Land Ownership and Environmental Peacebuilding - Historical Roots and Present Opportunities from Kenya, India and the United Kingdom

Date & Time
Jun 19, 2026 | 9.00 - 10.30

Participants
Alan Channer, EverGreening Global Alliance (United Kingdom)
Daniel Giti, National Cohesion and Integration Commission (Kenya)
Pia Sethi, Centre for Ecology, Development and Research (India)
James Wanyande, National Cohesion and Integration Commission (Kenya)

Conflicts over land have been a feature of human existence since time immemorial. Land confers livelihood, living space, territory, even national identity. Who owns, or has access, to land, and under what terms, are therefore central questions for land restoration and the environmental peacebuilding endeavours associated with it. Changing concepts and patterns of land ownership in England, from the 16th century onwards, set up dynamics which, amplified by the British Empire, had far-reaching consequences. In Kenya, expropriation of land by British settlers, together with the introduction of alien principles of land ownership and approaches to wildlife conservation, set up a legacy which many environmental peacebuilding initiatives are obliged to take account of today. The Community Land Act of 2016 goes some way to respecting the communal rights of pastoralist groups in Kenya but more work is required to consolidate the land rights of marginalised communites and resolve disputes and ambiguities around land tenure. This inter-disciplinary analysis unpacks the history of land ownership, as well as what is understood as ‘ownership’ in different socio-cultural contexts, are keys to fostering synergies between land restoration, conservation and peacebuilding. Presenters: Dr Alan Channer, Global EverGreening Allliance, UK. alan.channer@evergreening.org Dr Daniel Giti, National Cohesion and Integration Commission, Kenya dgiti@cohesion.go.ke Aili Winstanley Channer, The Warburg Institute, University of London, UK a.winstanleychanner@gmail.com TBC - from Asia