Four years ago, Phu Thap Boek -- a popular mountainous attraction in Phetchabun province -- became synonymous with the success of the military regime in reclaiming forest land, or the Tuang Kuen Phuen Pa campaign when the state took back forest land from illegal occupants.

The people of Walewale in the Northern Region are demanding answers as to why lands allocated for a Watermelon Processing Factory and a 100-bed capacity hospital have now been turned into a maize farm.

On December 16, 2019, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia while on an official visit to his hometown Walewale, cut the sod for works to begin on the construction of 2 major projects: a Watermelon Processing factory and a 100-Bed hospital.

• Conflict over how best to protect the biodiversity of Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region may be contributing to the rapid loss of its forest cover.
• Habitats of globally threatened species, including the critically endangered Gurney’s pitta and recently discovered geckos, face destruction due to logging, agriculture and other human pressures.
• Researchers fear that entire species may be driven to extinction without ever being documented if habitats aren’t protected fast.

(main photo: Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari says the factory building will be demolished within the next few months)

KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor government will instruct the factory responsible for the pollution of Sungai Selangor, which led to water disruptions to over 1.2 million people in the Klang Valley, to vacate the land it occupies.

At a press conference, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari said the factory in the Sungai Gong Industrial Area in Rawang had already been closed.

• Greenpeace Southeast Asia has identified nearly 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of peatland clearing in pulpwood plantations in Sumatra supplying Asian Pulp & Paper.
• Analysis of satellite imagery showed the clearing began in August 2018 and continued through June this year, despite APP having a “no peatland” and “no burning” policy that it also imposes on its suppliers.
• Greenpeace and local NGO Jikalahari also found evidence of fires in the concessions in question, which appeared to have been set deliberately to clear the land for planting.

August 31, 2020 (Ezega.com) -- The Addis Ababa City Administration has faced allegations that it permitted land grabbing and illegally transferred condominium houses in a politically motivated decision.

In a briefing on Monday, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (ECSJ) said thousands of square meters of land have been taken illegally over the past months.

Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (ECSJ) said the land grabbing and illegal transfer of the condominiums have reached a “critical level” based on a study it conducted on the matter.

The efficiency of the one day land title transfer registration had contributed to the country's position in the 'Registering Property' indicator evaluated by the World Bank's 'Doing Business' report.

The Federal Territories Director of Lands and Mines Office (PPTGWP) said Malaysia is ranked a creditable 33rd out of the 190 economies for 2020 in the report.

(Business in Cameroon) - On August 14, 2020, Ousmanou Biri, the regional president of the association for the cultural development of Cameroonian Mbororos - a community of sheep-breeding nomads well known in Cameroon- sent correspondence to the Minister of Land Affairs  Henri Eyébé Ayissi. In his correspondence, Ousmanou Biri denounced the temporary concession of 100,000 hectares of land in Tignère (department of Faro et Déo) to an investor who wants to use the lands for a livestock project.

(Main photo: a surveyor sits on a construction site in Ningbo, China, on April 26, 2020. Local governments have long offered firms connected to China’s political elite land sale discounts. Photo: Bloomberg)

• Gulzhan Musaeva, an independent financial analyst writes about CIMB’s sustainability commitments. CIMB is Malaysia’s second largest bank and a major leader to regional plantation companies.
• Musaeva argues that CIMB’s reluctance to address the issues associated with forest sector borrowers head-on casts doubt on its sustainability aspirations.
• “This means that, despite massive exposure to forest-risk sectors,” writes Musaeva, “CIMB, among other Malaysian banks, willfully overlooks its impact on SDG 15 ‘Life on Land’ through financing activities.

A Prominent leader of thought in the Niger Delta region, and President-General of the Urhobo Progress Union (UPU), Dr. Moses Taiga, has dismissed hope of a positive outcome of the ongoing probe of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the National Assembly. In this interview, he described the drama occasioned by the exercise as a reflection of the bane of leadership crippling the agency, blaming the successive administrations for their wrong appointments.