News on Land

KUALA LUMPUR Jan 15 — The recently gazetted Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 grants powers to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or anyone authorised by him, to take temporary possession of any land, building or moveable property.

In Zimbabwe, the government is planning to resettle more than 180 farmers displaced by the Causeway Dam in Machiki. The water impoundment project at this farm in Mashonaland East Province has disrupted the farmers' activities.

In Zimbabwe, disputes over the Causeway Dam project may soon be resolved. The government of this East African country has announced that it will compensate farmers for land lost at Machiki, a farm in Mashonaland East province. They will receive 235 hectares of irrigable land. These farmers were in the watershed of the water reservoir.

Forestry crimes including logging, poaching and encroachment on state forest land for private ownership increased considerably last year despite stricter law enforcement, according to an annual report by the Ministry of Environment.

Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said forest rangers cracked down on 8,917 cases in 2020 compared to just 5,745 the previous year – an increase of 3,442 cases or nearly 40 per cent.

Today in the building of the Central Communications Service Olga Shiyan, Executive Director of Transparency Kazakhstan, presented the results of the study «Monitoring the state of corruption in Kazakhstan for 2020», implemented with the assistance of the United Nations Development Program in Kazakhstan.
Transparency Kazakhstan experts interviewed 9,000 respondents at the level of cities, regional and district centers and studied 1,347 applications received on the Open Dialogue portal.

This month, public sector, private sector and civil society organization partners jointly launched the Accessible Soils And Sustainable Environments (ASASE) project in Ghana. Over the coming four years, this groundbreaking initiative will be working towards an environmentally sustainable future for the cocoa sector, tackling deforestation and working to rehabilitate ageing cocoa farms and restore natural forests.

• Experts have warned that a controversial deregulation act will serve as a springboard for greater corruption in Indonesia’s forestry sector.
• They say a pervasive lack of transparency will allow companies such as plantation operators to whitewash their illegal occupation of forests or take control of larger swaths of land than permitted, among other risks.
• The experts have called for greater transparency, especially on the beneficial ownership of companies, and more detailed guidelines on how to implement the deregulation law.

JA

In the forests of the Congo Basin, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall are adversely affecting wildlife resources. The availability of edible mushrooms and caterpillars has fallen by about 80%. This is according to a study published on 5 January 2021 by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

Harare, Zimbabwe – Chengeto Tapfuma, 59, has become accustomed to pain and loss.

Three years ago, she lost her only daughter after a long illness and became the sole provider for her four grandchildren, who are now aged between eight and 13.

The oldest will start secondary school in Harare’s Budiriro suburb, close to where they live, next year.

A Chinese state-owned company has signed a deal to redevelop and manage a fisheries port in Brunei.

China's Guangxi Beibu Gulf International Port Group has signed a deal to expand and run the Muara Fish Landing Complex alongside its partner Brunei's Darussalam Assets, a government-backed investment agency. The two jointly own the Muara Port Company Sdn Bhd, a joint venture set up in 2017.

SINGAPORE: Nine years ago, Mdm Lee May La, 64, nearly lost her life.

She had gone to Australia to attend her son’s graduation when she had a sudden onset of meningitis - an infection of the membranes that cover the brain and the spinal cord - which left her unconscious in an Australian hospital.

It is hard to miss the two little houses sitting defiantly in the middle of the Singapore building site.

It's instantly reminiscent of the award-winning cartoon Up, the Pixar film which tells the tale of an old man who refuses to move from his home as towering blocks of flats rise around him.

Indeed, the owners of these two homes are just as determined to stay put, refusing offers reportedly worth millions to move elsewhere.

Forced evictions, an abundance of petroleum, wealth inequality, economic growth and slums surround the most expensive cities in Angola. Angola, a country, that rose economically after experiencing a three-decade civil war. But the fruits of that expansion have not been shared by most of the population.