The MRLG team is pleased to announce that the Fourth Mekong Region Land Forum (MRLF 2025) will take place from September 17 to 19 in Bangkok, Thailand, under the theme “Transformative Change for People, Land, and Climate in the Mekong.”
The forum is a multi-stakeholder platform that promotes knowledge sharing, capacity building, and collaboration among land stakeholders in the Mekong region, specifically in Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Organized by the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) Project and with the assistance of the Land Portal Foundation and others, the Forum has convened three times since 2016.
This year, the Mekong Region Land Forum will focus on three interconnected themes:
- Secure land rights as a climate solution
- A just transition in agrarian and food systems, and
- Effective and inclusive policy-making processes.
The Forum will:
- Drive regional dialogue and action on land tenure security by spotlight key issues across the Forum’s key themes, and fostering meaningful engagement between policymakers, practitioners, and researchers.
- Provide a high-level platform for government actors to present their current priorities, share reform commitments, and engage in peer exchange on policy and legal developments relating to land governance, climate resilience, forestry, gender equity and the agrarian transition.
- Highlight innovative initiatives and practical tools shaping land governance in the Mekong, showcasing real-world results, lessons learned and forward-thinking approaches.
- Amplify regional knowledge and influence policy by disseminating evidence-based research, policy frameworks and guidance developed through MRLG-supported initiatives and by regional collaborators.
For over a decade, the Mekong Region Land Governance (MRLG) Project and its partners have worked closely with governments and national stakeholders across the Mekong region to promote evidence-based policy reforms that address land governance challenges. These forums and other activities undertaken in the project’s lifetime have brought together crosscutting regional concerns, providing important opportunities for dialogue and raising the profile of issues like customary tenure, ethical forest and land management, and climate-conscious land governance. The efforts of MRLG and its partners support inclusive land and natural resource governance, benefiting Indigenous Peoples, ethnic minorities, local communities, smallholder farmers, women, and vulnerable groups.
The MRLF 2025 will provide a platform to share how these alliances have influenced policy and practice, highlight lessons learned from other initiatives, and showcase government priorities for the future. The forum aims to strengthen commitments to improving land governance and ensuring equitable and sustainable outcomes in the region.
Whilst in-person participation is by invitation only, the main sessions of the event will be livestreamed online. Click here to register for the online event:
