News on Land

Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai has challenged traditional rulers in the state to show any piece of land that has been forcibly acquired or illegally occupied in their domains.

He was reacting to the allegation by southern Kaduna leaders that their land had been annexed to Fulani herdsmen as grazing reserves.

Leaders of southern Kaduna had decried attacks by armed herdsmen who invaded their communities, destroyed homes and took over lands for grazing.

Intensive farming makes future pandemics such as Covid-19 more likely as wild animals carrying diseases known to infect humans are forced into increasingly close contact with us, a research report showed on Wednesday.

Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from University College London (UCL) warned that animal pathogens are increasingly likely to make the leap to humans as land-use changes benefit animal hosts.

The UN estimates that three-quarters of land on Earth has been severely degraded by human activity since the start of the industrial era.

The National Assembly standing committee approved three draft laws on Thursday to be submitted to the expert commissions for review.

The National Assembly’s Commission for Economy, Finance, Banking and Audit will review and study two draft laws – the Control, Use and Management of State Property; and Management of Commercial Gambling.

Another draft law before the Commission for Legislation and Justice is on the adoption of treaties between Cambodia and South Korea involving assistance for criminal justice.

JAKARTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indonesia has cut back its planned transfer of state forests to local communities this year by half - an area twice the size of Los Angeles - because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Bambang Supriyanto, the ministry’s director general of social forestry and environmental partnership, said social distancing measures from March to June had halted the technical work needed on the ground to certify the handover of land.

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) has simplified the guidelines on land acquisition and distribution (LAD).

DAR Secretary John Castriciones explained this was made possible by “lumping together activities into major steps, done simultaneously, or a combination of both,” thus shortening the whole process to be undertaken by DAR and other CARP-implementing (Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program) agencies from 291 days to 112 days.  

CALL FOR INDIVIDUALS AND/OR ORGANISATIONS INTERESTED IN COORDINATING ILC’S GLOBAL WORK ON RANGELANDS AND MOBILITY

DEADLINE 15 AUGUST 2020

TERMS OF REFERENCE

We are launching this call to mainstream ILC’s commitment in support of pastoralists, mobility and security of rangelands for land conflict prevention and ecosystem restoration

Main photo: People protest in front of the Dambe district hall in Tbong Khmum province on October 18, 2019. (Supplied)

Twenty villagers engaged in a dispute with a rubber plantation over more than 400 hectares of land in Tbong Khmum province were released from custody on Tuesday after they were arrested the day before for allegedly damaging the company’s land-clearing machinery, an official said.

The first class action lawsuit against a Thai firm for its actions in Cambodia is a test case for transboundary disputes

BANGKOK, July 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Bangkok court on Friday agreed to grant class action status to more than 700 Cambodian families suing a Thai sugar firm for evicting them from their homes, a lawsuit that human rights experts see as a test case for transboundary disputes.

Oddar Meanchey provincial authorities remain puzzled about the Thai Appeal Court’s recent ruling in favour of more than 700 families who claimed to have been locked in a land dispute with three Thai-owned sugar companies in Samrong town and Chongkal district.

Provincial deputy governor Vat Paranin told The Post on Sunday that the land dispute with the firms was resolved in 2010. He said because the case occurred in Cambodia, the complaint should have been filed in a regional court.

Tbong Khmum provincial police plan to release 20 of 21 protestors on Wednesday, after they were detained for occupying land owned by a Chinese company in Dambe district’s Trapaing Pring commune.

The release comes after two days of questioning.

One man will continue to be detained and sent to court based on a complaint by the company, Harmony Win Investment Co Ltd.

More than 100 policemen surrounded the disputed land on Monday, removing sheds and tents and evicting those living there.

Nearly 30 years after starting land reform, Namibia’s distribution of land ownership is still skewed. This is a colonial legacy. It is high time to return land to dispossessed communities. As a former colonial power guilty of terrible bloodshed, Germany should contribute to making that happen.