News on Land

Samuel-Richard Bogobley is wearing a bright orange life vest and leaning precariously over the edge of a fishing canoe on the Volta River estuary, a gorgeous wildlife refuge where Ghana's biggest river meets the Gulf of Guinea.

He's looking for a bamboo rod poking a couple feet above the surface. When he finds it, he holds out a computer tablet and taps the screen. Then he motions for the captain to move the boat forward as he scans the water for the next rod.

BANGKOK - Deadly clashes this week in southern India, and farmers' protests in the west against a refinery and a bullet train, highlight the increasingly fraught disputes over land and environment in the country's most industrialised states.

Police opened fire Tuesday on protesters seeking to shut down a copper smelter run by Vedanta Resources in the southern port city of , killing 10. Three more persons have since died.

Up to 800 families have been evicted from their homes to make way for a hydroelectric dam since 2010

BOGOTA - A landslide at Colombia's biggest dam that forced the evacuation of about 26,000 people highlights the risks to communities who have lived in the area for generations, according to campaigners who have protested for years over the massive project.

"They killed, therefore they do not deserve to be given land. The community members are angry with them"

GULU, Uganda - When Julius Peter was finally freed after seven years held hostage by Uganda's notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, he and his family hoped their lives would finally return to normal.

Instead, it was the start of a whole new ordeal.

NAIROBI - Chiefs across Liberia are petitioning lawmakers while activists prepare for a sit-in protest in the nation's capital as they push to secure ancestral land rights, regarded as key to averting renewed bloodshed in the resource-rich country.

About 100 women marched on the presidential palace last week to kick off a campaign to amend the Land Rights Act (LRA), a watered-down version of which was passed by the House of Representatives in August, after years of delay, activists said.

Sao Paulo, Brazil - Thousands of indigenous Brazilians from across the country have rallied in the capital, Brasilia, to call authorities to protect their land rights.

Organisers of the annual "Free Land Camp" in Brasilia said more than 3,000 people reached the city this week to denounce what advocacy groups say is a continuing and unprecedented rollback of indigenous rights in the country.

As climate-driven drought takes hold, Mongolia's nomads are retreating to the city - and facing choking pollution

ULAANBAATAR - With about 100 sheep and goats, Jugder Samdan makes just enough to scrape by as a nomadic herder in Mongolia, basking in the sun as he watches over his animals, but he worries about the future.

Land and water-related conflicts are flaring up across Kenya, amid drought, population growth and high unemployment

By Kagondu Njagi

CHUKA, Kenya - Phyllis Mugeni was watering her greens when she spotted a dozen armed men advancing from the lowlands to attack farmers working on the banks of the River Naka in the foothills of Mount Kenya.

Successful agricultural development initiatives associated with poverty reduction have seldom included large-scale land-based investment. Feed the Future focuses on smallholder-led agricultural growth as the principal engine of poverty reduction and food security. Investment in agriculture of all sizes, however, can be constructive and is encouraged by the U.S. Government, but investments must take into account specific country contexts and circumstances and respect the rights of local populations.

A 300-year-old community in Bangkok will have its homes demolished as part of the city's modernisation plans

BANGKOK  - For more than two decades, a community of more than 300 people living next to an old fort in Bangkok staved off drug dealers keen to extend their turf, and city officials eager to tear down their homes and build a park to draw more tourists.

Winner of "Green Nobel" prize says illegal mining is a scourge as it pollutes rivers with toxic mercury and cuts down forests

BOGOTA - Colombian environmental activist Francia Marquez has faced death threats and been forced from her home in her battle against the mines that she says are polluting rivers and ruining land.

But she has no intention of giving up the work that this week earned her a prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the "Green Nobel", which honours grassroots activism.

BONN, Germany (Landscape News) — The devolution of land tenure rights to forest-dwelling communities over the past quarter century has led to the development of entrepreneurial initiatives with substantial positive socio-economic outcomes for livelihoods, according to a leading scientist.