News on Land

• The publication of an audit of forestry contracts in the Democratic Republic of Congo has exposed serious management failures.
• The audit cites serial breaches of the country’s forest code and more than a dozen violations of a 2002 moratorium on new concessions.
• The DRC’s environment minister announced the immediate suspension of forestry contracts deemed illegal by the audit, saying that where a special commission confirms the Inspectorate General of Finance’s findings, those contracts will be canceled.
• The audit is the first re

Land reform can only happen by targeting private property ownership, says Tembeka Ngcukaitobi

Government should abandon the policy of land restitution because it is not economically or politically feasible, and rather go back to redistribution.

The concept of private property came about as a result of colonial efforts to disenfranchise African people, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told people gathered at The Forge’s talks on land in South Africa, scheduled to run throughout the month. 

• A total of 17.6 million hectares (43.5 million acres) of Indigenous territories in Indonesia, an area half the size of Germany, have been demarcated under an independent initiative that began in 2010.
• The mapping is seen as the first step for Indigenous communities in the long and complicated process of applying for official government recognition of their land rights.
• But government efforts continue to lag behind this initiative, with the state to date only recognizing 15% of the territories demarcated by the latter.
• At the loc

Mining in the former homelands in South Africa remains highly contested. At issue is the tendency of many mining companies to trample land rights, negotiate deals with elites to avoid securing informed consent  while sowing division and conflict in poor rural communities.

Since its emergence more than two years ago, COVID-19 has reached nearly every corner of the globe. It has infected hundreds of millions of people, and overwhelmed health systems worldwide. But its impact goes beyond its direct health consequences.

Though a moratorium on evictions has been extended in Brazil, families still face forced removals. Activists are fighting for the right to land amid increasing precarity.

HUNDREDS of villagers in the Chilonga area of Chiredzi district held a demonstration at Chief Chilonga’s homestead on Sunday, protesting the government’s continue manoeuvres to proceed with the setting up of a lucerne grass-farming project by a private company, Dendairy.

The villagers, who came in seven trucks, wanted their voices heard by the authorities on the day the chief was scheduled to meet community leaders and government officials to discuss the project.

The chief was however attending other meetings in Masvingo on the day, forcing the postponement of the meeting.

Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Burundi are set to benefit from a regional initiative dubbed “Transforming Agri-Food Systems in West and Central Africa (TAFS-WCA)” which is aimed to increase food security and combat climate crisis.

MMG is facing the possibility of a prolonged disruption at its copper mine in Peru after failing to clear the site of all protesters in an operation that has further inflamed tensions with indigenous groups.