News on Land

Satellites are mechanical reporters of the Amazon deforestation process. By documenting the degradation and gaps created by the clear-cutting process over the years, they deliver the verdict: two-thirds of the Amazon’s deforested area has been turned into pastures.

World Bank projects and policies affect the lives and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide. If done right, this can be for the better, but decades of experience tell us that this is not always the case. The Bank has set itself two goals to be achieved by 2030 – to end extreme poverty and to boost shared prosperity.

Honduras has the highest murder rate for environmental activists in the world mostly because of conflict over land rights.

Relatives of Berta Caceres, the iconic Indigenous environmentalist from Honduras who was killed in March last year, denounced a "hate campaign" against them Wednesday.

As Cameroon expands its ability to produce clean power, people living near the new dams are losing the forest they depend on

PANGAR, Cameroon, July 26 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Sitting in front of his mud house in Pangar, a forest village in Cameroon's East region, Mokuine Anatole sharpens his machete in the early morning sunlight, ready for a day's hunting.

Water use for food production today largely occurs on the expense of ecosystems. About 40 percent of the water used for irrigation are unsustainable withdrawals that violate so-called environmental flows of rivers, a new study shows for the first time. If these volumes were to be re-allocated to the ecosystems, crop yields would drop by at least 10% on half of all irrigated land, especially in Central and South Asia. 

Title deeds have been issued to only 472 persons so far; work to distribute them is under way, says government

More than a year after the Supreme Court had vacated its stay on a Madras High Court order and facilitated distribution of land title deeds to those entitled,under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, the State government had issued title deeds only to 472 persons so far.

Hyderabad, Jul 24 (PTI) People’s groups today called for rejection of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the mega Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which is currently being negotiated in the city.

People’s groups from different parts of the city took out a protest rally demanding to stop RCEP talks.

The RCEP is a proposed mega regional FTA, which 16 countries including India and ASEAN countries are negotiating.

Application Closing Date - 06 Aug 2017

Job Start Date - 01 Sep, 2017

Duration - 1 September to 8 October 2017

Location - remotely and attending the workshop in Stockholm, Sweden

BACKGROUND

Since Uganda’s February 2016 elections, there has been widespread speculation that the government would try to change the constitution to entrench the power of ruling elites. The focus has been the possible removal of presidential age limits, paving the way for President Yoweri Museveni – in power for 31 years – to run again.

The regional workshop with African Land Commissions on securing community land rights ended in Accra, Ghana, Wednesday with participants committing to advancing policy, legal and regulatory reforms in their respective countries and ensure their effective implementation in order to recognize community land rights.

Land Portal Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launch thematic portfolio on land conflicts

• Historic claim recognised around Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue mine
• Court upholds $3.3m Timber Creek payout ruling against NT government

The federal court has handed down two major wins for native title holders, dismissing a government appeal against a landmark compensation case and recognising an exclusive native title claim around a $110bn mine owned by Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group.