News on Land

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Chinese tech giant Tencent is creating a “smart city” that utilises technology to put people and the environment first, a model that could be applied to other urban developments after the coronavirus, the project’s architect said on Wednesday.

Net City will be a 2 million square metre (21.5 million square feet) neighbourhood in the southeastern city of Shenzhen, comprising Tencent offices and residences for its employees, as well as public amenities such as parks and a waterfront area.

Some 50 people representing more than 100 families locked in a land dispute in Kampong Thom province’s Kraya commune, in Santuk district, travelled to Phnom Penh to submit a petition at the National Assembly, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet and the Ministry of Interior on Monday and Tuesday.

The petitioners, who are also requesting intervention in the land dispute to acquire authorised land titles, accused provincial authorities of an attempt to jail them, but provincial governor Sok Lou denied this.

• A court in Indonesia has sentenced two indigenous farmers to eight and 10 months in prison respectively for harvesting palm fruit from land whose ownership is contested by the community and a palm oil firm, PT Hamparan Masawit Bangun Persada.
• The ruling appeared to ignore evidence showing that the villagers are the rightful owners of the land; the defendants say they will appeal and also file a lawsuit against the company.

A MAJOR land dispute involving Rachel Marape, wife of Prime Minister James Marape, and a Motu Koitabu family may soon be the subject of a court debacle specically over the land title. Businesswoman Beatrice Geita took to social media last week “crucifying” Mrs Marape for allegedly obtaining a land title on top of their title for a small area behind the bike track, they built few houses and a liquor shop from their family portion of land outside of Port Moresby city in the Central province.

Resort operators in Wang Nam Khieo district in Nakhon Ratchasima province, a popular holiday spot where several resorts face charges of encroaching upon public forest land, have welcomed Deputy Agricultural Minister Thamanat Prompow's proposal to let them rent Sor Por Kor land plots.

The operators said the policy will create jobs for local people and help the tourism industry.

Like different land management systems across the world, land management systems varied in different territories. 

Land issues have forced work for the K2 billion PNG-China Integrated Agriculture Park Project in Korofeigu, outside Goroka town to stop.

Eastern Highlands Governor Peter Numu explained that negotiations led to the idea that the land would be given to the Chinese company.

It is understood that the Department of Agriculture and Livestock was not properly informed on the process and disagreed placed on a misunderstanding that the land had been sold to the Chinese company, believed to be China Railway International.

Hundreds of local residents and monks blocked a national road on June 19 in a protest against a sand dredging company they say is illegally occupying pagoda land.

About 600 residents and monks blocked National Road 6A from about 8 to 9:30am near the site of the sand dredging operation, which was set up along a section of the Mekong River in Kandal province’s Mok Kampoul district in Prek Anhchanh commune.

The Lagos state government has urged everyone facing problems with land grabbers to approach the Lagos State Taskforce on Land Grabbers (LSTFLG) for help.

Lagos State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Moyosore Onigbanjo, who is also Chairman of the Special Task Force on Land Grabbers, stated this after rescuing Ajah Community Developers Association from land grabbers.

“Multinational companies have taken advantage of the COVID-19 Lock Down to continue with impugned violations rendering many homeless, hopeless and starving” ~ statement submitted by lawyers to a Ugandan high court. 

Despite a Ugandan government prohibition on land transactions during COVID-19 lockdown, illegal land evictions and concessions in community territories accelerated. Now the lockdown is gradually being lifted, communities continue to report cases.

While indigenous communities in Cambodia stayed home to stem the Covid-19 outbreak, a Vietnamese rubber firm bulldozed their land. Experts say disputes arising from Cambodia's complicated land management system will be difficult to resolve.

When the indigenous Kreung and Kachok communities locked down their villages in Cambodia’s Ratanakiri province in March to keep safe from the novel coronavirus, no one knew change was afoot in their ancestral forest.