News on Land

Over 3.5 billion tree seedlings have so far been planted under this year’s Green Legacy campaign.

This was disclosed at a campaign where media leaders and professionals planted tree seedlings at Gulele Botanical Garden on Tuesday. 

Press Secretariat Head Nigusu Tilahun said on the occasion that the government and the people are pulling resources to fulfill very crucial national agendas.

Minister of Lands Kezzie Msukwa says there is a need to clean up the ministry and dismantle corruption syndicates involved in dubious sale of land.

Msukwa said this during a meeting with Vice President Saulos Chilima on the required reforms in the Ministry.

According to Chilima, Msukwa admitted that there are ministry officials who are involved in illegal sale of land.

We should recognise that people in informal settlements have the same right to share the city with the same dignity and equality as other residents. Without the active participation of informal settlement residents in upgrading projects, any upgrading plans proposed are destined to flop. Post the pandemic, we (Namibian planning practitioners, donors and private sector) should look towards the inclusion of people in informal settlements communities in planning and upgrading of the informal settlements. 

(July 31, 2020) – Today, Cambodian plaintiffs representing more than 700 farming families won a landmark appeal allowing them to move forward with their class action against Asia’s largest sugar producer, Mitr Phol. 
The transboundary class action Hoy Mai & Others vs. Mitr Phol Co. Ltd. is the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.  It was filed under Thai laws permitting a class action to be brought by foreign plaintiffs for abuses committed by a Thai company overseas.

Malawi Sun Hotel owners Mohammed Irshad Ahmed and Suhaik Irshad Ahmed are facing possible arrest following investigations into allegation of land grab in Blantyre City implicated together with former president Peter Mutharika’s personal bodyguard Norman Chisale.

Ahmed is accused of acquiring land through dubious means in Blantyre allocated to the developer by Ministry of Lands which was never for sale but through Chisale bulldozed to buy the land. Anti Corurption Bureau (ACB) has been investigating the matter and could possibly lead to Ahmed arrest for corruption offences.

Living in the Lesotho mountainlands comes with more than its fair share of rigors, and small-scale farmers like Mrs. Maitumeleng Mabaleka struggle to survive. Land degradation and climate change have upended traditional agricultural practices for her and many others like her who struggle to make a living or grow enough food to feed their children and build a better future.

Development on one of the last large lakes in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh is impacting communities that rely on it for their livelihoods and causing significant flooding in the city as the result of runoff during heavy rains, an environmental watchdog said Thursday, calling for an end to the practice.

Edo State High court in Benin City, has commenced the hearing of a suit filled against the Iyatsere of Warri kingdom, Chief Johnson Atseleghe, seeking to stop him from parading himself as the traditional ruler of Ologbo dukedom and from selling lands that belongs to the dukedom.

The case which came up for hearing on yesterday under Justice Daniel Okungbowa, also seeks to restrain the defendant, Chief Atseleghe and his agent from carrying out actions that is capable of compromising the peace in Ologbo.

The Philippines was the deadliest country in Asia for land and environmental defenders again last year while slipping to second most dangerous in the world behind Colombia, a watchdog said Wednesday.

A total of 43 defenders were killed in the archipelago -- the vast majority on the fertile and resource-rich islands of Mindanao and Negros -- compared with 30 in 2018, Global Witness said in a report.

Global Witness campaigners warn of risk of further killings during Covid-19 lockdowns

Main photo: Celia Xakriaba, an indigenous educator and activist of the Xakriaba people of Brazil, with a portrait of Paulo Paulino Guajajara, who was killed in an ambush by illegal loggers in 2019. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA

Main photo credit: Unsplash

Is the COVID-motivated shift enough to support all the laid-off garment industry workers? Who will really benefit?

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction on Tuesday said 550 officials in inter-ministerial groups are set to implement a land registration plan in Mondulkiri province.

The announcement came at a meeting chaired by Minister Chea Sophara and attended by Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Veng Sakhon, Minister of Environment Say Sam Al, and Mondulkiri provincial governor Svay Sam Eang.