News on Land

From 'smart tractors' to better land rights, farmers need different ways to adapt

The effects of climate change are already being felt across the agricultural sector. Drought has left India’s farmlands crippled. Prolonged flooding has left many U.S. farmers in the Midwest unable to plant their crops. Elsewhere, cyclones in the spring decimated Mozambique’s fields and left millions without food. 

Soaring temperatures and a long delay to the start of the monsoon season are behind some of the most severe water shortages in New Delhi's history – and the water scarcity is even leading to violence.

The shortages and rising prices for this precious commodity mean that the Indian capital's residents are easy prey to criminal gangs, known as the ‘water mafia’, who are attempting to fill the gap in supplies. 

Fights are breaking out when the tankers reach parched neighbourhoods as residents are desperate to get the first drops.

Rights enforcement must be strengthened for forest landscape restoration efforts to succeed, said Steven Lawry during a webinar presentation hosted by the global forest team at GIZ, Germany’s development agency.

Lawry,  a principal scientist with the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), presented findings on the role of tenure security in the adoption of forest landscape restoration practices.

Recent court rulings have underlined the complexity of India's numerous land laws, which have sparked conflicts and made it harder for poor farmers and indigenous people to access justice, analysts and lawyers said.

Last week, the Supreme Court of India ruled that indigenous people in Meghalaya owned their land and its resources, and that only they could permit mining, after years of illegal mining devastated the environment and their livelihoods.

Hundreds of Venezuelan campesinos shook the country's political landscape in July 2018 when they embarked on an 'admirable' march of over 400 kilometers, on foot, to draw attention to the issues they face in the countryside and demand a meeting with President Maduro. A meeting did take place, with Maduro expressly ordering their concerns be addressed. Working groups were subsequently set up with the vice president's office, but the impetus quickly faded.

The Land Rights Act (LRA), which was passed into law in 2018 by members of the 54th Legislature, will serve as an impetus that will holistically empower women across the country, Cecelia Kuetee, a resident of Nimba County, has said.

Madam Kuetee expressed the hope to see a society where women, who she said have been marginalized, will be empowered, especially with unhindered access to land.

She recently gained access to her father’s land and cocoa farm, but said a robust awareness exercise of the LRA and supporting organizations remain pivotal to achieving her goal.

The Land Rights Act (LRA), which was passed into law in 2018 by members of the 54th Legislature, will serve as an impetus that will holistically empower women across the country, Cecelia Kuetee, a resident of Nimba County, has said.

Madam Kuetee expressed the hope to see a society where women, who she said have been marginalized, will be empowered, especially with unhindered access to land.

She recently gained access to her father’s land and cocoa farm, but said a robust awareness exercise of the LRA and supporting organizations remain pivotal to achieving her goal.

• After defeating a plan to turn much of the Aru Islands into a series of giant sugar plantations, indigenous people in the eastern Indonesian archipelago are mulling how to raise their standard of living without sacrificing their rich environment.
• Time may be short: Indonesia’s minister of agriculture appears to be pushing another corporate-backed agribusiness plan in Aru involving Andi Syamsuddin Arsyad, an up-and-coming tycoon better known as Haji Isam.

Somali women are challenging social norms and navigating male-dominated property market in hope that, one day, they will have security that comes with owning a place of their own

OHANNESBURG, July 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the hallway of a large, brick-face apartment block in Johannesburg, Halima Jawahir greets her tenants, a group of six Somali women drying their henna-painted hands in the sunlight streaming through the windows.

The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) held in Bonn, Germany, aimed to rally behind a new approach to achieving a future that is more inclusive and sustainable than the present—through the establishment of secure and proper rights for all.

On June 22 and 23, experts, political leaders, nongovernment organizations, and indigenous peoples and communities gathered to deliberate on a methodology that emphasizes on rights for indigenous peoples and local communities in the management and perseveration of landscapes.

Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local chapter of Transparency International (TI) is asking  the government to speed up the passage of the land bill into law.

The bill, which was first introduced in Parliament in 2018 but was later withdrawn, would be tabled again before the House this year.

It seeks to consolidate and harmonise in one simplified form, about 166 existing laws relating to land, to regulate land use and enhance effective land management in the country.