News on Land

In January this year, the managing director of Papua New Guinea’s Mineral Resources Authority declared that the proposal to develop what had once been touted as the world’s first deep-sea mine would ‘not get off the ground’.

Cambodia will soon start cultivating sisal, an agave plant native to southern Mexico which produces a strong fibre, after China Great Cause (Cambodia) Investment Co Ltd received an economic land concession in Preah Vihear province to build a processing plant.

The company imported the sisal – also known by the botanical name Agave sisalana – and will start growing it on 180ha of its 1,200ha plantation in the province’s Rovieng district.

Weeks 14 – 17: Monday 31 March – Sunday, 26 April 2020

April 27, 2020 - The suffering of millions of Cambodians who are facing economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic is being amplified by the country’s ongoing over-indebtedness crisis, stemming from more than $10 billion in loans from aggressive microfinance institutions (MFIs). More than two and a half million Cambodians currently hold microloans, with an average loan of more than $3,800 – the largest amount in the world. This puts millions of Cambodians’ livelihoods, health and land tenure security at risk.

Major general Chan Sam Ath was detained by Strung Treng Police Commissariat officials last Thursday for allegedly clearing 70ha of state land in Sralao village, Anglong Chrey commune, Thala Barivat district.

Stung Treng provincial administration spokesman Men Kong told The Post on Sunday that the Commissariat will question Sam Ath and arrange a court case, but they have not yet sent the case to court.

Kung said authorities confiscated three pieces of land-clearing equipment during their investigation.

In a bid to create avenues of job creation for Ghana’s teeming unemployed youth, the government through its numerous policies, programmes and initiatives instituted the ‘one district, one factory’ programme to be implemented in the various districts of the Volta Region.

The programme is also intended to provide opportunities for the private sector to cash in by setting up factories and industries using indigenous raw materials and also making use of local labour as a way of creating employment.

This year, as the world celebrates World Earth Day on the 22nd April 2020, Fairtrade Africa is highlighting its stakeholder collaboration towards climate action.

Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Dr. Rania Al Mashat joined a high level virtual panel on the significance of international developmental cooperation to face the implications of the coronavirus pandemic on the agricultural sector and food security.

Cadasta Foundation is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day by signing onto Interaction Forum’s NGO Climate Compact: Commitments Toward Environmental Action and Sustainability. 

The NGO Climate Compact represents a pledge by over 75 non-governmental organizations’ CEOs to urgently address climate change and our recognition that the environment is central to achieving our missions to serve the world’s poorest and most vulnerable.  

Many governments, businesses and local communities have made commitments towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but COVID-19 may set some of these commitments back.

COVID-19 is raging everywhere, resulting in much of the world in self-isolation and the closing of borders worldwide. With comparisons to the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic, we are experiencing a literal one-in-100-year event.

Zimbabwe has announced a price freeze on goods and services and ordered businesses to instead revert to prices obtained on 25 March 2020, just before the country went into a nationwide lockdown. 

At a meeting attended by representatives of the manufacturing and retail sector, Vice President Kembo Mohadi, who is also chair of the Covid-19 taskforce, said the country has been experiencing escalating food prices that has made essentials unaffordable for many.

Skyrocketing prices