News on Land

Illegal logging and the encroachment of agriculture on the jungle, are the main drivers of the deforestation

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The destruction of Brazil's Amazon rainforest reached its highest level in a decade this year, government data released on Friday showed, driven by illegal logging and the encroachment of agriculture on the jungle.

Indisputably, the SDGs cannot be reached if women – half of the world’s population – are left behind. Achieving gender equality implies, inter alia, giving women equal access to and control over resources to enable them to equally benefit from sustainable development. If the SDGs are to make a real difference for gender equality, however, the global vision they enshrine will have to be realized at the local level. This article provides an example of what such processes of localizing the SDGs can look like.

The community of Xolobeni, Wild Coast, won a historic battle on Thursday against an Australian company’s attempts to mine the area. The judgment further strengthens communities’ right to decide what happens on their land. 

Thursday would have been a proud day for Sikhosiphi “Bazooka” Rhadebe. The Amadiba Crisis Committee (ACC) chairman spent years fighting against attempts by Australian mining company Mineral Commodities Limited (MRC) to mine titanium in Xolobeni, on the Eastern Cape’s Wild Coast, before he was murdered outside his home in March 2016.

The farmers had threatened to withhold their votes if they did not get land in their names.

The Maharashtra government on Thursday agreed to reassess at least 7,000 claims for land rights to be made out to farmers under the Forest Rights Act, hours after around 20,000 farmers reached Azad Maidan in South Mumbai, a rally organiser said. The protestors, most of them Adivasis, had walked to the city from the adjoining district of Thane over two days.

Bogota, 22 November 2018 – In an unprecedented and historic show of unity, leaders from every major faith tradition today joined indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombian communities, climate scientists, and NGOs in pledging to defend the Amazon and end deforestation.

• The Yawuru people’s ancestral lands lie in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, Australia’s largest state.
• Over the Yawuru people’s strong objections, the Australian company Buru Energy has installed two shale-gas fracking wells on Yawuru land.
• Although the wells are currently inactive due to a state-wide moratorium on fracking, the moratorium could be lifted pending the results of an independent scientific inquiry due by the end of the year.

Drones do not just map households faster, cheaper and accurately, but the maps provide a strong visual template of engagement for communities

What is already a bad situation for land defenders and human rights activists could be getting worse

QUITO, ECUADOR — Thousands of activists and indigenous leaders have gathered in Quito after a 10-day march across Ecuador in defense of water and land rights. An estimated 2,000 people joined in towns and cities along the route, which began in Tundayme in the Amazonian province of Napo on November 4 and finished in the capital on November 14. Organized by ECUARUNARI (Confederación de la Nacionalidad Kichwa del Ecuador), the 890-kilometer march (equivalent to 553 miles) was a protest against mining and hydroelectric projects participants said are decimating Ecuador’s forests

The West Bengal Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a Bill to give land rights to enclave dwellers in north Bengal, ending an era of uncertain future for the people residing in those enclaves.

The West Bengal Assembly on Monday unanimously passed a Bill to give land rights to enclave dwellers in north Bengal, ending an era of uncertain future for the people residing in those enclaves.

Bangladesh and India had exchanged a total of 162 enclaves on August 1, 2015, ending one of the world’s most-complex border disputes that had lingered for seven decades since Independence.

The Government of Liberia (GoL) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and development partners have expressed commitment to implementing two major land tenure regulations, which include the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance (VGGT) on the Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forest and the Land Rights Act (LRA) process.

The government and partners have henceforth, instituted the land tenure regulations to enhance food security, and to ensure land access for many of the citizens.

There is need to broaden the debate on finding solutions for water crisis

Water scarcity has been figuring prominently in the national discourse now. It has initiated a debate on water issues in the country that is a welcome development. The spectrum of debate ranges from building more dams and their feasibility, water conservation, and better water management.