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Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus.

Identification

Public canonical key
doi:10.22004/ag.econ.329166
Authors
Jessica Troell · Stephanie Keene
Reported year
2022
Reported language
en
Source type
REPORT
First detected
2026-11-09T19:04:47.705479+00:00
Last metadata observation
2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00
Last HTTP verification
Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Environmental Law Institute · Environmental Law Institute (ELI) · Rights and Resources · Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

Reported affiliation countries

US

Documentary abstract — original language

Despite the progress made in conceptualizing and advocating for secure community-based land and forest tenure rights, there is a critical lacuna in advocacy and policymaking processes pertaining to community-based freshwater tenure rights. Moreover, water tenure as a concept has only recently gained significant traction in global policy circles. This report analyzes national and international legal pathways for recognizing customary forms of community-based freshwater tenure rights held by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities (IPLCs) in sub-Saharan Africa. It employs a methodological framework and builds on an analysis of community-based water tenure systems that was developed and applied by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) and the Environmental Law Institute (ELI) in the publication Whose Water? A Comparative Analysis of National Laws and Regulations Recognizing Indigenous Peoples’, Afro-Descendants’, and Local Communities’ Water Tenure. Based on the key findings of this analysis, in particular the frequent dependence of IPLCs’ legally recognized customary water tenure rights on their legally recognized land and/or forest rights, this report further analyzes national constitutions, national legislation governing water, land, forests, environmental protection and other related matters, international and national case law, and international and regional human rights laws, to explore how legal frameworks are recognizing and protecting customary water tenure rights across sub-Saharan Africa. The findings and recommendations provide a basis for analyzing the comparative effectiveness and potential drawbacks of these legal pathways for the recognition and protection of customary water tenure and ultimately for future work refining and improving legislation and assessing progress in its implementation and enforcement.

Identifiers

OPENALEX
W4293770035
DOI
10.22004/ag.econ.329166 · 10.5337/2022.215
HAL
hal-04674139
HANDLE
10568/120964

Documentary context

Documentary family
Report — institutional provenance unspecified
Source-reported types
REPORT · report
Natural entities mentioned
Forest

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

HAL · Record 1 · Record 2 · Record 3

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2 · Record 3 · Record 4

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

1 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary field provenance

Source-backed values and values with unresolved provenance are kept separately. Bibliographic provenance validates no legal claim.

Title
Documentary source reported
Publication
Documentary source reported
Authors
Documentary source reported
Document type
Documentary source reported
Jurisdiction
Not recorded
Court
Not recorded
Issuing authority
Not recorded
Publisher
Not recorded
DOI
Provenance unresolved
ISBN
Not recorded
Official identifier
Not recorded
Source URL
Provenance unresolved
Source-reported status
Not recorded
Amendment / repeal
Not recorded

Cite this reference

Jessica Troell; Stephanie Keene. Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus.. 2022. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-dd7d6667b0febf6aeca683ecd8ab3098/

JSON · CSL-JSON · BibTeX · RIS · CSV · JSON-LD ·

APA, Chicago, ISO 690: bibliographic formats using available fields. OSCOLA / Bluebook: structured data only; full legal citation compliance is not claimed without verification of required elements.

APA
Jessica Troell; Stephanie Keene. (2022). Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus.. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-dd7d6667b0febf6aeca683ecd8ab3098/
Chicago
Jessica Troell; Stephanie Keene. Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus.. 2022. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-dd7d6667b0febf6aeca683ecd8ab3098/
ISO 690
Jessica Troell; Stephanie Keene. Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus.. 2022. https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-dd7d6667b0febf6aeca683ecd8ab3098/

UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library. Legal recognition of customary water tenure in Sub-Saharan Africa: unpacking the land-water nexus.. Documentary record: https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-dd7d6667b0febf6aeca683ecd8ab3098/ · Last HTTP verification: not performed

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Field provenance and record version

Version 3248deb8750a062c · udtr-reference-1.1.2

Title
HAL · source · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.705479+00:00
Multiple reported values; disagreement retained.
Authors
HAL · source · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.705479+00:00
Year
HAL · source · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.705479+00:00
Identifiers
HAL · source · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.705479+00:00
Multiple reported values; disagreement retained.
Source URL
HAL · source · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00
OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:04:47.705479+00:00
Multiple reported values; disagreement retained.

History tracks record metadata and does not certify the state of the law.

e0e9a0e198925c23 · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00

60fe68e268c36e1f · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00

ea9acedf7190677c · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00

3248deb8750a062c · 2026-11-09T19:18:56.351982+00:00

Frozen-version metadata

Research dossiers and documentary relations

Environmental Law Institute

Rights and Resources

Jessica Troell

Stephanie Keene

Source roles

Bibliographic / original publication source · https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.329166

Bibliographic / original publication source · https://doi.org/10.5337/2022.215

Discovery source · https://hdl.handle.net/10568/120964

Institutional bibliographic repository · https://hal.science/hal-04674139

Institutional bibliographic repository · https://hal.science/hal-04674139v1

Discovery source · https://openalex.org/W4293770035

An authority link alone does not verify a legal claim. Abstracts and full texts remain subject to their source terms.

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.

UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library