Concession to extract timber from 148,000 hectares in upper Baram was granted despite repeated objections from local communities.

Main photo: Communities like Long Tungan are working hard to find a way to protect their lands and save some of the most valuable carbon and biodiversity stocks we have left. Photo courtesy of The Borneo Project.

‘WOLTS Team Perspectives’ is a new series of blogs launched in February 2020 by the global WOLTS team. In this series, field team members share their views about the impacts of the project’s action-research on gender, land and mining among pastoralist communities in Tanzania and Mongolia.

Port Moresby’s suburban jumble that is Taurama Valley has been condemned as a failure and a disaster by city Governor Powes Parkop.

He said the valley, a large tract of customary land that stretches from the fringes of East Boroko to Taurama Barracks and further into Taurama Beach, which had been sold off cheaply by landowners, had seen an unprecedented boom in unplanned construction of suburban homes and businesses, and now home to tens of thousands of city residents.

CENTRAL Governor Robert Agarobe is advising villagers to use the state of emergency period to farm their land.
Agarobe called on villagers to concentrate on farming instead of travelling to town to buy sugar and rice which was also putting themselves at risk of being infected by the coronavirus.
He said eating fresh food from the garden was better than buying junk food from the shops.
“It could be a good way too for young people to learn their traditional way of living by making gardens, growing crops and storing them for later use,” he said.

For Mimi Pabai, 42, a mother of three, she can now see light at the end of the tunnel with the introduction of the EU-funded Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) project in which selected farmers in Bo District are beneficiaries. In the Faala community of the Bo District, Southern Province of Sierra Leone, where she is head of the Gualatima Women’s Cooperative, there are visible signs of the gains brought to her farming activities. “Life was hard when I lost my husband during the January 6, 1999 rebel invasion of Freetown at the climax of the 11-year civil war of Sierra Leone.  I r

The Minister of Lands and Country Planning, Dennis M. Sandy, on Thursday 6th February 2020, said the Government has intensified efforts to reclaim State land illegally occupied by encroachers. and have contributed Le 4 billion to government coffers. The Minister revealed people encroached on State land without legal documentation and built houses without a building permit from the Ministry.

In a watershed moment for land rights in Liberia and across Africa, President George Weah on Sept. 19 signed into law a land reform bill that extends land rights to millions of rural Liberians.

The Land Rights Act ensures, for the first time, that the land rights of rural Liberians are recognized, protected, and guaranteed by law – an essential ingredient for these communities to achieve secure land rights. Under the previous land tenure system, as much as 80 percent of Liberians lived without legally recognized rights to land.

The National Agricultural Land Development Authority (NALDA) says it has made plans to help 77,400 people set up farms.

According to the agency, the farmers would be drawn from across the 774 local governments areas of the country.

NALDA was created by Ibrahim Babangida, a former military ruler, in 1992 through decree No.92 but in 2000 it was abolished by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

President Muhammadu Buhari resuscitated the agency in May.

Siem Reap provincial deputy governor Ly Samrith expressed concern that land registration plans for residents scheduled to be completed by late 2021 could not be achieved because 80 per cent of the land had not been registered.

Land dispute issues are a major factor that poses a hindrance to the registration process in the province, Samrith said.