In this land news update from South Africa we focus on:

• Our changing Covid 19 context
• The unresolved problem of farm worker evictions
• Budget cuts and food insecurity
• Contestation over land administration in communal areas in KwaZulu-Natal province
• The need for a digital deeds registry platform
• Unresolved land restitution disputes
• The  complex backstory behind mounting land occupations in Cape Town
• A selection of land related news from Southern Central and Eastern Africa 

Main photo: People protest in front of the Dambe district hall in Tbong Khmum province on October 18, 2019. (Supplied)

Twenty villagers engaged in a dispute with a rubber plantation over more than 400 hectares of land in Tbong Khmum province were released from custody on Tuesday after they were arrested the day before for allegedly damaging the company’s land-clearing machinery, an official said.

LAHAD DATU, Aug 9 — Over 3,000 Sabah native land titles have been granted to Sabahans this year, said Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal.

He said the land titles were handed over to among others residents of Tawau, Kalabakan, Keningau and Tambunan.

“We will make sure that the Sabah Land and Survey Department (JTU) properly manage all the land ownership grant applications submitted.

JAKARTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indonesia has cut back its planned transfer of state forests to local communities this year by half - an area twice the size of Los Angeles - because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

Bambang Supriyanto, the ministry’s director general of social forestry and environmental partnership, said social distancing measures from March to June had halted the technical work needed on the ground to certify the handover of land.

Main photo credit: Unsplash

Is the COVID-motivated shift enough to support all the laid-off garment industry workers? Who will really benefit?

CALL FOR INDIVIDUALS AND/OR ORGANISATIONS INTERESTED IN COORDINATING ILC’S GLOBAL WORK ON RANGELANDS AND MOBILITY

DEADLINE 15 AUGUST 2020

TERMS OF REFERENCE

We are launching this call to mainstream ILC’s commitment in support of pastoralists, mobility and security of rangelands for land conflict prevention and ecosystem restoration

The first class action lawsuit against a Thai firm for its actions in Cambodia is a test case for transboundary disputes

BANGKOK, July 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Bangkok court on Friday agreed to grant class action status to more than 700 Cambodian families suing a Thai sugar firm for evicting them from their homes, a lawsuit that human rights experts see as a test case for transboundary disputes.

Global Witness campaigners warn of risk of further killings during Covid-19 lockdowns

Main photo: Celia Xakriaba, an indigenous educator and activist of the Xakriaba people of Brazil, with a portrait of Paulo Paulino Guajajara, who was killed in an ambush by illegal loggers in 2019. Photograph: Olivier Hoslet/EPA