Indigenous jurisdiction is at the centre of the dispute over the Coastal GasLink pipeline. The same is true of the Trans Mountain expansion. In both cases, the corporations involved have misunderstood or misrepresented the risks associated with jurisdictional uncertainty.
On a late night in December, I arrived in the village of Lunjuk on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. A warm breeze welcomed me as I sat down with 30 women and men from Forum Petani Bersatu — the local farmers’ union — who had gathered to share stories of their ongoing struggle to reclaim their land.
Landscapes need to be restored. The growing global population needs enough food to eat. How can both needs be met at once?
In the annual review of the Agrarian Reform Consortium, secretary-general Dewi Kartika displayed some interesting infographics. Presenting the government, the business sector and civil society organizations (CSO) as three circles, it was evident that over time, the business sector grew in size and edged closer to the government, while the CSOs shrunk in size and grew more isolated.
On July 21, 2011 the then Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal announced the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate 77 land leases which were issued under the Somare government’s Special Agriculture & Business Leases (SABL). The inquiry, which was later extended by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill in October 2011 for a further five months, discovered that over 90 percent of the leases totalling over 5 million hectares were illegally obtained from traditional landowners (Zealand, 2015).
Throughout human history, private property has been a subject of debates. In some societies and communities, private property has become a foundation of democracy and freedom. In some others, strict control over property and severe limitations imposed on property ownership and rights created a framework for reducing inequality and eliminating socio-economic disparities. In either case, private property and the right to own property raise not only economic but also moral dilemmas.
Global climate negotiations take place on the international stage, bolstered by countries’ national policies. But preventing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and other land-use changes requires work at the local level.
For those efforts to be effective, it is important to understand who is involved at each level and in every sector, and how they interact, say scientists from CIFOR, who have conducted research about such multi-level governance.
IXTLÁN DE JUÁREZ, Mexico, Jan 3 2019 (IPS) - “I dream of a healthy, sustainable, well-managed forest,” says Rogelio Ruiz, a silviculturist from southern Mexico, who insists that “we have to clean it up, take advantage of the wood, and reforest.”
These activities are essential for the ecosystem, especially to adapt to the impacts of climate change, the president of the La Trinidad Communal Lands Commissariat, in the municipality of Ixtlán de Juárez, in the state of Oaxaca, some 840 km south of Mexico City, told IPS.
The revised draft bill, which gives the minister of public works the power to accept or reject compensation offers made by the owners of land that has been identified for expropriation, was published in the Government Gazette on 21 December 2018 after it’s publication for further comment was approved by Cabinet on 5 December 2018.
“Interested persons may submit written submissions on the draft expropriation bill 2019 not later than 60 days from the date of publication of this notice,” Minister Thulas Nxesi said.
Uruguay - The results are dispiriting, if not unsurprising: a systematic review of the available literature has found that the socioeconomic impacts of large-scale tree plantations have been mostly negative for local people.
As Madagascar elections near, its future is up in the air, and the question of land mining and land grabs by foreign multinationals remains a key issue for Malagasy citizens.
The root cause of Madagascar's 2009 coup was the prospective sale of arable land to the South Korean company Daewoo. Investment in Madagascar land has increased significantly since then.