groups and even entire nations. Many conflicts that are perceived to be clashes between different cultures are actually conflicts over land and related natural resources. This guide has been written for all those working in the land sector, in natural resource management and in urban and rural development. It aims to broaden the understanding of the complexity of causes that lead to land conflicts in order to provide for better-targeted ways of addressing such conflicts. It also provides a number of tools with which to analyse land conflicts. Successful analysis of land conflicts is seen as a vital step towards their eventual settlement. Finally, this guidebook discusses a wide variety of options for settling ongoing land conflicts and for preventing new ones.
