News on Land

Forests and grasslands would store more carbon if communities’ rights were protected, according to research from the leading climate economist

By: PTI

Date: March 19th 2016

Source: The Economic Times

NEW YORK: Highlighting the challenges faced by women farmers in India, a group of Indian NGOs has called for putting in place strong policies to ensure land rights for them and stressed the need for customised financial products including easy loans and capital availability to support them. 

" The government arrested more than twice as many land rights ac­tiv­ists and handed out dozens more economic land concessions (ELCs) in 2012 compared to the year before, new figures released by NGOs on Wednesday show. (...)"

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By: Elias Glenn and Kevin Yao

Date: November 3rd 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

China has relaxed rules to allow farmers to transfer their land rights to help promote more efficient, large-scale farms, amid an exodus of farm workers to the cities.

By: Rhett Butler

Date: March 28th 2016

Source: Mongabay

• The controversial Baram dam has been officially canceled after years of opposition from local indigenous people.

What are the impacts of different types of large farming developments in Africa? On her blog, Rebecca Smalley explains the highlights from a literature review from the project Land and Commercialisation in Africa (LACA).

By: Michael Harris 

Date: 9 November 2016

Source: Hydroworld.com

An announcement made this week by Mexico's Comision Reguladora de Energia could provide hydroelectric developers with an easier means of settling land use conflicts.

By: Mugabo Ignatius
Date: April 6th 2016
Source: News of Rwanda

The World Bank has extended a credit financing worth U$95 million to Rwanda the development of the country’s six secondary cities that are under the urbanization strategy.

According to the agreement penned on Wednesday, the funds will go towards supporting the development of infrastructure and local economic activities in the six secondary cities.

The Belize government has issued permits to US Capital Energy and is allowing the company to proceed with oil development activities on Maya land, despite the fact that the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and even Belize’s own Supreme Court

Goma, 23 November 2016 – UN-Habitat, in close collaboration with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has launched a USD 12 million land programme that seeks to promote peace and stability.

By: Anne Kidmose Jensen

Date: April 19th 2016

Source: AllAfrica.com / The Citizen

Dar es Salaam — Human Rights Watch has urged the government to 'immediately' amend provisions of the inheritance law, saying it violates the rights of women.

Under the existing laws, women are often left with nothing when their husbands die and coerced to leave their land, which is against international agreements on women's rights.