What Oxfam is Doing
Securing Land Rights
Women and family farmers don't always have legal title to their land. Oxfam also helps indigenous people map their ancestral territories to ensure governments recognize their lands.
Case in point: legal title to ancestral territories
Outsiders with an eye on logging and mining projects are threatening the forests and mineral resources of the Chiquitano people of the Bolivian Amazon region. After spending years mapping out their lands and filing legal documents—a process funded by Oxfam—several indigenous Chiquitano organizations have secured legal title to their ancestral lands.
Case in point: women and land ownership
Eighty-six percent of Zimbabwe's female population lives in rural areas and depends on land for their livelihood. Most of this land is owned by males. Women's access to and use of land is determined by the male owners, who decide on the production and marketing of the crops, and use proceeds for their own good without consulting women, who simply work the farms.
Oxfam has made solutions to the land ownership problems in Zimbabwe a priority, funding organizations that have researched the situation and proposing legislative solutions that are awaiting approval in Zimbabwe's Parliament.
Promoting Responsible Resource Management
For land to be a productive resource, it must be carefully managed. Oxfam partners assist communities with environmentally-friendly agriculture, forestry management, and irrigation projects and training, in some cases, on how to defend their lands from unwanted industry.
Case in point: specialized training to build assets
After the Chiquitano people gained legal title to their lands, Oxfam provided specialized training so they can protect and manage their valued resources. Communities are learning how to create vegetable and fruit projects and raise livestock suitable for this sensitive environment—all now possible long-term projects thanks to the legal title that gives the Chiquitanos the stability and confidence they need to build their assets.
Campaigns
No Dirty Gold
Learn more about what Oxfam and our partners are doing to preserve the integrity of indigenous lands and the fair treatment of workers in the mining industry through the No Dirty Gold campaign.
Get more information about Oxfam's work in the oil, gas and mining industries.