When countries revise their land and forest tenure laws, whereby rights are granted to people who depend on forests for their livelihoods, one goal is to reduce disputes over land and resources.

Despite this, conflicts persist, and sometimes new ones arise: why?

In a multi-country study, researchers from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) sought to find the answer. In it they compared the views of officials responsible for implementing reforms in Peru, Indonesia, Uganda and Nepal, as well as the opinions of those in communities affected.

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.

• A state-owned plantation company, PTPN XIV, is evicting farmers to make room for an oil palm estate on the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi.
• In 1973, the company got a permit to raise cattle and farm tapioca on the now-disputed land, but it expired in 2003. After a long hiatus, the company has returned to claim the land.

GENEVA, March 18 (Reuters) - Israel is depriving millions of Palestinians of access to a regular supply of clean water while stripping their land of minerals “in an apparent act of pillage”, a United Nations human rights investigator said on Monday.

Michael Lynk, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said that Israel “continues full-steam with settlement expansion” in the West Bank, which the United Nations and many countries deem illegal. There are some 20-25,000 new settlers a year, he said.

Getting to the bottom of illegal plantations on Indonesia’s state owned forests

In an ideal world, palm oil production would cause no deforestation, and have a transparent and fair supply chain. In reality, the impacts of the sector have been the cause of ethical concerns worldwide.

Complaint Linked to World Bank Loan Alleges Land Seizures, Damage to Water Sources

Last week, 13 rural communities in Guinea made public a complaint against the World Bank’s private lending arm over a loan to one of country’s largest bauxite miners, alleging its operations have destroyed ancestral farm lands and polluted vital water sources.

We are very pleased to invite proposals for sessions for the LANDac Annual International Conference 2019. Practitioners, researchers, policymakers, all are welcome to organise a session at this year’s conference. We welcome workshops, panels, roundtables, debates, talk shows and other innovative formats. Films and exhibitions are also very welcome, as well as posters about your organisation or project.

Clashes between unidentified armed groups forced 263 families to leave their homes.

Over 700 Indigenous and Afro-Colombians from eight communities have been displaced in Tumaco, Colombia, forced out of their homes by violent clashes between unidentified armed groups on Jan. 16.

Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands uprooted from their homes in the war, which ended in 2009

BANGKOK, Jan 25 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 100 Sri Lankan Tamil families demanding the return of their land nearly 10 years after the end of a civil war, plan to occupy their former homes on Saturday if the government does not hand over the properties as agreed.

The Chilean delegate recognized that there's still a long way to go and regretted Catrillanca's murder by Carabineros.

Delegations from U.N. member states recommended that Chile should stop discriminatory practices against the Mapuche and other indigenous peoples in the South American country, after the universal periodic review at the Human Rights Council meeting in Ginebra.

The delegations showed concerns for the “discrimination and human rights violations against indigenous peoples” in key issues such as access to education and health.

The move is aimed at ending decades of deadly conflict and granting greater control over land and natural resources

BANGKOK - Nearly three million minority Muslims in southern Philippines voted on Monday in a referendum on autonomy, a move that is aimed at ending decades of deadly conflict and granting them greater control over their land and natural resources.

With less than two months before the newly amended Vacant, Fallow and Virgin Lands Management (VFV) Law goes into force, millions in ethnic rural areas now face the risk of eviction while others across the country may lose their lands upon return.

Labelled by land rights NGO Land In Our Hands (LIOH) as “burdening and oppressive”, the amended VFV Law worries many, as more conflicts are likely to ensue and could tear the already divided country apart once enforced.