 Securing the land rights of people affected by dams in West Africa. Large dams can provide low carbon energy, helping countries reduce emissions and providing electricity for urban centres. They can also contribute to food security through developing irrigated agricultural schemes. But building dams is controversial. Dam construction often displaces huge numbers of people and can cause major environmental damage and these impacts are difficult to manage over the long term. For a dam to contribute successfully to society's development and in a way that is sustainable, everyone must benefit, including local people. In rural societies, people's livelihoods depend on land. So proper land tenure is key to ensuring dams benefit the local population. Before the dam is built, the thousands of people who lose their land as a result of the dam's construction, its reservoir and agricultural schemes must be properly compensated. Compensation can take different forms. This place people may be given new land but when resettled their rights need to be protected. These rights might include the right to rent out the land, the right to farm it or not, or the right to leave it to their children. In contrast to traditional land rights which are rooted in customary occupation of particular areas over many decades and centuries, new land rights can be established through modern legal documents and be supported by social negotiations and agreements. States must put procedures in place to manage expropriated land, to ensure people are compensated and their rights secured in a way that is just. This may mean drawing up new policies and governance tools to use when building dams and irrigation schemes. The proposed ECOWAS directive on large water infrastructure, for example, requires the region's governments to ensure that affected people have secure rights to their new land. There can be complex challenges to address. When people are compensated with new irrigated land, it first needs to be registered as legally belonging to the state. Once this is done, the state's investment in the land is protected and it can then provide different types of leases or contracts to mimic the traditional rights farmers had to the land they farmed previously. Building large dams has long been criticized for eroding the rights of the communities they displace. But there are solutions. Governments, donors, consultants and local communities themselves can work together to address the issue surrounding proper land tenure, to understand the new context and adopt new legal tools that support and secure the rights of affected people. If compensation and new forms of land tenure are implemented well and with full participation, local communities can benefit from the dam and the newly developed irrigated land in the long term instead of losing their livelihoods. At least 150,000 people will be displaced by the dams planned on the Niger River alone. Decision makers must meet the challenge to ensure secure land rights for all. Learn more.