Freetown, August 8, 2022 – Sierra Leone’s Parliament has passed two groundbreaking bills that transform communities’ ability to protect their land rights and the environment. The new legislation serves as a model for the rest of the world.

Passed by unanimous votes, the Customary Land Rights and National Land Commission Acts will, among other things:

The historic ruling follows a landmark judgment delivered by the Court on 26 May 2017, findin

LANDac International Conference 2022 Session Summary

• Fires have swept through large swaths of peatland forest in the western part of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island since the start of the year, an area that usually sees much smaller, controlled fires.
• Environmental activists say they suspect the fires might be linked to palm oil companies with plantations in and around the burned areas.
• They warn the burning could get worse in the coming months, with the dry season in this part of Sumatra expected to peak only in August.

JAKARTA — Fires in areas of carbon-intense peatland forest on the

A recent report released by the United Nations revealed that 74% of speaking time at the U.N. climate talk negotiations is taken up by men.

The recent arrests of staff of a Ugandan civil society organization, the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), have been criticized as an attempt to stifle defenders of human rights and the environment in the East African country. AFIEGO has been prominent in campaigns against sugarcane plantations in the country’s western Bugoma Forest, as well as defending the rights of communities affected by Uganda’s growing oil industry.

Activist Okiya Omtatah has moved to court to challenge a section of the law that limits the period within which victims of historical land injustices can make compensation claims.

Mr Omtatah argues it is not practically possible that the National Land Commission (NLC) will have addressed the victims' grievances captured in reports such as Ndung’u, Akiwumi, Kiliku, Truth Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC) and the standard gauge railway (SRC) by May 2022 when the 10-year limit lapses.

The timelines began running from the commencement of the NLC Act on May 2, 2012.

Landgrabs at  gunpoint escalate in Uganda as the operations of a defender of affected communities are suspended

On Friday, 20th August, Uganda's Non-Governmental Organization Bureau suspended 54 organizations for alleged 'non-compliance'. However for multinationals it was time to merry-make as their ‘nemesis’, Witness-Radio, has been cornered.   

Witness Radio - Uganda is a not-for-profit organization that facilitates the provision of legal representation and support to poor and vulnerable victims of land grabs financed by development financing.   

The global thirst for palm oil has never been more ravenous. Caught between it and a multigenerational war on Thailand’s poor are the farmers of the Southern Peasants’ Federation, who simply want a piece of land to call their own.

Main photo: Palm tree jungles and the mountains of Surat Thani Province in southern Thailand.

According to human rights activists, an alleged crackdown is happening against those who are vocal against Bahria Town Karachi and the forced acquisition of lands and evictions.

Last month, while Murad Gabol’s two children were sleeping, police raided his house. “We showed them the papers of our home, but they beat us and locked me up in jail,” Gabol said.

Kiryandongo – Uganda – As natives continue to resist illegal evictions, multinational companies opt to hire livestock as a new tactic to forcefully evict smallholder farmers from their land.