In the six months since the coronavirus began its global spread, more than 15 million people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 and more than 600,000 have perished, causing governments around the world to institute lockdowns and shut down businesses while entire industries have been devastated.

The Amazonian economic occupation over the last forty years has been extremely harmful to the environment and to the traditional populations. One of the strategies to overcome this difficulty, dealing with sustainable development, is the development of productive units—starting with non-timber forest products (NTFP)—and the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) for the residents and/or owners of forest areas.

Rural Development Knowledge and Information Systems Urban Development - Urban Governance and Management Poverty Reduction - Rural Poverty Reduction Governance - Regional Governance Rural Development

Research in Sierra Leone reveals that the role of Paramount Chiefs and MPs in approaching communities for negotiations compromised Free;Prior and Informed Consent. Companies and local authority figures used vague references to ‘developmentto convince landowners to sign. There are a number of investments that could be classed as ‘speculativewhile customary decision-making regarding the agreement to lease land excluded women;junior men;and members of non-land-owning families. Concludes with policy recommendations.

Discusses her new book exploring the many forces and pressures facing people and their families in Dlonguébougou;Mali;which reveal a microcosm of powerful forces playing out across Africa. Life remains highly seasonal. Land which once seemed so abundant is now scarce. The open bush of 1980 is no more. Population growth is part of the story;but so is land grabbing. Several villages were turfed off their ancestral lands in 2010 to make way for a large sugar-cane plantation run by a Chinese company. Land shortage means crop yields have fallen. Grazing has run scarce.

Thousands of families are being evicted from their farms to make way for foreign-owned farms in Kiryandongo;western Uganda. Three multinational companies – Agilis Partners;Kiryandongo Sugar Limited and Great Season SMC Limited – are involved in grabbing land;violently evicting people from their homes and causing untold humiliation and grief to thousands of farming families residing in Kiryandongo district.

Aminata K Fabba is the Chairlady of the Malen Land Owners Association;(MALOA) and a frontline grassroots land rights defender in the southern provincial district of Pujehun. Describes her criticism of an unfair land agreement with SOCFIN details of which were not fully explained to the landholding families.

A 22 minute video about one of the biggest cases of agricultural land grabbing in Senegal: 20,000 hectares;first allocated to Senhuile-Sénéthanol;now known as Les Fermes de la Téranga. The Italian investors Tampieri Financial Group pulled out of the project in 2017 and the new owners – Agro Industries Corp;based in the tax haven of the Cayman Islands – arrived in 2018.

Secure land tenure is key to eradicating poverty;increasing agricultural investment and ensuring food security;and is an essential element of climate action and climate resilience. Yet women have far weaker rights to land than men. These disadvantages exist broadly and with few exceptions globally and are especially limiting to the well-being of women and their families in rural areas;where land is the basis for livelihood;identity;social standing and social security.

With the pandemic striking higher in Uganda;poor families continue to be forced off their land by their government and investors despite several directives halting evictions during the COVID period. Cites a number of examples. In the latest looming evictions;the Uganda government is evicting more than 35,000 artisanal miners in the Kisita mines in Kassanda district.

Post-Soviet reforms in Kyrgyzstan during the 1990s and early 2000s included the allocation of land for long time use and eventual ownership to residents. 75% of arable land, including over 1 million hectares of agriculture land was distributed during this period. Land certificates named all family members, including minor children, and over half of all shares were distributed to women. However, census data and survey reports since initial distributions reveal that land ownership by women, and especially rural women, has significantly declined.