News on Land

The impoverished locals – who blame mining for the loss of arable land and destruction of the rural agrarian economy – want the Twickenham mine to open or forfeit mining rights.

Sekhukhune residents have given mining giant Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) until December to reopen a mine that was placed under care and maintenance six years ago or hand over its licence to the affected communities.

This is what it looks like when unregulated, illegal mining meets governance failure – a fire in a coal mine that has been burning for weeks, leaving nearby communities choking in the fumes. Perhaps most worryingly, nobody knows the extent to which fires may be burning underground.

What do noxious fumes, underserved communities, criminal coal mining rackets, governance failures and one of the largest corporate thermal coal producers and exporters in South Africa have in common? 

In less than a month, Nelson Mandela Bay will become the first South African metro to run out of water. In an appeal and warning that is almost unimaginable, the metro’s water chief has called for prayers as the disaster moves closer, confirming that water for drinking, washing, flushing toilets and fighting fires will be severely limited. He further cautioned that drinking water may be unsafe and called on people to pray for rain.

• Several tribal settlements are spread across Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region, each with its own communally managed forest that residents can use.
• But the unchecked exploitation of the once-rich forests, a consequence of population growth, has led to local water holes drying up, forcing many residents to leave the villages.
• In one village, however, residents started an initiative with various programs aimed at conserving their forest and providing funding for alternative livelihoods to reduce members’ reliance on forest resources.

“When war is waged, people go hungry,” Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday during a debate on conflict and food security chaired by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

• The Democratic Republic of Congo is putting 16 oil exploration blocks up for auction, including nine in the peatlands of the Cuvette Centrale.
• Environmentalists warn that oil exploration and infrastructure for production could release huge amounts of carbon stored in the peatland and threaten the rights of local communities.
• The Congolese government says it needs to exploit its natural resources in order to generate income to develop the country, much as countries in other parts of the world have done before it.

Last month, the

Some local Tibetans say they are worried about Chinese soldiers in their area.

(Main photo: A view of Pangong Lake on the border with India and China, April 24, 2022.)

A bridge being built by China across Pangong Lake in a disputed section of northwest India could further inflame tensions between the two countries, experts on the border dispute said.

10 years ago today, on 11 May 2012, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) endorsed its Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security

Humanity is “at a crossroads” when it comes to managing drought and accelerating mitigation must be done “urgently, using every tool we can,” says a new report from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

April and May 2022 will be remembered as the most important months in the post-independence era. During this short period the much hoped for people’s awakening expressed itself powerfully. People who wielded authority failed to see the writing on the wall although the wall was just next to the Presidential Secretariat and everywhere in the country. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa thought he was merely seeing ghosts. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa believed in the comforting words of his friends despite knowing that the treasury was empty.