News on Land

• We do not need to search too far to find a roadmap for a global New Deal for Nature and People.
• By not viewing environmental issues as human rights issues, gross human rights abuses can occur while weakening humanity’s ability to combat climate change.
• If the global community is to make progress on linking the health of nature with the health of people and the collective future of humankind, then environmental issues like climate change must be framed within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

For millions of people worldwide, land is a fundamental asset and source of wealth, security, social status, and economic opportunity. Secure land rights provide the foundation to improve lives and create pathways out of poverty – for women, families, and whole communities. Landesa’s work securing land rights for rural people has taken us around the world.

We invite you to explore our 2018 Annual Report to learn where this journey has taken us over the past year. To our many supporters, partners, and friends who make our work possible, we offer our deepest thanks.

One of Australia’s most powerful Indigenous organisations has abruptly fired its chief executive, and members are asking questions

The federal government has been asked to launch a full investigation into one of the country’s most powerful Aboriginal organisations, the Northern Land Council (NLC), as bitter tensions continue after the abrupt sacking of its CEO last month.

The land permit process may exclude indigenous communities from untitled land they have been farming, experts warn

BANGKOK - Millions of people risk being forced off their land in Myanmar due to a recently-amended law, which campaigners and analysts warned could also undermine peace negotiations between the government and ethnic armed groups.

The Land Portal Foundation is pleased to announce financial support by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to scale up work on information management and dissemination.

In particular, GIZ support will go towards expanding existing and creating new thematic portfolios on the Land Portal.

• Indigenous leaders in Ecuador say that a lack of progress toward addressing key issues stands in the way of their fundamental territorial rights.
• Concerns include resource extraction projects initiated without proper prior consent and consultation, as well as the activation of several mining and oil concessions in Ecuador.
• The outcry comes at a time when indigenous peoples are increasingly being recognized as key partners in ensuring the protection of the world’s tropical forests.

Brazilian councilwoman assassinated in Rio de Janeiro in March was killed by a militia looking to protect its interests controlling land in unregulated slums, Brazilian official says.

Marielle Franco, the Brazilian councilwoman assassinated in Rio de Janeiro in March was killed by a militia looking to protect its interests controlling land in unregulated slums, a Brazilian official has said.

Uganda’s land is demarcated into Mailo, Freehold, Leasehold and Customary occupancy, which some consider an irrational land system. Over the years, this tenure has gone through a metamorphosis of traditional, colonial and post-independence vicissitudes; the latter of the three periods, has been tumultuous.

SOMSAK SAE-LAO, an assistant village chief in the small Nan community of Pang Kob, still has no idea whether his villagers could be subject to any benefits for helping protect surrounding forest under a global scheme known as REDD+, if implemented here.

The village has unresolved overlapping claims with Khun Nan National Park on a high mountain, thus becoming uncertain about their land rights.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo handed over about 6,000 land certificates to residents during his working visit to Pekanbaru, Riau, on Saturday, as part of efforts to fulfill his administration's ambitious agrarian reform program. 

Of the total certificates, 3,000 were part of the land certification program, while the remaining half were certificates of land redistribution under the mechanism of land objects for agrarian reform (TORA). 

The world is vastly underestimating the benefits of acting on climate change. Recent research from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate finds that bold climate action could deliver at least $26 trillion in economic benefits through 2030. This ground-breaking research, produced by the Global Commission and more than 200 experts, highlights proof points of the global shift to a low-carbon economy, and identifies ways to accelerate action in five sectors: energy, cities, food and land use, water and industry.

The world is at a “moment of opportunity” in eliminating violence against women and girls, UN-Women Deputy Executive Director Åsa Regnér told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, calling for “unqualified” support for a strengthened feminist movement.