News on Land

On January 9, 2020, thousands of police entered the Dong Tam commune in Hanoi. A clash erupted, leading to the killing of three policemen and a civilian later named as Le Dinh Kinh. Once a veteran soldier and chief of police, the 84-year-old Kinh had become a leader of the Dong Tam people in a longstanding land dispute with the government.

Destruction in Brazil’s portion of the Amazon rose 30% in March, compared to the same month a year ago, according to the country’s space research agency, INPE.

In the first three months of the year, Amazon deforestation was up 51% from a year ago to 796 square kilometers (307 square miles), an area roughly the size of New York City.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to turn our world upside down, and our thoughts are with everybody directly or indirectly affected by the virus. To ensure the health and safety of all of us and those around us, LANDac has made the following decisions.

LANDac 10-year anniversary

CENTRAL Governor Robert Agarobe is advising villagers to use the state of emergency period to farm their land.
Agarobe called on villagers to concentrate on farming instead of travelling to town to buy sugar and rice which was also putting themselves at risk of being infected by the coronavirus.
He said eating fresh food from the garden was better than buying junk food from the shops.
“It could be a good way too for young people to learn their traditional way of living by making gardens, growing crops and storing them for later use,” he said.

• The social distance at the farms implies that farmers must limit the number of labour force-carrying an activity at a time.

As indigenous groups lock down in villages, trespassers are taking advantage of their absence to steal their land

By Richard Pearshouse, Amnesty International’s head of crisis and the environment, and Jurema Werneck, executive director of Amnesty International Brazil

Villagers in Laos say a Chinese-owned banana plantation in has unfairly acquired the land of 46 families in the northern part of the country, many of whom were coerced by authorities into selling for a miniscule compensation package

The 46 families sold 60 hectares (148 acres) of their land in Houy Or Village, located in Bokeo province’s Meung district. They were offered what some say is a paltry 11 million kip ($1,200) per family.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 2nd, 2020)—The first round of Cadasta Foundation’s Data Accelerator Grant has been released to three African organizations to advance land rights and tenure security for vulnerable populations. 

The campaign against Cameroon’s agribusiness titans was reenergised in March after women living near several controversial plantations denounced the loss of community lands and rights, and the destruction of native forests.

LandCam, an EU-funded project run by several NGOs working to improve land rights in Cameroon, released a statement on behalf of women “living in the vicinity of agro-industries” decrying their treatment by major palm oil, rubber and sugar companies.