News on Land

Sierra Leone, a small country of about 7 million people in West Africa, known for its mineral wealth in diamonds, gold, bauxite, iron ore and rutile, is also naturally endowed with fertile land for agriculture, which over the years has attracted multi-national companies who come in with fabulous promises of development to the people but leave them further impoverished and cheated out of their God-given resources.
 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has said that tenure rights to land and other natural resources are fundamental to food and shelter, which are the key elements of social and cultural practices underpinning Tanzania’s economic growth.

Speaking in Dar es Salaam recently, FAO Tanzania’s National Land Officer, Beatha Fabian, pointed out that security of tenure on natural resources such as land, fisheries and forests was very key since food security of billions of people in the world depends on it.

A group of 160 poor families from the Bunong indigenous community in Mondulkiri province’s Pech Chreada district have filed a complaint against their representative, accusing him of selling land earmarked for them as part of a social land concession.

Community member Kroeung Tola told The Post on Wednesday that the 160 families were entitled to 2,400ha to be divided between them as stated in a sub-decree in 2012, but as of now, most of the poor families had not received their plots.

Deep in the forest in Northern Sierra Leone, near the demarcation line between Koinadugu and Falaba Districts, a man named Foday uses a power saw to cut into a thick tree, removing the branches to shape it into a log. According to him, he has been working as a logger now for more than 20 years. He describes timber as a lucrative business, which brings income into his pocket.

The Resident Minister for North West, Madam Isata Abdulai Kamara, District Agriculture Officer, Charles A. Bangura, and 18 chiefs from 13 chiefdoms in Port Loko on Tuesday 25th February 2020, held a one day high profile consultative meeting with the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry at the administrative headquarters in Port Loko. The District Agriculture Officer, Charles A. Bangura welcomed the Minister’s delegation and gave an overview of the purpose of the ministerial visit.

The Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) has begun taking inventory of all excavators that have been seized from illegal mining sites since the fight against illegal mining (galamsey) began in 2017.

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, explained that the measure was to ensure that all confiscated mining equipment was handed over to the ministry, in accordance with the country's mining laws.

• Guanacos (Lama guanicoe) are considered critically endangered in Bolivia and Paraguay. Fewer than 200 exist in Bolivia and as few as 20 in Paraguay.
• Guanacos in Bolivia and Paraguay are threatened by habitat loss and poaching.

Green Scenery a Civil Society Organisation working on environment issues has issued a press release calling for government to halt all logging and exporting of timber. Green Scenery is anxious to see the Government of Sierra Leone put behind logging and log exporting as a means of revenue generation.

The effect that fossil fuels are having on the climate emergency is driving an international push to use low-carbon sources of energy. At the moment, the best options for producing low-carbon energy on a large scale are wind and solar power.

Channon Lumpoo, 27, was shot as he conducted exploration activities for a new gold mine in the region

A Thai geologist working at a new gold mine in Bougainville has been shot dead in the second killing at a mining project in the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea in recent months.

The Gitxsan and Wet’suwet’en peoples collaborated in 1987 to challenge the British Columbia government and legally establish title to their ancestral territories. That landmark case, known as the Delgamuukw case, acknowledged that Aboriginal title over traditional lands exists and is possible to attain.