The government had reclassified four economic land concessions as state property, reclaiming almost 20,000 hectares earlier handed to private firms to use for rubber plantations.

A sub-decree issued on August 31 said the land in Kratie, Kampong Thom and Ratanakkiri provinces was to be taken back from four companies following an Agriculture Ministry proposal in March.

The companies were all supposed to develop rubber plantations, but failed to do so, clearing the land and then abandoning it.

Rome—Considerable gains have been made in land-tenure governance in the past five years, but more must be done to improve the lives of billions of people—that was the message at a high-level event cohosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Union (EU) to mark the fifth anniversary of guidelines to recognize and secure tenure rights.

STOCKHOLM (IDN) – Indigenous peoples are all but invisible on the development agenda but a hoped for change is on the cards with the launch of the world’s first and only funding institution to support the efforts of local and native communities to secure rights over their lands and resources.

Indigenous leaders say operations in the remote Amazon violate rights and risk fatal epidemics

There are more indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in Peru than any country in the world except Brazil. All live in the Amazon - the majority in poorly-protected reserves, or areas where reserves have been proposed but never established, or “protected natural areas” such as national parks.

In the world's second most populous country, there is an estimated shortage of about 20 million homes in urban areas

CHENNAI, India, Oct 9 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sustainable, low-cost homes must become the default option for builders and buyers amid increasing pressure on land and the environment, according to a leading architect in India, which has among the most densely populated cities on the planet.

Mining companies have faced community protests and threats to shut operations, but many residents believe only tribal leaders are benefiting

MOGALAKWENA, South Africa, Oct 8 (Reuters) - A new power struggle is unfolding in South Africa’s old homelands between global mining giants, traditional leaders and an impoverished rural populace.

State governments are rushing to build land banks, using both private and common lands, in an effort to attract investment in manufacturing and infrastructure.

Monrovia – The Civil Society Organization (CSO) working group on Land Rights in Liberia, in collaboration with the National Civil Society Council of Liberia has alarmed that the current Land Rights Act passed by the House of Representatives and currently before the Senate is not in the interest of ordinary Liberians.

The project is part of a cross country pilot being implemented by the LPI with support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the European Union (EU)

The end of the native title claims era is in sight, forcing a rethink of how indigenous land rights councils will operate when their primary role winds up.

Heralding the shake-up, the Cape York Land Council in north Queensland has pulled Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion into a “strategic discussion” with traditional owners on the agency’s fut­ure once the carve-up of native title is complete.

A land claim over more than half the peninsula is now in train, and when determined it will exhaust the stock of territory that can come under native title there.

The current scenario of global land scarcity is only expected to become bleaker given the increase of urbanization rates across the world accompanied by an increase in the demand for agricultural produce. This is expected to cause a multiplicative increase in the complexities associated with land use patterns. Gender aspects concerning equitable land access also become important from a poverty reduction standpoint.

Mr Aliyu Bananda, Director, Drought and Desertification Amelioration Department, Federal Ministry of Environment says the Federal Government is committed to achieving land degradation neutrality by 2030.

Bananda said this at a workshop on Endorsement of Nigeria Voluntary Target to Achieve Land Degradation Neutrality, (LDN) organised by the ministry in Abuja on Thursday.

He said that government set up some working committee on March 9, 2017 to work out a report aimed at achieving land degradation neutrality in the country by 2030.