JAKARTA, Indonesia — When Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was elected in 2014, he ran on bold promises to ensure higher economic growth, reduce environmental impact, reform land laws, and improve both human rights and public health in Indonesia. Elected as the country’s first outsider president — not connected to the military or the founding aristocracy — there was much optimism that he could fulfill his promises.

As the climate shifts and population grows, land in the Choke Mountain watershed is becoming degraded, causing problems here and further downstream on the Nile

CHOKE, Ethiopia - Sloping fields of barley and potatoes stretching far into the distance are a common sight in the mountains of Ethiopia's northwestern Amhara Regional State.

Local farmer Babel Tena, in a faded jacket and head scarf, has been cultivating low-yielding varieties of barley, beans and potatoes here for more than 40 years.

“Climate change is ravaging the planet… staggering numbers of children and youth – especially girls and young women – still lack access to basic education and healthcare services, [and] people in many countries are starved of economic opportunities, decent work and social protection measures”, she told the  2019 ECOSOC Partnership Forum, where governments, business representatives and other influencers met to discuss how partnerships can best advance and the 17 (

Having a title, deed or lease is the key that turns informal occupants into citizens, yet 70 percent of the world's people still live without documented property rights

The lack of a strong land record keeping system is partially responsible for the slow recovery from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. With as many as 700,000 households lacking clear titles to land and homes, aid to rebuild properties has been denied to many.

At this week’s 20^th Annual World Bank Land and Poverty Conference in Washington DC, a new campaign called Stand For Her Land has been launched.

On Friday morning, Palestinian residents of al-Farisieh village, in the northern Jordan Valley, were surprised to find out that Israeli settlers had fenced dozens of dunams of their land and planted them with olive trees. This transgression on the land is part of a series of daily appropriation and infringements on land, by settlers and the occupation authorities in the Jordan Valley, with a goal to displace its dwellers.

Government policies have paved the way for investments in mining and agriculture but have placed greater pressure on land and impoverished communities, said the U.N.

BANGKOK - The Laos government has prioritised big infrastructure projects including dams, railways lines and mines that have benefited few people and uprooted the poor from their land, said the top independent expert on poverty at the United Nations.

A charter designed by civil society organisations, workers’ collectives, and the urban poor reimagines our cities

While agrarian distress has slipped into the pre-election discourse as an important political subject, it is imperative to ask why the urban question is no less political. India’s cities are grappling with acute urban livelihood issues relating to jobs, housing, migration, living conditions, mobility, sanitation, climate change and sustainability.

The People's Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), a grassroots group campaigning for land rights for the rural poor, has asked the government to help 486 communities that are waiting for land title deeds. 

These forest dwellers, who have been living on national park land for generations, now find their homes are classified as encroaching on protected land following policy changes over the past 30 years. 

ABIDJAN — Ongoing conflict in Africa could exacerbate the magnitude and severity of food crises in five countries and regions that already have some of the world’s greatest emergency food needs, a new report has found.

• Agriculture is the leading cause of tropical forest loss in Latin America.
• New research from the University of Bern says institutions – including environmental policies, laws and regulations – are vital in preventing agricultural expansion, and deforestation.
• Higher inequality can cause ruptures within communities, and prevent collective action needed to protect the environment.

Death of Jakelin Caal in US custody highlights how land conflicts and displacement fuel flight from indigenous villages.

San Antonio Secortez & Guatemala City - The plantations' outer edges begin fewer than 20km from where seven-year-old Jakelin Caal is buried. The deep green rows of oil palm stretch along rural roads in the Alta Verapaz department of Guatemala.