The energy required to construct and run buildings is responsible for nearly 40 per cent of global carbon emissions. Can the green-architecture boom slow the tide?

Analysis reveals corruption more pervasive in countries where money influences political power

More than two-thirds of countries – along with many of the world’s most advanced economies – are stagnating or showing signs of backsliding in their anti-corruption efforts, according to the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released today by Transparency International.

There has been much hype about a major Africa investment summit being hosted by the UK. Attended by Prime Minister Boris Johnson and an array of royals, a great deal of hopeful win-win-win rhetoric abounded linked to forging new partnerships for a post-Brexit future.

In theory, South Africa has strong laws to protect the property ownership and inheritance rights of all women. However, a 2018 study conducted by Bongi Owusu for her master’s dissertation in social science at the University of KwaZulu-Natal found that these laws are often not implemented in rural Zulu-speaking communities. She explains how this prejudices widows in particular.

When a Zulu woman’s husband dies, she is relegated to sitting quietly on a mattress in the corner of a room while other people are allowed to help themselves to her late spouse’s land and other possessions.

• More than 2,000 communal landholdings known as ejidos, and communities, have organized themselves to carry out sustainable management of forests in their territory.
• In states such as Oaxaca, Michoacán, Durango, Chihuahua and Quintana Roo there are examples of communities that have managed to conserve forests and their biodiversity, while generating jobs and other benefits for the population.
• Mining, organized crime, illegal timber trafficking, and the tax regime are just some of the challenges facing community forest management in Mexico.

We spoke to employees and workers about progress made in equal gender opportunities, as well as the greatest obstacles and challenges identified on the road to gender equality.

HAVANA TIMES – The first gender-focused strategy implemented by the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture raised female participation within a key sector for the economy and food security, although there are still great gaps and firmly-rooted stereotypes.

In a ground-breaking asylum case, a UN human rights body has ruled that governments must take into account the human rights violations caused by the climate crisis when considering deportation of asylum seekers, said Amnesty International today. 

While more than 75 per cent of Uganda’s population is engaged in agriculture as their main form of livelihood, they have limited access to credit due to lack of authentic land documents to be used as collateral. And yet access to credit is fundamental to start and boost any agricultural activity (cover cost of planting, weeding and harvesting; invest in improved planting materials).

PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby Plantation Investment (Liberia) Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP), has fully disposed of Sime Darby Plantation (Liberia) Inc.

The disposal of 100% equity interest to Mano Palm Oil Industries Ltd was completed on Wednesday for a cash consideration of US$1, plus an earn-out payment to be determined by the average future crude palm oil (CPO) price and future CPO production of SDP Liberia in 2022.

The earn-out consideration will be payable quarterly over a period of eight years, commencing from April 2023.

A government plan to use common land for industrial development in the Punjab could deny land rights to Dalits, say activists

BANGKOK, Jan 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Protests have flared in the Indian state of Punjab over a government plan to use common land for industrial development, a move that activists and analysts said on Friday would deny lower-caste Dalits their land rights.

Ecuador is planning to sell a bond worth $400 million to fund the country's social housing project

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador is planning to sell a bond worth $400 million to fund the country's social housing project, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the government attempts to revive its economy with investments in the construction sector.

The bond will be backed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

• The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated group of mountains situated along Colombia’s northern coast, which has the unique distinction of harboring more threatened endemic species than anywhere else in the world.
• Agricultural expansion has come at the expense of vital habitat over the past several decades. Now, resource exploitation and infrastructure projects planned for the region are further threatening the mountains’ ecosystems, according to scientists and local activists.