The Panguna mine on the Pacific island of Bougainville is one of the largest copper and gold deposits in the world. 

The mine was also at the center of a decade-long civil war fought between the Bougainville Revolutionary Army and the Papua New Guinea Defense Force in the 1990s. The conflict cost as many as 15,000 lives and displaced 40,000 of the island’s 200,000 inhabitants.

This booklet presents both successes and challenges faced by the people of Sierra Leone, whose lives and livelihoods are dependent on their legitimate rights to own, farm, fish, build or develop an area of land or water. The Voluntary Guidelines have helped these communities to turn their challenges into achievements.

O Censo Indiano de 2011 contabilizou 833 milhões de pessoas vivendo em áreas rurais, sendo agricultores cerca de 95,8 milhões. A Índia rural, nas últimas décadas, passa por uma grave crise agrária, como consequência da comercialização da agricultura, da dominação do setor por corporações multinacionais, dívidas enormes entre os pequenos agricultores e trabalhadores agrícolas. Há uma epidemia de suicídios, altas taxas de desnutrição e crises em cascata entre artesãos e mineiros, os outros trabalhadores de áreas rurais.

From 9th to 29th September 2019, Land Portal, Cadasta and GIZ co-hosted an online discussion focussing on the role of open land data in the fight against corruption. Drawing on over 100 contributions from 48 contributors covering six continents, the dialogue explored the opportunities and challenges for the use of open data as a tool to address land-related corruption. 

The value of Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) for informing resource management has long been recognized; however, its incorporation into ecosystem services (ES) assessments remains uncommon. Often “top-down” approaches are utilized, depending on “expert knowledge”, that are not relevant to local resource users. Here we propose an approach for combining participatory methods with remote sensing to provide a more holistic understanding of ES change. Participatory mapping in focus group discussions identified TEK regarding what ES were present, where, and their value to communities.

In fulfillment of his manifesto promise to the people of Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun district  and in consonance with the new direction government's determination to tend to the needs and aspirations of its people generally and to promote foreign direct investment, in a peaceful just and inclusive society, His Excellency the president ,Retired Bragadier Dr. Julius Maada Bio, commissioned a mediation committee, headed by no less a person, than the Honourable Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh,   on the recurrent land dispute in Malen Chiefdom Pujehun district.

Over the past two decades, “illegal” natural resource extraction has become a significant driver of environmental change and social conflict across the Global South. In response, numerous Sub-Saharan African states have engaged in governance reforms that heed calls to securitize – or, establish and consolidate state control over – natural resources. In Ghana, securitization has served to entrench the informal economy as domestic producers, marginalized in the process of reform, continue to utilize non-state institutions to maintain access.

This blog is part of Global Forest Watch’s Global Insights series. Although many parts of the world are experiencing forest loss, the factors motivating these losses differ between countries and regions. Global Insights takes a local look at historical and current trends in forested countries across the world to highlight the diversity of forest issues. To read other posts in the series, click here.

The laws in the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic provide limited protection to indigenous peoples and local communities regarding access to land and forest resources. Often, logging concessions overlap their territories, restricting access to lands and resources. However, the development of community forests is gaining momentum in the region. These can help secure customary tenure, sustainably manage resources and improve livelihoods for indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLCs).

Date: Août 2019 

Source: Farmlandgrab, CCSI

Note d’information pour les organisations de la société civile – Combler le fossé de l’information : comment l’accès aux contrats fonciers peut servir les droits des communautés

A common misconception about CT systems in Cambodia is that it is confined to indigenous communities in the peripheral uplands of Cambodia and does not exist in their Khmer counterparts. In response, this research compares related studies on customary tenure in Khmer communities, and describes the evolution of customary tenure within them, the different categories of potential resources governed under customary tenure, and the governance regimes of those resources. It then proposes three practical cases/communities for further field-based documentation.

Com 1.121 desapropriações para a construção do mineroduto Minas-Rio e 1,5 mil famílias desapropriadas para a construção do Complexo Portuário do Açu, adicionando o impacto em sistemas aquáticos, com degradação, aumento da demanda, salinização e suspensão do abastecimento público por despejos de minério de ferro, esses grandes empreendimentos produzem efeitos socioambientais deletérios.