Climate Change Affects Us All, but the Landless More than Others: A Case Study of How Tenure Security/Insecurity Affects the Post-Disaster Capacity of Communities in Helambu and Melamchi Municipalities

This case study illustrates how people’s lack of land rights or land tenure insecurity subjects them to new inequalities following a climate-induced disaster. These disparities—all created by landlessness—are evident in their lack of access to disaster loss compensation from the government, their ineligibility for livelihood loans, and their exclusion from government resettlement or shelter assistance programs. In any case, government sponsored resettlement efforts have not been able to keep up. As a result, resettlement remains a distant dream for displaced families. To this day not a single family from the Melamchi area has been resettled.  Some affected people are forced to move to areas in Melamchi that are highly vulnerable to floods and landslides, such as floodplains and steep hills, which puts them at risk of new disasters.