BAN SABWAI, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For three generations, the family of Suwit Rattanachaisi has farmed a plot of land in a forest in northeastern Thailand’s Chaiyaphum province, growing cassava and maize while living in a modest home a few miles away.

The forest was declared a national park in 1992, and under a forest reclamation law passed in 2014, Suwit and dozens of other farmers from Ban Sabwai village were evicted.

With no other means to make a living, many returned to the Sai Thong National Park.

• Experts have warned that a controversial deregulation act will serve as a springboard for greater corruption in Indonesia’s forestry sector.
• They say a pervasive lack of transparency will allow companies such as plantation operators to whitewash their illegal occupation of forests or take control of larger swaths of land than permitted, among other risks.
• The experts have called for greater transparency, especially on the beneficial ownership of companies, and more detailed guidelines on how to implement the deregulation law.

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The Congo Basin contains the world's second-largest rainforest, crucial for regulating the world's climate. Inside it, a plan to halt the forest's decline is bearing fruit.

With a gentle tug of his left hand, Patrick Wasa-Nziabo eases dozens of kernels from a sun-dried cob and into a large plastic bucket brimming with lemon-yellow corn at his bare feet.

The Land Portal Foundation’s launches the China Country Portfolio - a knowledge piece with a comprehensive understanding of the country’s land issues. Hit by COVID-19 a year ago, China is ever more pressed to adapt land usage rights to protect food sovereignty while also stimulating investment.

Resort operators in Wang Nam Khieo district in Nakhon Ratchasima province, a popular holiday spot where several resorts face charges of encroaching upon public forest land, have welcomed Deputy Agricultural Minister Thamanat Prompow's proposal to let them rent Sor Por Kor land plots.

The operators said the policy will create jobs for local people and help the tourism industry.

For decades, deforestation in Georgia has been putting the livelihoods of communities at risk. It has not only led to an increase in the impact of natural disasters, but has also deprived communities of clean running water.

On May 22, the Georgian Parliament endorsed the amendments to the Forest Code of Georgia with its third reading with 79 votes in favor and none against – amid strong criticism voiced by the civil society organizations.  

The Hadzabe people of northern Tanzania are one of the world’s oldest communities. Living at the base of the Rift Valley, believed to be the origin of human species, the Hadzabe live as they always have.

For tens of thousands of years, the Hadzabe have hunted and gathered food in their forests. There has never been a single account of famine.

BAGAYO PETRO, Hadzabe, Yaeda Valley, Tanzania

Their claims were rejected, raising concerns whether due process was followed

The recent Amazon wildfires brought everyone to a choking standstill as the world’s largest tropical rainforest and the lungs of our planet were going up in flames. Environmentalists blamed the far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who pushed for development of the protected land reserves and is against environmental fines. Speculation is rife that the fires started with a deliberate attempt by loggers and farmers to clear the forests.

Branching off the state highway that cuts through the Bandipur Tiger reserve is a single-lane road that leads to a cluster of villages which fall under the Mangala gram panchayat. Mangala is located on the northern fringes of the tiger reserve and more than 15 villages are part of this gram panchayat. Many of these are Adivasi settlements, where people belonging to the Soliga, Jenu Kuruba and Betta Kuruba tribes live.

Monrovia – The Land Rights Law (LRL) is a milestone legal instrument, but if “gaps” within the law are not bridged and its “contradictions” to the Community Rights Law (CRL) of 2009 with Respect to Forest Lands not addressed, the law could undermine Liberia’s land reform process.  This is according to two policy briefs by the Sustainable Development Institute (SDI) released last Thursday in Monrovia.

The Land Portal Foundation and the NRMC Center for Land Governance are partnering with key organizations to hold a series of three webinars on Forest Rights and Governance in India, Land Rights for Slum Dwellers in the East Indian State Odisha: Making technology work for the urban poor and