News on Land

The best way to save forests and curb biodiversity loss is to recognize the claims of indigenous peoples to their territories, a new report urges.

WASHINGTON (Landscapes News) – When establishing environmentally and socially responsible forestry projects in new areas, taking time to listen to the locals and understand the context really pays off, said Paula Guimarães at a discussion forum about how the public sector can support private sector investments in sustainable and productive landscapes, at the recent Global Landscapes Forum 

As NT marks 40 years of self-government, former Labor MLA Ken Parish says the system has been problematic

The Northern Territory should become the “test bed” for reforms proposed in the Uluru statement and establish a formal Indigenous voice to parliament, a former Labor parliamentarian and political analyst says.

CUSIPATA, Peru, Jun 30 2018 (IPS) - At more than 3,300 m above sea level, in the department of Cuzco, women are beating infertile soil and frost to grow organic food and revive community work practices that date back to the days of the Inca empire in Peru such as the “ayni” and “minka”.

This rapid scoping of the Food and Agricultural Organisation Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) sought the views of different organisations, individuals and activists on the usefulness of the guidelines for promoting forest tenure reform in support of secure community land rights. The work aimed to inform and update Fern policy analysis and assess the potential for applying the VGGT standard in Fern’s advocacy strategies and campaigns on EU trade and forest policies. The main analysis and findings are shared in this document.

Tropical forest loss is at an all-time high, fomenting the global climate crisis. The result is rising seas, threats to global food security, and conflict across the globe. Along with this violence against the earth, there is growing violence against the people who defend it.

The area of forest cleared in Colombia jumped 46% last year, data compiled by the World Resources Institute show, in an “alarming” trend

Tree loss in Colombia for 2017 jumped by 46% from 2016 to 2017, a World Resources Institute (WRI) report revealed on Wednesday. It follows a doubling of tree loss between 2001 and 2015.

Climate change needs behavior change.What people eat, what they buy and what they use contributes directly to climate change. In just eight months, humans consume what the earth can sustainably produce in a single year. Nearly two-thirds of global emissions are linked to both direct and indirect forms of human consumption – even conservative estimates for the potential of changing behaviors to reduce consumption of natural resources suggest an enormous contribution to reducing global emissions.

Fertile land is dwindling due to climate change combined with a population boom and is fueling conflicts across the continent

NAIROBI - The violent conflicts between farmers and semi-nomadic herders in Nigeria that left dozens of people dead over the weekend illustrate the intensifying pressure and competition for arable land in Africa, experts said on Monday.

Fertile land that is dwindling due to climate change combined with a population boom are fueling conflicts across the continent, they said.

Indigenous peoples in the Peruvian Amazon have united and created the Wampis Nation – an autonomous territorial government – in order to defend their livelihood from the increasing pressure from extractive industries. Their autonomous government covers nearly an area the size of one-third of the Netherlands and more than 15,000 people are part of this one-of-a-kind initiative.

Odisha is a front-runner in women’s land ownership, much of it owing to government policies from the 1980s. But has ownership led to empowerment?

Surrounded by sun-drenched paddy fields interspersed with jackfruit and banana trees, Sanakusupadu is a hamlet in Odisha’s tribal-dominated district of Rayagada. Here, almost every married woman owns land.

"Laws on marriage, divorces, property rights, child custody and land ownership all contain powerful clauses that marginalise our women in favour of men"

NAIROBI, June 20 - A promise by Liberian President George Weah to change laws that discriminate against women is spurring campaigners to push for legal reform to protect wives' land rights.