Khamdang-Ramjar Member of Parliament (MP) Kuenga Loday has been sentenced to five years in prison by the Trashiyangtse dzongkhag court yesterday for illegal construction of a road in a restricted area.

The court also sentenced his brother, the Khamdang Mangmi, Sangay Tempa to four years and three months in prison for his involvement.

The other four men,  three are Mangmi’s sons, were also convicted for their involvement in the case and sentenced to three years and nine months each in prison.

The inside story of Sun Guangxin’s plan for a wind farm in the Lone Star state and how it incurred the wrath of U.S. lawmakers and environmentalists, becoming a flashpoint in U.S.-China relations.

The global thirst for palm oil has never been more ravenous. Caught between it and a multigenerational war on Thailand’s poor are the farmers of the Southern Peasants’ Federation, who simply want a piece of land to call their own.

Main photo: Palm tree jungles and the mountains of Surat Thani Province in southern Thailand.

Many look beyond the city for land

Short of money to renovate her ancestral house in Punakha, a villager in Babesa sold 50 decimals of her wetland. With Nu 3,000 a decimal, it was a good deal in 1996 when construction  on wet land was not allowed. The land, which a Thimphu hotelier bought then had become a prime area today. Price for a decimal has reached Nu 1.5 million (M).

When a small group of armed insurgents in cars arrived in a village in the Wakhan Corridor, it put a sharp focus on Beijing’s role in this nation shattered by more than four decades of war.

Main photo: A Kyrgyz family in the Wakhan Corridor, a narrow strip of land that connects Afghanistan to China. CREDIT: MARTA PASCUAL JUANOLA

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Angola and IFAD to promote sustainable agriculture and boost food security in the face of climate change

The International Fund for Agricultural Development of the United Nations (IFAD) today announced support for a new project to boost agricultural productivity, improve food and nutrition security and build the resilience of at least 218,000 rural families in Angola who are vulnerable to climate shocks.

Dar es Salaam.  In his recently delivered Budget Speech, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development (MLHHSD) reiterated that his ministry was responsible for the housing docket in national development, handling the task of promoting and enabling the construction of quality housing. Looking forward to the next five years, the minister told Parliament that the ministry would focus on strengthening investment in the construction of low cost housing.

Land grabs facilitated by multinational corporations, foreign investors and local governments in a pursuit for agribusiness have been escalating during the last decade. Huge acquisitions of farmland have led to violent displacements of rural populations. Although reports of the practice are not as recurrent in the media, the problem is far from over.

Introduction

In May 2021 the Land Portal conducted its fourth Annual Visitor Survey (AVS). The AVS is an important tool to assess impact, track progress and engage with the community, measuring the level of trust across visitors and partners, assessing the alignment with the current strategy, and identifying areas of improvement. With over 380 respondents from 80 different countries, this round of the Annual Survey provided plenty of results, insights, and ideas. The main points are summarised below.

Key Results

Dar es Salaam. Land acquisition by investors is said to be one of the major causes of land disputes in Tanzania - especially when locals are not involved in the processes.

Some leaders at the village level offer lands to prospective investors without getting approval from village authorities in accordance with the Village Land Act of 1999.

This, to a large extent, has been sparking land disputes, which normally result in stagnation of investment in the area and at times leading to violation of human rights.

Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo is entangled in a Sh4.5 billion bribery court row with investors behind the Tatu City real estate project.

The investors have accused Mr Kabogo of illegally holding onto five title deeds as part of a ploy to blackmail them into ceding a five percent stake in a section of the multibillion-shilling project.

Kiryandongo – Uganda – As natives continue to resist illegal evictions, multinational companies opt to hire livestock as a new tactic to forcefully evict smallholder farmers from their land.