POLICY BRIEF:
LAND GRABBING, REFLECTIONS, CONCERNS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR WOMEN'S LIVELIHOOD
Land and land grabbing are top in the list of contentious issues that have gained popularity in Nigeria than any other country in Africa. This policy brief examined land grabbing and its impact on women’s livelihood in Rivers state. The study focuses on selected Local Government Areas and communities in Rivers state affected by land grabbing. The study is part of the ‘Forests for a Just Future’ programme of the Green Livelihoods Alliance (GLA) project implemented by Women and Environment Program (WEP) and Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre.
As it has been established elsewhere in the study that land grabbing in the Nigerian context is not only pervasive but also legally provided for. Thus, Rivers state is not exempted from this practice. However, the issues of land grabbing in Rivers state takes a skyrocket turn as it is the hotbed of oil production and extraction activities in Nigeria.
Findings of the study revealed established cases of land grabbing in Eleme, Etche, ONELGA, Emohua, Eleme, Khana, Gokhana, Obio/Akpor etc. The study further revealed that land grabbing is having a pervasive impact on women livelihood and forest resource base in the state. The government was identified as the chief enabler of land grabbing with instrumentality of the Land Use Act of 1978. Other enablers of land grabbing (Multinational corporations, financial investors and private individuals) relied heavily on government to grab land from the original peasant farmers who owned the land. This act of grabbing people’s ancestral farm land in most cases by force has a lot of roles to play in explaining why forest resources is depleting and why there is high poverty particularly among women who are the primary victims of this act.
The policy brief argued that there is a pervasive impact of land grabbing on women livelihood and forest resource base in the state. The government was identified as the chief enabler of land grabbing with instrumentality of the Land Use Act of 1978. Other enablers of land grabbing (Multinational corporations, financial investors, local elites, comprador bourgeoisie and other private individuals) some of whom relied heavily on government to grab land from the original peasant farmers who owned the land. This act of grabbing people’s ancestral farm-lands in most cases by force has a lot of role to play in explaining why forest resources are depleting and why there is high poverty particularly among women who are the primary victims of this act. The overall implications of this and other related issues were addressed by the study and recommendations provided.