Protecting those who work to defend the environment is a human rights issue
Authors: John H Knox, Michel Forst and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
Date: June 5th, 2016
Source: The Guardian
Row between Peru and UK-listed cacao company turns bitter
Author: Chris Arsenault | @chrisarsenaul
Date: June 2nd, 2016
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
A row between the Peru government and a UK-listed cacao producer accused of illegally destroying Amazon rainforest has prompted land rights campaigners to call for the removal of the company from trading on the London stock exchange.
Panama's tribes launch drones to fight deforestation
Author: Anastasia Moloney | @anastasiabogota
Date: June 2nd, 2016
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Indigenous people in Panama are using drones as a new weapon to monitor deforestation on their lands as thousands of hectares disappear every year in one of the world's most biodiverse rainforests, the United Nations said.
More than half of Panama is covered with tropical rainforest, home to various indigenous groups who rely on the forests to survive.
Tanzania seizes 'idle' land from investors to return to poor farmers
Author: Kizito Makoye | @kizmakoye
Date: June 1st, 2016
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
Tanzania has begun a nationwide programme to seize land left undeveloped by investors and return it to poor farmers, in a bid to quell conflicts between farmers, herders and developers.
For more than a decade, foreign investors have bought up large tracts of land for agriculture or for energy projects, but many have left the land unused.
Linked Open Data and Land Governance
Institutional & promotional materials
February, 2016
What is Linked Open Data?
Linked Open Data is a way of enriching, connecting, and linking data in structured, machine readable and standardized formats under open licenses. Linked Open Data enables the same content to be represented in multiple ways in different places simultaneously.
Advantages of Linked Open Data
Efficient use of resources
Linked Open Data reduces redundancy by building upon and the work of others rather than replicating existing systems.
Maharashtra needs to take a long-term view of drought
Award-winning architect says slums should inspire
Author: Matthew Ponsford
Date: May 27th, 2016
Source: place.trust.org
Award-winning Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena wants city governments worldwide to stop fighting urban migration and look to Latin America's sprawling slums as inspiration for new housing.
The winner of the 2016 Pritzker, regarded as the Nobel Prize of architecture, Aravena says the vast 'favelas' in cities such as Rio de Janeiro highlight human resilience and the instinctive capacity for home-building.
Karen people of Myanmar want government to recognize their customary land rights
Author: Saw Tun Lin
Date: May 29th, 2016
Source: Karen News
Karen National Union leaders has called for respective state and regional governments to recognized land rights and policies that are already in place for decades in ethnic areas and agreed to by both ethnic communities and armed groups.
South Africa's parliament approves land expropriation bill
By: Joe Brock
Date: May 26th 2016
Source: Reuters Africa
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's parliament on Thursday approved a bill allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities in land ownership, an emotive issue two decades after the end of apartheid.
INTERVIEW - Chaotic urbanisation puts cities in harm's way: UN
By: Megan Rowling
Date: May 26th 2016
Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation
The risk of disasters hitting fast-growing cities is rising, so what are governments doing to protect residents?