A DEADLY RING OF COAL: VALE’s poisoned gift to Mozambique
15 years ago, when the Mozambican government signed the contract with VALE, almost everybody in Mozambique believed that coal would develop the country. This investigation exposes part of the destruction that VALE Moçambique is preparing to leave behind now that it has announced an agreement to sell its projects to Vulcan Minerals for US $270 million.
Cobalt miners call out 'neocolonialism' as firms avoid accountability
Lawyers in the Congo provide a rare look at the workers extracting a metal critical to the battery business
Africa’s ‘Great Green Wall’ could have far-reaching climate effects
Africa’s “Great Green Wall” initiative is a proposed 8,000-kilometer line of trees meant to hold back the Sahara from expanding southward. New climate simulations looking to both the region’s past and future suggest this greening could have a profound effect on the climate of northern Africa, and even beyond.
Call for Papers: Rethinking Expropriation Law
The Expropriation Expert Group, founded in 2013 as a collaborative effort of the universities of Cape Town, Groningen, and Nijmegen, is inviting original and innovative contributions to our sixth international conference and the fourth part of our Rethinking Expropriation Law series. We are returning to our roots, Groningen in the Netherlands, the place of our first conference, to continue the stimulating intellectual exchange on expropriation law at our previous conferences.
‘Forests will disappear again,’ activists warn as Indonesia ends plantation freeze
- With the Indonesian government refusing to renew a three-year ban on issuing licenses for new oil palm plantations, experts are warning of a deforestation free-for-all.
- The end of the moratorium means companies can once again apply to develop new plantations, including clearing forests to do.
- This coincides with a rally in the crude palm oil price due to tightening supply, which activists say portends a possible surge in deforestation.
- According to one analysis, rainforests spanning an area half the size of California, or 21 mil
“Boosting local capacity to manage land conflicts and protect customary rights” – Introducing the LAND-at-scale project in Mali
The Netherlands Agency for Enterprise and Development (RVO) is pleased to announce its collaboration with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (EKN) in Bamako, SNV, the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako and the National Coordination of Peasant Organizations for implementation of a LAND-at-scale project in Mali "Strengthening local capacities to manage land conflicts and protect customary rights". The intervention will run until 2023 and has a budget of €1.3 million.
Land ownership in South Africa remains a contentious issue — while calls for redistribution grow louder
The fundamental redistributive and transformative character of the Constitution — and how politicians, policymakers and legislators have ignored this — was a key thread at the Social Justice Summit and preceding international conference on economic equality and the rule of law hosted by Stellenbosch University Law Trust Chair in Social Justice, Thuli Madonsela.
In a warming world, deforestation turns the heat deadly, Borneo study finds
- New research identifies how rising localized temperatures driven by deforestation and global warming are increasing heat-related deaths and creating unsafe working conditions in Indonesia.
- In the Bornean district of Berau, 4,375 square kilometers (1,689 square miles) of forest were cleared between 2002 and 2018, contributing to a 0.95°C (1.71°F) increase in mean daily temperature across the district, according to the study.
- It concluded climate change temperature increases in the region caused an 8% rise in mortality rates in 2018, or more
Contested Territory: The Climate Crisis and Land Ownership
Architecture, by its very definition, involves the construction of structures. Structures that are meant to serve as spaces for work, living, religious devotion, amongst many other purposes. Architectural projects and interventions, however, need land – and it is this intrinsic relationship, between land and architecture, that has massive ramifications not only regarding reducing carbon emissions but more importantly in forming an equitable future rooted in climate justice.
Climate Migration in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, one in every seven people will be displaced due to climate change by the end of 2050, according to recent estimation. Sea level rise may cause the displacement of up to 18 million people of Bangladesh. Natural disasters are another reason for displacement where 700,000 people on average migrate every year according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre. In 2009, cyclone Aila displaced millions of people and many agricultural lands submerged with saline water.