News on Land

The Forest Research and Training Centre (FRTC) is pleased to announce the launch of Nepal’s National Land Cover Monitoring System (NLCMS) to mark Earth Day. The system uses cloud computing and artificial intelligence to generate consistent data on how much of a region is covered by forests, wetlands, agriculture, and other land and water types, on an annual basis.

(main photo: In this file photo a farmer holds a handful of soil parched because of drought in Tunisia's east-central area of Kairouan, on 20 October, 2021. AFP Photo)

Human activities are damaging and degrading the lands of the Earth in an unsustainable fashion according to a new United Nations (UN) report.

Up to 40 percent of the global terrain has already been devalued, mainly through modern agriculture.

The Ngorongoro Conservation Area in northern Tanzania is a spectacular area made up of expansive plains, forests and savanna. It’s also home to a huge caldera – a depression that forms when a volcano erupts and collapses – known as the Ngorongoro Crater.

The life and work of labour economist Francis Wilson was one of the inspirations for the Land Portal data story Double dispossession? A history of land and mining in South Africa's former homelands.  The data story was published on the 28th April - the day on which Wilson died aged 82. 

The governor of North Bank Region has reiterated that Climate Change is and continues to be a major economic, social & environmental problem and therefore called for aggressive and integrated approach in building local capacities on climate resilience in a bid to reduce the negative impact and phenomenon on the livelihood of the local population. 

On April 22, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Zhomart Tokayev highlighted the need to address the issues of crucial importance to the society and state relating to the ownership of land and land resources during a meeting on amendments and additions to the Constitution of the Republic, the press office of the President of Kazakhstan reported.

The ruling ANC wants farmers to donate land for redistribution to emerging black farmers as part of a significant shift in land expropriation policy. The proposal is found in a discussion document prepared for the party’s policy conference scheduled for July, the Sunday Times reports.

Bangladesh’s Digital Land (Development) Tax system, under Ministry of Land, has been chosen as one of the five champion projects of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2022 contest.

The digital land tax system was chosen for category seven in the contest, named ‘ICT applications: benefits in all aspects of life - E-government’.

In the contest, four or five projects/initiatives in each of the 18 categories have been declared ‘Champions’.

Situated on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Koulikoro, Mali is on the frontlines of a slow-moving environmental and humanitarian crisis. Extreme temperatures, extended periods of drought, and desertification are making it increasingly more difficult for farmers like Sitan Camara to make a living on their land.

Severe weather, rain and flooding are at the forefront of the minds of many South Africans, especially those in KwaZulu-Natal. Early last week (11-12 April 2022), the province’s coast received heavy rain, with some areas recording over 300mm in 24 hours. This is about a third of the annual rainfall in KwaZulu-Natal.