There is a raging debate with regards to viability and legality of the barter deal that was agreed between Malawi government and an investor.

For the starters, we understand that, to address shortage of housing among police officers, Worldwide Construction Company was awarded a K9.9 billion contract to construct 140 houses (i.e. K70 million per house) at Area 30 in Lilongwe.

• Top Indonesian ministers who pushed for the passage of a deregulation bill that benefits the mining and “dirty energy” industry have links to some of those very companies, a new report shows.
• The report by a coalition of NGOs highlights “massive potential for conflicts of interest” in the drafting and passage of the so-called omnibus bill on job creation.
• Under the new law, coal companies can qualify for an exemption from paying royalties, as well as be absolved of criminal and financial sanctions for mining in forest areas.
• Act

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Koh Kong Provincial Court on November 18 to await the sentencing of their three community land representatives who were accused of defamation related to a land dispute.

Provincial court prosecutor Un Sovantheany identified the three activists as Phao Nherng, Seng Lin and Khon Phon. They were sued for defamation by one of their former fellow representatives, Chhay Vy.

Vy said the three had falsely accused her of persuading people living in Sre Ambel district’s Chi Khor Leu commune to sell their community land.

Following the development, the community leaders have asked the company to vacate their land for the interest of peace, alleging that it was illegally acquired.

Indigenes of Illushi community in Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State have disagreed with a rice farming company, Skaff International Agro Farms Limited, over the acquisition of a vast portion of land for agricultural purpose.

Greenpeace slams Indonesia for lack of action against the palm oil sector as vast areas of forests burned in five years.

Main photo: Burned land is pictured next to a palm oil plantation after fires near Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan province, Indonesia [File: Willy Kurniawan/Reuters]

• A rule allowing subsistence farmers to burn small plots of land has been reinserted into the Job Creation Act passed last week.
• Other provisions affecting the plantation industry have also been adjusted in a new version of the law that appeared this week.

Multiple versions of a sweeping deregulation law passed in Indonesia last week contain substantial differences affecting the nation’s plantation sector, despite assurances from lawmakers that any changes to the text made in recent days were merely cosmetic in nature.

Main photo: Cambodian farmer and land rights activist Oum Samorl (photo: Ridan Sun)

Cambodian farmer Oum Samorl and her family lost their farm to a corporate land grab 15 years ago. They have never stopped feeling the loss, especially during the pandemic.

Oum Samorl remembers the day in June 2006 when tractors invaded her family’s farm in Cambodia’s Pailin province. 

Main photo: Protestors calling for land reform, Jakarta, September 2019 / Dhemas Reviyanto / ANTARA FOTO

This year marks the 150th birthday of one of the most consequential laws in Indonesian history. In 1870 the Dutch adopted the Agrarische wet or undang undang agraria. This law contains the provision that would become known as the domein verklaring: ‘all land not held under proven ownership, shall be deemed the domain of the state’.

Mbabane: The Human Rights and Governance Consortium under CANGO has called for the amendment of the laws governing the land tenure system to confer security of land ownership and protect communities from unlawful evictions.

This follows the recent evictions which took place at Mangwaneni in Mbabane on August 24, 2020.

POLICE have told Baruni village leaders to take land matters to court and not to take the law into their own hands to affect innocent lives.

Zone one commander, Chief Inspector Fred Tundu said this following the alleged attack of three policemen from the Idubada police post at Motukea island, outside Port Moresby, last Wednesday.