Ignoring environmental laws in Timor-Leste to build a petroleum infrastructure project could mean serious problems for communities including environmental destruction, loss of land, and loss of livelihoods. Communities are already facing some of these problems because project proponents haven’t fulfilled their legal obligations to do extensive environmental research and planning to mitigate any damage to the local environment.

A MAJOR land dispute involving Rachel Marape, wife of Prime Minister James Marape, and a Motu Koitabu family may soon be the subject of a court debacle specically over the land title. Businesswoman Beatrice Geita took to social media last week “crucifying” Mrs Marape for allegedly obtaining a land title on top of their title for a small area behind the bike track, they built few houses and a liquor shop from their family portion of land outside of Port Moresby city in the Central province.

Kampong Thom provincial governor Sok Lou said he would investigate a land conflict in Boueng Leav commune, Santuk district, where villagers have accused an agriculture official of destroying their cashew farms. The official claims it was the villagers who illegally occupied the land.

The governor said on Tuesday he could not yet judge which side is right or wrong.

“I will go down to see the place, but I just want to say for now that the location was a protected area and no villagers lived there before.

In a bid to create avenues of job creation for Ghana’s teeming unemployed youth, the government through its numerous policies, programmes and initiatives instituted the ‘one district, one factory’ programme to be implemented in the various districts of the Volta Region.

The programme is also intended to provide opportunities for the private sector to cash in by setting up factories and industries using indigenous raw materials and also making use of local labour as a way of creating employment.

• A rule allowing subsistence farmers to burn small plots of land has been reinserted into the Job Creation Act passed last week.
• Other provisions affecting the plantation industry have also been adjusted in a new version of the law that appeared this week.

Multiple versions of a sweeping deregulation law passed in Indonesia last week contain substantial differences affecting the nation’s plantation sector, despite assurances from lawmakers that any changes to the text made in recent days were merely cosmetic in nature.

Executive Director of the Centre for Women in Agriculture and Nutrition (C-WAN), Emmanuel Wullingdool, has appealed to the government to create agricultural land banks to enable the vulnerable groups in society to have access to fertile land for farming purposes.

He said the vulnerable groups, including women, could register with the government at the district levels to acquire those productive lands to farm.

Environment rangers and community members patrolled the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary 511 times within the first four months of the year and prevented 399 forest crimes in four provinces.

Ministry of Environment secretary of state and spokesman Neth Pheaktra said on Thursday that a report on the management and protection at Prey Lang showed that 32 cases of logging and land clearing had been sent to the courts for legal action.

In 42 cases involving nearly 100 people, cease and desist contracts had been signed.

Officials at the Land Management Ministry declined to accept a petition from nearly 1,000 protesters who had gathered outside the building on September 21 to demand a resolution to their long-running land disputes in several provinces. 

The villagers from Koh Kong, Tbong Khmum and Svay Rieng provinces were demonstrating to mark the United Nations’ International Day of Peace, representing more than 7,000 families embroiled in conflicts over a total of more than 12,000 hectares of land.

One of the major criticisms against the Lagos state government has been the prohibitive costs of owning a home. These costs start all the way from purchasing land with restrictive land use charges and crippling penalties when homeowners are unable to pay their land use charges. Added to this, the recent increases in Land use charges in Lagos state, many have wondered if the Lagos state really cares about its mandate to become a megacity.

The residents stated that Nwoko had successfully bought over senior policemen in Delta State and Abuja, who allegedly assisted him in intimidating and arresting those, who opposed his attempt to forcefully acquire additional 90 hectares of land from an area earmarked for all indigenes of the community.

Residents of Idumuje Ugboko community in Delta State have accused former senator, Ned Nwoko, of using the police and Ministry of Justice to dubiously harass, intimidate and lock up elders and sons of the town.