Traditional authorities in Zambia complain that the government does not consult them when land is allocated for investment projects, while communities say chiefs are neglecting their interests. Jesinta Kunda of Zambia Land Alliance says more clarity is needed on the role of traditional authorities, in law and practice, to ensure large-scale investments in agriculture, mining and other sectors are governed better – particularly in light of the rising demand for critical minerals found in Zambia. She urges the government, traditional leaders and citizens to seize the opportunities presented by current legal reforms in Zambia to create change.

In Mali, a civil society coalition worked with communities to achieve greater transparency on gold mining contracts and to hold authorities and companies to account. Their aim: to turn Mali’s mining sector into a lever for socio-econmic development and improve living conditions around mining sites. 

Nouhoum Diakite charts a success story, with limitations…

Today, I am on board the Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise ship, as we confront the fossil fuel company, Shell, for its role in causing climate devastation around the world - while paying nothing for this destruction. It is now a  trend almost everywhere in the world, fossil fuel and oil extraction are becoming the new trend and a real treasure, to a chosen few. True, governments do need money, and it seems easier and quicker for them  to have it through the exploitation of fossil fuels.

Uganda’s extractives industry is growing exponentially and attracting both foreign and domestic mining companies. But too often, mineral-rich communities fail to benefit. Here, Kevin Bakulumpagi of ANARDE, Uganda discusses how Community Development Agreements can ensure affected communities both benefit from mining operations and are meaningfully engaged in agreements regulating mining activities

Mining in the context of climate of climate change brings new challenges to the industry and exacerbates already existing sustainability problems. This Datastory highlights some of these tensions while pointing towards emerging best practice. The findings are based on document analysis and semi-structure structured interviews with corporate representatives from the 37 largest mining companies in the world.

WHY REJECT CUSTOMARY LAND PRIVATISATION 

Most of the world’s land is still stewarded by communities under customary systems. Billions of people rely on communally managed farmland, pasture, forests and savannahs for their livelihoods. 

This collective management of resources is viewed in the colonial or capitalist economic model as an obstacle to individual wealth creation and private profit. 

There is an underlying tension in the land rights movement that is rarely addressed head on, which is the perception that securing women’s land rights threatens community land rights. Community land rights are typically held by indigenous people, small-scale and subsistence farmers, pastoralists, herders and many other groups who are directly dependent on land for their livelihoods but whose land tenure is often the most precarious.

This blog was written by Barbara Fraser and published by EarthBeat at: https://www.ncronline.org/earthbeat/politics/indigenous-peoples-lives-depend-their-lands-threats-are-growing-worldwide

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Oil companies are paying billions towards development in the Niger Delta, but it’s having little impact on the ground, say Tijah Bolton-Akpan and Miles Litvinoff.