• President Rodrigo Duterte has lifted a ban on issuing licenses for new mining operations in the Philippines, marking an about-face from a previous anti-mining stance that saw him ban open-pit mining in 2017 and close or suspend 26 mining operations for environmental violations.
• The government says the industry, which contributed 0.76% to the country’s GDP in 2020, is important in resuscitating an economy bogged down by the COVID-19 pandemic, by generating revenue and jobs and contributing to Duterte’s flagship infrastructure program.
• Duterte’s pi

Hiber Sugar requested federal government intervention to resolve its dispute with the regional government of Amhara, which it accused of transferring its 6,183 hectare of land to unidentified investors and people relocated from other areas.  

Established a decade ago, Hiber has been at loggerheads with the region’s Rural Land Administration and Use Bureau for the last five years, after the Bureau revoked its license for its failure to clear the land and start operations on time.

The Ethiopian Shipping and Logistics Services announced it has finalized preparations to construct a new dry port at Kombolcha with an estimated cost of 1.5 billion Birr.

The Shipping Enterprise has been undertaking a feasibility study to relocate its existing dry port in Kombolcha town, which has been active for over a decade and build a new one that is adjacent Kombolcha Industry Park and the railway line that crosses the town.

Good land administration helps to secure property tenures. It also protects the land rights of people (including individuals, communities, and the state) through good governance principles and practices. Therefore, probing land administration practices—whether in developed or developing countries—is essential to developing tools or methods for securing natural resource rights for people, especially for the youth and women. A broad knowledge gap exists on the land/water/forest–people–health–wellbeing nexus of natural resource administration research and practice.

In Zimbabwe, the government is planning to resettle more than 180 farmers displaced by the Causeway Dam in Machiki. The water impoundment project at this farm in Mashonaland East Province has disrupted the farmers' activities.

In Zimbabwe, disputes over the Causeway Dam project may soon be resolved. The government of this East African country has announced that it will compensate farmers for land lost at Machiki, a farm in Mashonaland East province. They will receive 235 hectares of irrigable land. These farmers were in the watershed of the water reservoir.

Forestry crimes including logging, poaching and encroachment on state forest land for private ownership increased considerably last year despite stricter law enforcement, according to an annual report by the Ministry of Environment.

Ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said forest rangers cracked down on 8,917 cases in 2020 compared to just 5,745 the previous year – an increase of 3,442 cases or nearly 40 per cent.

In the forests of the Congo Basin, rising temperatures and erratic rainfall are adversely affecting wildlife resources. The availability of edible mushrooms and caterpillars has fallen by about 80%. This is according to a study published on 5 January 2021 by the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).

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.

Minister of Environment Say Sam Al urged the public to prevent land disputes and contribute to forest and wildlife conservation in the Phnom Tnout-Phnom Pok Wildlife Sanctuary.

Sam Al made the call during a public forum that discussed land dispute cases in the sanctuary. The forum was held earlier this week at the Boeung Per Wildlife Sanctuary office in Rovieng district’s Romny commune of Preah Vihear province.

He asked the people to switch from hunting wild animals, which is a criminal offence, to raising livestock such as buffaloes, cows, goats and lambs.

The Council of Ministers has decided to annul the prakas which were previously issued to carve out roughly 30ha in total size from an area currently encompassed by Boeung Tamok Lake on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

The reversal came following a direct order from Prime Minister Hun Sen.

LAND grabs and encroachment on protected forest are becoming more rampant in northern Cambodia, said environmental activists.

Cambodian forest and wildlife conservationists said it was increasing, especially in the Phnom Tnout-Phnom Pok Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans two districts in Preah Vihear province and one district in Siem Reap province.

They said it was a bad sign for the future of Cambodia's wildlife sanctuaries if the trend continued.