News on Land
Get the latest news on land and property rights, brought to you by trusted sources from across the globe.
South Africa: State pleads ignorance over probe into multimillion-rand land claim ‘scam’
By: Sizwe Sama Yende
Date: November 1st 2016
Source: City Press
Criminal charges have been laid relating to one of the biggest land claim scams in the country – potentially costing the government millions – but the rural development and land reform department says it knows nothing about it.
Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan opened a criminal case on October 14 regarding the inflation of land prices in the Badplaas area.
New book sheds light on women’s legal land battles in Tanzania
An academic documents how women in Tanzania are going to the courts to claim their land rights and calls for a holistic approach to legal reforms concerning this issue
A new book by Helen Dancer, a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton, provides evidence of how women are using legal processes to claim their land rights. Between 2009 and 2010, Dancer conducted a year’s ethnographic fieldwork researching women’s claims in the land tribunals of Arusha, northern Tanzania. She followed up with short visits in 2010, 2011 and 2014.
Uganda: Tax idle land in urban centres, expert urges Govt
By: David Lumu
Date: November 10th 2016
Source: New Vision Uganda
Key among the solutions is reforming the land laws in the country to provide escape routes for Government in case land owners refuse compensation
Sea Gypsies Pray for Justice in Ancient Ceremony as Tensions Grow over Land in Thailand
Date: February 10th 2016
Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
BANGKOK – Sea gypsy communities on southern Thailand’s Phuket island have engaged in a ritual ceremony to pray for land rights after the Ministry of Justice less than two weeks ago called on the provincial Department of Land to revoke their land titles to 33 rai (5.28 hectares) of coast, local media reports.
Amazon Land Rights Face Greatest Threat
Source: Climate News Network
Author: Jan Rocha
Ensuring forest people’s land rights in the Amazon region is a cheap and effective way of cutting both carbon emissions and deforestation, researchers say—but the obstacles are formidable.
Ethnic Mongolians Protest Loss of Traditional Grazing Lands Outside Banner Government
By: Qiao Long
Date: February 24th 2016
Source: Radio Free Asia
Traditional herding communities in a county-level district in China's northern region of Inner Mongolia have stepped up protests over the loss of their grasslands this week, local sources said.