News on Land

King Goodwill Zwelithini recently surrounded himself with amabutho and intimated that violence or secession would follow unless threats to ‘the land of the Zulu nation’ were withdrawn. The President hurriedly assured him that his land was safe.

It is important to separate the theatre from the substance.

A new study makes a significant contribution to the growing body of research showing that recognizing the land rights of and partnering with indigenous peoples can greatly benefit conservation efforts.

The government should promptly provide redress for past illegal confiscations of land and stop arbitrarily arresting activists, New York-headquartered Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released this afternoon. The NGO also called on Nay Pyi Taw to enact laws and regulations to safeguard the rights of farmers and other small landholders from future confiscations.

In January 2016, a decade after the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by Parliament, 60 gram sabhas in Khutgaon, Gadchiroli, became the first forest-dwelling people in Maharashtra to file a claim for habitat rights. These people are part of a community called Madia Gond, classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG). Almost three years since their claims were submitted, since also approved by the authorised body, they are yet to receive their legal titles.

In the hills of northern Sikkim in northeast India, the Drokpa community live peaceful yet difficult lives. The hills resound with the songs the Drokpas have for every activity. These are not your usual villagers who reside in the same place for decades and have a set source of livelihood. Rather, the Drokpas, as their name suggests are nomads—“drokpa” is a Tibetan word that can be roughly translated as “nomad” or “high pastoral people”. For the last several generations, however, the Drokpas have followed an occupation that might soon disappear from Sikkim: herding yak.

The Land Portal is an independent nonprofit foundation based in The Netherlands. The Land Portal pioneered the open data revolution in the land sector and is committed to building an information ecosystem for land governance that ultimately supports better informed decision and policy making at local, national and international levels.

It has been six decades since communities in the Malenadu region were uprooted in the name of progress and development. They are still fighting for basic amenities in the villages where they have been resettled.

It was in 1905 when renowned engineer Sir M. Vishveshwaraya saw the roaring torrents of Jog, the second highest plunge waterfalls in India, and exclaimed: “What a waste!” It was his visionary imagination which first seeded the idea of harnessing hydel power from River Sharavathi, considered a lifeline by many in the Malenadu region of Karnataka.  

MIRI: The Society for Rights of Indigenous People of Sarawak (Scrips) plans to stage street protests at various locations if the state assembly approves a proposed amendment to the Sarawak Land Code.

Scrips secretary-general Michael Jok said the Sarawak Land Code (Amendment) Bill must not be approved.

“The Bill will erode the rights of the natives with regards to their control over the use of our communal territories called Pemakai Menoa and Pulau Galau,” he told StarMetro after a meeting with native rights lawyers.

Mexico, one of Latin America’s big economic power houses, held presidential elections on 1 July 2018. The newly elected president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was elected with 53% of the national vote for his left-wing progressive agenda, defeating the party of the outgoing president, Mr Peña Nieto. López Obrador promised the country’s indigenous peoples significant change, including recognition of land rights. Only time will tell whether his promises will turn reality.

BOGOTA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos spoke out on Monday to condemn the nation’s soaring violence against human rights leaders amid growing pressure that the government act more forcefully to end the bloodshed.

Activists are being gunned down at a rate of one every three days in the Latin American country, rights groups say, and last Friday thousands of Colombians held protests and candlelight vigils to call for the killings to stop.

Deadline:  13/07/2018

The Land and GLTN Unit, located within the Urban Legislation, Land and Governance (ULLG) Branch of UN-Habitat, has the objective to develop, test and disseminate pro-poor and gender responsive tools and approaches regarding land, innovative residential tenures, affordable land management/administration systems, and land related regulatory/legal frameworks and tools.

Lands Minister Jean Kapata has said that her Ministry is still waiting to hear recommendations from the Traditional leaders on National Land Policy.

Ms. Kapata said that the Traditional leaders held an indaba to further analyze the draft land policy and come up with recommendations to submit to government for consideration.

She has told media that her ministry will not give traditional leaders a time frame but will wait to hear from them once they are done analyzing the draft National Land Policy.