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Feb 08, 2023
Land Governance, Natural Resources, and Climate Change in the Arab Region
- Mona Khechen, Petra Samaha
This report explores some of the critical challenges that converge at the intersection of climate change and land governance in the Arab region, including droughts, desertification, disaster risk, land and water management, and food security. It builds on the recommendations of key international frameworks related to climate and land that Arab countries have endorsed, relying on relevant literature and well-founded arguments that consider good land governance as a crucial factor in stabilizing vulnerable communities and enhancing their resilience to shocks and stresses, including the adverse impacts of climate change on land and property rights. Questions of access to and control over land and natural resources are core concerns throughout the report in view of land inequalities and plural land tenure arrangements that characterize Arab countries.
The report was prepared through a collaboration between the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies (LCPS) and UN-Habitat/Global Land Tool Network (GLTN).
Mona Khechen is an independent urban and regional development planner and researcher, a Senior Fellow at LCPS (2019-2021), and a part-time faculty member in the Department of Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management at the American University of Beirut (AUB). She has provided consultancy services to various international organizations (AFD, UN-ESCWA, UNDP, UN-Habitat, World Bank) and worked with the private and the non-profit sectors in Lebanon and abroad. She holds BArch from AUB, MSc in Development and Planning from University College London, and a Doctor of Design (PhD equivalent) with a focus on urban heritage and development from Harvard University.Petra Samaha is a Ph.D. candidate in Urban Studies at Sciences Po Paris. She is initially an architect and urban planner. Her work focuses on public space, housing, land and property, mobility, and climate change. She has presented her research in several venues and published in the Journal of Transport Geography and Jadaliyya, in addition to the American University of Beirut, UNDP, and UN-Habitat/Global Land Tool Network (GLTN).