Protecting land from development provides numerous ecological and social benefits, but many people debate whether it hurts or helps local economies. Some worry that land protection will inhibit economic growth by restricting local resource use or building opportunities.

About 7 miles outside of Albany, Ga., Shirley Sherrod stands on a dock overlooking a tranquil pond, Spanish moss-draped Bald Cypress trees reflecting on the still green water.

"They're resilient whether you're in a drought or whether you are in a flood. They last. And that's the way we feel we are," Sherrod says. "We will last."

Conflicts across Asia are increasing due to clashes with industry, social exclusion, discrimination and historical disenfranchisement

Udaipur — Women, lower-caste and indigenous people across Asia are failing to benefit from land reform laws because of custom and deep-rooted social biases, land rights activists said on Wednesday.

Globally, indigenous communities have legal rights to only 10% of land, according to Washington-based advocacy group Rights and Resources Initiative.

• Indonesia’s outgoing parliament has decided to hold off passing a slate of new bills, including on mining and on land reforms, that have been criticized as being pro-business and anti-environment.
• The decision comes amid massive student-led protests across the country in response to the earlier passage of another contentious bill widely seen as weakening the national anti-corruption agency.
• The postponement means the incoming batch of legislators will decide on the bills, but activists point out that they won’t have to start their deliberations f

Forest Department is trying to register the land under their name without paying compensation, alleged owners

Supposed land owners in four upazilas of Panchagarh have been claiming the land that the Forest Department acquired in 1967.

Revisional Survey (RS Khatiyan) in Panchagarh is underway, which began in 2008, after the last one in 1962. The Forest Department is trying to register the land under their name without paying any compensation, alleged the owners.

he Northern Territory government released its long overdue draft Aboriginal justice agreement (AJA) this month.

The NGO Human Rights at Sea has proposed amendments to the draft agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea currently under development. 

• Indonesia’s parliament is rushing to pass a controversial mining bill by Sept. 30, when the current legislators’ term ends.
• President Joko Widodo had previously asked for deliberations of this bill and other contentious pieces of legislation to be suspended, following massive student-led protests that have turned deadly.
• Watchdogs say the bill panders to the interests of mining companies, granting them bigger concessions, longer contracts, and fewer environmental obligations.

A film about one of the world's last hunter-gatherer tribes living in Malaysia's rainforest premiers on Thursday, with its indigenous actors urging authorities to formally grant them land rights after a decades-long battle.

Paradise War, which debuts at the Zurich Film Festival, follows the 1984 expedition made by intrepid Swiss environmentalist Bruno Manser who lived with Malaysia's Penan nomads and made their plight globally known.