News on Land

“It is high time to recognize and strengthen indigenous peoples’ own forms of governance and representation," the U.N. experts stressed.

Human rights advocates and specialist bodies at the United Nations have demanded an end to the discrimination, exclusion and lack of protections for Indigenous peoples around the globe.

This call comes ahead of the tenth annual International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which will take place Wednesday.

Rebels imposed environmental rules remote rainforest regions, government struggling to fill power vacuum

Bauxite has played a role more critical than perhaps any other bit of dirt in the modern land rights struggle.

The 1963 Yirrkala bark petit­ions protesting an Arnhem Land deal to mine the ore used to make aluminium arguably kicked off the drive to legally reclaim indig­enous property.

It was to be a profound matter not merely of ownership, but of deep cultural identity; of connection to country.

Deadline: 

11/08/2017

Region: 

Africa

The next  inclusive nomination session for funding from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation opened online on  July 3 2017  and will end on August 11 2017.

NAIROBI, KENYA: In 2014, for the first time, Sio-Siteko trans-boundary wetland was selected as venue for commemorating World Wetlands Day in Kenya. The event successfully raised the conservation profile among stakeholders at all levels of the value and the need to conserve the steadily degrading wetland. Speeches were read, and grand plans elaborated on how the wetland would be restored. The most memorable was a statement by Busia County Government that read in part, “the county was cognisant of the opportunities lost through wetland degeneration and had embarked on a long-term strategy to promote their protection. It was observed that, among others, the strategy would achieve sustainable management of fisheries in Sio-Siteko wetland to increase food production, alleviate poverty, mitigate adverse effects of water pollution, reduce water borne diseases, resolve conflicts and create a harmonious environment that promotes cross border trade. To this moment, the local community is patiently waiting for the strategy to be implemented.

NAGAPATTINAM, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Last year farmer Veeramani leased a modest plot of land from his village temple in southern India to grow rice. He borrowed 40,000 rupees ($625) to prepare the field before the rains.

Then the rains failed. Veeramani, 31, was so distressed he suffered a massive heart attack on his field and died, leaving behind his wife, Kavita, and two young daughters. He also left a sizeable debt that Kavita was not aware of.

Odenda Lumbumba of Kenya Land Alliance says that Kenya's drought is not just the result of climate change - it's also the result of failed public policy.

Burned-out homes in this dry landscape have become a symbol of the tensions around Tuesday's presidential election as Kenyans prepare for the possibility of yet more deadly violence.

For more than a year now, farms and homes in Laikipia County have been under siege.

The National Land Commission has revoked title deeds held 32 schools le deeds held by private developers laying claim on their land.

Through a gazette notice, National Lands Commission chair Muhammad Swazuri revoked 1,100 titles deeds safeguarding 32 public schools and institutions whose lands hand been grabbed.

Lavington Primary in Nairobi whose land had been grabbed by the Kensom Holdings was among the beneficiaries.

Indigenous community leader Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma came down heavily on the government saying that thousands of people from the minority communities are sinking under the high tide of country’s “so-called development”.

“The government says that high tide of development spreads across the county, but actually thousands of people of the minority communities are sinking by the so called tide,” said the president of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum.

Harare - Zimbabwean war veterans have reportedly claimed that President Robert Mugabe is improperly getting credit for the controversial land reform programme, adding that the veteran leader had "no land reform policy" during the height of the reforms.

Thousands of white commercial farmers and their employees were displaced and left without sources of income during the fast-tracked agrarian reforms that were masterminded by Mugabe's administration in 2000.

Advancing rights of women farmers can revolutionise the rural ecosystem