News on Land

LAND grabs and encroachment on protected forest are becoming more rampant in northern Cambodia, said environmental activists.

Cambodian forest and wildlife conservationists said it was increasing, especially in the Phnom Tnout-Phnom Pok Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans two districts in Preah Vihear province and one district in Siem Reap province.

They said it was a bad sign for the future of Cambodia's wildlife sanctuaries if the trend continued.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 — A group representing Musang King durian farmers in Raub, Pahang today decried the district land office’s attempt to evict them ahead of their court appeal.

Dr Sharon Brown, the President of the Malku Institute of Technology says the Institute will set up a farmers’ training centre at Walewale in the North East Region to train young people on commercial agriculture to enhance food security.

The Institute is an international organisation with its headquarters in Florida, and was established in Ghana in July 2013 with the aim of equipping the youth with employable skills through innovation, research and technology.

Adan Medina, a vocal activist in disputes with loggers and landowners, was shot and killed by a group of men

An indigenous leader and activist was killed in northern Honduras, officials said on Wednesday, the second such murder in the Central American country in less than a week.

Adan Medina, 46, of the Tolupan indigenous community, was shot and killed by a group of men on Sunday after returning from work in the town of Candelaria, according to Noe Rodriguez, the president of a local indigenous federation.

Main image: photo of Grabbing char land, influentials have been digging ponds for fish farming in Sonagazi upazila of Feni. Dhaka Tribune

Leaders of plain land indigenous people demand to be supervised under a separate ministry

The indigenous people of the plain land are still victims of various discrimination and their demands, including constitutional recognition, stay in limbo. They are struggling to protect their lands from encroachers.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) working on the environment and human rights have expressed concern about filling parts of Boeung Tamok Lake to create new parcels of land on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Located in Prek Pnov district’s Kouk Roka commune, Boeung Tamok, also known as Kob Srov Lake, is the largest lake remaining within the municipal borders with an area of more than 3,000ha.

The people of the village of Aasikulam, Vavuniya stressed the hardships caused by the Sri Lankan Forest Department seizing their land earlier this month, with around 50 families stating they had been affected.  

One of the villagers said, “We depend on the agriculture to maintain our livelihoods and we make our living through the means of Chena cultivation.”

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre vigilant on potential impacts of oil and gas exploration in Namibia and Botswana on the Tsodila and Okavango Delta World Heritage properties.

The European Union provided 20 million euros to support the Informal Economy Conversion Program in Angola.

The agreement signed this Monday is part of the plan to respond to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s economy.

According to the Angolan Minister of Economy and Planning Sérgio Santos, this funding will be applied to initiatives already registered in the State Budget, which is expected to start in January 2021.

• Reconnaissance Energy Africa, an oil and gas company with headquarters in Canada, has recently begun exploratory drilling in northern Namibia.
• Conservationists and local communities are concerned over the potential environmental impact that oil and gas extraction could have on such an important ecosystem.
• Northern Namibia and Botswana have a number of interconnected watersheds including the Okavango Delta – the potential for pollutants to enter watercourses and spread throughout the region are a particular concern.

On December 21, Reconnaissance Energy Af