News on Land

While more than 75 per cent of Uganda’s population is engaged in agriculture as their main form of livelihood, they have limited access to credit due to lack of authentic land documents to be used as collateral. And yet access to credit is fundamental to start and boost any agricultural activity (cover cost of planting, weeding and harvesting; invest in improved planting materials).

A government plan to use common land for industrial development in the Punjab could deny land rights to Dalits, say activists

BANGKOK, Jan 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Protests have flared in the Indian state of Punjab over a government plan to use common land for industrial development, a move that activists and analysts said on Friday would deny lower-caste Dalits their land rights.

PETALING JAYA: Sime Darby Plantation Investment (Liberia) Pte Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sime Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP), has fully disposed of Sime Darby Plantation (Liberia) Inc.

The disposal of 100% equity interest to Mano Palm Oil Industries Ltd was completed on Wednesday for a cash consideration of US$1, plus an earn-out payment to be determined by the average future crude palm oil (CPO) price and future CPO production of SDP Liberia in 2022.

The earn-out consideration will be payable quarterly over a period of eight years, commencing from April 2023.

• The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is an isolated group of mountains situated along Colombia’s northern coast, which has the unique distinction of harboring more threatened endemic species than anywhere else in the world.
• Agricultural expansion has come at the expense of vital habitat over the past several decades. Now, resource exploitation and infrastructure projects planned for the region are further threatening the mountains’ ecosystems, according to scientists and local activists.

Four people were killed and dozens arrested last week in the village of Dong Tam as a long-running land dispute flared after a dawn raid by police

By Rina Chandran

BANGKOK - A deadly land dispute in Vietnam has led to a crackdown on social media posts, a sign of growing heavy-handedness by authorities as rising demand for land spurs more conflicts across the country, analysts and human rights activists said.

Ecuador is planning to sell a bond worth $400 million to fund the country's social housing project

QUITO (Reuters) - Ecuador is planning to sell a bond worth $400 million to fund the country's social housing project, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, as the government attempts to revive its economy with investments in the construction sector.

The bond will be backed by the Inter-American Development Bank.

Rights recognition crucial to fend off global warming and catastrophic climate change

Indigenous Peoples have had a track record of managing landscapes sustainably for millennia.

However, incursions into their territories, often by settlers involved in natural resource extraction or agriculture, have fractured historic tenure rights, dismantling or putting livelihoods, wildlife and ecosystems at risk.

Last week, our colleague Ghanimat Azhdari was one of the 176 people who lost their lives in a plane that crashed just outside of Tehran, Iran.  While our interaction with Ghanimat was brief, our team had the pleasure and honour of working with Ghanimat at the First Arab Land Conference, which took place in Dubai in February of 2018. 

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together with World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Sierra Leone

China’s leadership of global biodiversity talks has seen greater emphasis on tackling environmental crises using natural solutions

Nature-Based Solutions, or NBS, are actions to protect and sustainably manage natural ecosystems, a crucial element in rising to numerous social and environmental challenges, especially the climate crisis.

Cadasta Foundation is pleased to welcome Chuck Conley as its new Director of GIS and Technology. In this role, Chuck will serve as Cadasta’s technology solution lead and will work alongside senior leadership to lead, analyze, develop, and implement innovative technical strategies to document the land and resource rights of vulnerable communities. 

Tijani Muhammad-Bande was addressing the International Organization for Renewable Energy High-Level meeting on the particular threat faced by Small Island Developing States, or SIDS, and their partners in development. 

“Inaction will put at risk all life on earth as we know it”, warned the veteran Nigerian diplomat. “Inaction will only lead to more severe and extreme weather events, land degradation and deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution and acidification of oceans, global food insecurity as well as drought and floods.”