Indigenous & Community Land Rights

Karen Internally Displaced Persons wonder when they will be able to go home...

...While the nonviolent struggle of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi against the Burmese military government’s continuing repression has captured the world’s attention, the profound human rights and humanitarian crisis endured by Burma’s ethnic minority communities has largely been ignored.4

“Land registration and cadastral surveying in much of the developing world has reached a crossroads. It is not possible to continue with business as usual in the face of massive informality within the world's cities, and new more relevant approaches have to be developed”. (Fourie, 2000).

Between October 2004 and January 2005 SPDC troops launched forays into the hills of Nyaunglebin District in an attempt to flush villagers down into the plains and a life under SPDC control. Viciously timed to coincide with the rice harvest, the campaign focused on burning crops and landmining the fields to starve out the villagers.

The Land Rights Research and Resources Institute held its second National level Public Forum on land on 12-13 May 2005. The two day forum was partly one of the planned activities in the Institute’s three year Strategic plan and a special event to commemorate the Institute’s tenth Anniversary.

Moçambique é hoje um excelente exemplo para ilustrar a relação de reciprocidade entre desenvolvimento económico e o Direito.

Mit Zwangsarbeit, ethnischen Umsiedlungen und ausländischen Investitions-Dollars sichert die Militärjunta ihre Machtstrukturen in Myanmar. Forced labour, internal displacement, foreign investments, power structures.

Esta ferramenta tem por objetivo delinear os passos necessários para conceder poderes às comunidades nas consultas locais, visando à identificação das pessoas que têm o direito de manejar os recursos naturais numa determinada área e o modo como tal manejo deve ser efetuado e monitorado.

This project is a component of the project “Piloting of Local Administration of Records - PILAR”, undertaken by the Association for Rural Advancement (AFRA). AFRA is an independent land rights NGO that aims to redress past injustices, to secure tenure for all and to improve the quality of life and livelihoods of the rural poor.

Community forestry has no doubt come a long way towards becoming part of mainstream forestry in some countries. However, its potential to make a difference in the management of the forestry sector and rural development is yet to be widely recognized.

In The National Forest Plan of 1977, the poor and mountainous kingdom of Nepal recognized the need for the people’s participation in managing its forests. In an article for RECOFTC, Dr Keshav Kanel of Nepal’s Department of Forest, records the changes in society, governance and economy wrought by this gradual – but not uncontroversial – move to community forestry.

In search of excellence deviates from the path that most authors have taken. Instead of dwelling on the failures and the negative, it celebrates the “good” and the many positive management efforts in the Asia–Pacific region. It highlights the many people who are striving for excellence in forest management and seeks to encourage others to emulate these positive efforts.