Land is of tremendous importance in South Sudan. It represents community, belonging and place as well as provides a source of income, subsistence and survival. Control of land and resources was at the centre of the conflict that lasted five decades, leading to South Sudan’s independence in 2011.

This report is a summary of the 2013 CSO Land Reform Monitoring papers in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and the  Philippines. It focuses on land conflicts including killings, harassments, land-related detainments, and evictions experienced in the seven countries. It also includes interventions and principles which ANGOC and LWA call for the government and institutions to adhere to in addressing such issues.

Urban and peri-urban land markets in rapidly expanding West African cities operate within and across different coexisting tenure regimes and involve complex procedures to obtain or make land available for housing. Because a structured framework lacks for the analysis of such systems, this book proposes a systemic approach and applies it to Bamako and its surrounding areas.

In Asia “indigenous peoples” as a term is contentious. The fact remains, however, that the individual and collective rights of peoples who self-identify as indigenous peoples are being violated on a daily basis. All too often, their territories are sacrificed and expropriated for state-sponsored development and corporate projects that lead to gross and wide-scale violations of their collective rights, especially regarding their lands, territories, and resources.

In the Mekong region, conflicts between local communities and large scale land concessions are widespread. They are often difficult to solve. In Cambodia, an innovative approach to conflict resolution was tested in a case involving a private company, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), and several indigenous communities who lost some of their customary lands and forests when the company obtained a concession to grow rubber in the Province of Ratanakiri. The approach was developed by CSOs Equitable Cambodia (EC) and Inclusive Development International (IDI) with the support of QDF funding from MRLG.

Thak would like to learn more about laws pertaining to land conflicts.

Bot talks about how land conflicts has decreased in their village.

 

Amlee talks about their peaceful neighbors.

The forces of globalization, especially private investors from China, Vietnam and Malaysia are accelerating pressures on Cambodia, putting enormous pressure on ethnic Bunong traditional lands, natural resources, and cultural heritage. Exacerbating the situation, the Cambodian government permits -- even encourages -- foreign interests access to Bunong lands for mining, agricultural concessions, hydro-power, and other uses. 

Laos remains one of the poorest countries in Asia and least developed in Southeast Asia, eighty per cent of Laos public investment programs are funded by foreign aid. We work with villages along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which was bombed more heavily than any location on earth during the U.S.'s "Secret War" on Laos during the Vietnam War

Watch this BBC Earth Report about Laos PDR.

Land and conflicts in South Sudan: Taking the land question seriously in the peace building process

This report on the Scoping and Status Study on Land and Conflict reviews the global context and the inspiration driving the study, The three key findings of the study are the existence of multiple areas of UN engagement on land and conflict across the UN pillars, the existence of multiple entry points for improved synergy and that the status quo is not fit for purpose. Based on the above findings, the study presents six recommendations  for consideration by the Rule of Law Resource and Coordination Group, the UN Working Group on Transition, other non-UN entities and Member States.