News on Land

Indigenous battles to defend nature have taken to the streets, leading to powerful mobilizations like the gathering at Standing Rock. They have also taken to the courts, through the development of innovative legal ways of protecting nature. In Ecuador, Bolivia and New Zealand, indigenous activism has helped spur the creation of a novel legal phenomenon -- the idea that nature itself can have rights.

Residents were attacked by police forces Monday in order to evict them in Guahory, in the department of Caaguazu.

Responding to the urgent request of Paraguayan campesinos, who were violently evicted from their land, Paraguay's Permanent Legislative Commission held a meeting with the National Institute of Rural and Land Development, INDRT, director Justo Cardenas to try to resolve the issue.

By: Kathryn Bryant

Date: June 10th 2016

Source: FoodTank

By: Melany Grout

Date: 28 June 2016

Source: News Deeply

More than 400 million women around the globe are farmers, but many have no rights to the land they till. Securing those rights is crucial if the world wants to reach its development goals, writes land tenure specialist Melany Grout.

THE DESIGNATION by incoming President Rodrigo Duterte of Rafael “Ka Paeng” Mariano as his secretary of agrarian reform is welcome news for the Filipino peasantry, farmworkers and the rural poor. Mariano, born into a poor peasant family in Nueva Ecija, is chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and former Anakpawis party-list representative.

The bulk of Cambodia’s economic land concessions (ELCs) – at the centre of numerous land disputes and human rights concerns over the past two decades – generated just $5 million for state coffers last year, with critics attributing the meagre returns to a lack of collection capacity as well as simple corruption.

The pacific island of Papua New Guinea is one of the world's most resource rich countries, hosting nearly 7 percent of global biodiversity and important reserves of gold, copper and hydrocarbons.

By: Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava

Hindustan Times, New Delhi

Updated: Dec 12, 2015 

India witnessed an impressive surge in the number of women owning or managing agricultural land in 2001-11 with landholdings under them registering a faster growth in this period than the ones controlled by men, shows a World Bank-backed study that points to improved gender equity in land rights. 

Together with ICLEI President Park Wonsoon (Mayor of Seoul), ICLEI First Vice President James Nxumalo (Mayor of Durban) and ICLEI Secretary General Gino Van Begin, 100 mayors from around the world were onstage at today´s ICLEI World Congress 2015 Opening Plenary to adopt the Seoul Declaration. 

Source: iied

By Eric Yeboah

Land rights play a crucial role in agricultural development and inclusive growth, but in many countries in Africa, women lose out from patriarchal legal and cultural traditions. How can these practices be changed to benefit everyone?

More than 1 million hectares of forest terrain and land leased by private companies has been put under government control since Prime Minister Hun Sen initiated a moratorium on new economic land concessions (ELCs) in May 2012, the Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction has claimed.

The statement, signed on October 13 and obtained by the Post yesterday, also states that 3.6 million land titles have been issued since the May 2012 order began a process of land demarcation.

PepsiCo has joined fellow beverage corporation the Coca-Cola Company in giving its official support to a set of global guidelines that protect the rights of poor and vulnerable people to land, livelihoods and food security.