News on Land

(MENAFN - The Conversation) I met Meritxell and Laia one bright sunny day in April, in thePallars Sobirà , a mountainous county in the Catalan Pyrenees. Both are women farmers and work in livestock management – Meritxell is a cattle rancher, while Laia herds goats and makes cheese.

Control over land management may be more important than mere legal entitlement when it comes to women’s land rights

Our latest WOLTS publication is a fascinating photo essay from one of our pilot research communities, Mundarara, in Tanzania. The piece by Jim Grabham, titled “Are rubies undermining Maasai culture”, shares insights gleaned from in-depth interviews with two participants in a one-year training programme on gender, land and mining that has been developed and carried out by the HakiMadini and Mokoro WOLTS project team in Tanzania.

What the US faces on its southern border is not a security problem, but a humanitarian crisis, and punishing attempts at deterrence cannot resolve it. Enabling people to stay where they are requires, first and foremost, strengthening their right to be there.

• Indonesian companies were given until March this year to disclose their “beneficial owners” under a 2018 presidential regulation, but less than 1 percent have complied.
• In the easternmost corner of the country, investors hidden by layers of corporate secrecy continue to bulldoze an intact rainforest and have nearly finished building a giant sawmill.

Papua New Guinea out of pocket $157m from failed attempt at mining material from deep-sea vents as opponents point to environmental risk

The “total failure” of PNG’s controversial deep sea mining project Solwara 1 has spurred calls for a Pacific-wide moratorium on seabed mining for a decade.

The company behind Solwara 1, Nautilus, has gone into administration, with major creditors seeking a restructure to recoup hundreds of millions sunk into the controversial project.

The approval of the new law has cemented an important step in the fight for women claiming rights to communal lands.

ez – “Although it is too late for me to get back some of my lands, when I see all these women finally getting justice, I feel like the struggle has been worth it. I feel that their joy is my joy,” said Rkia Bellot, a soulalya woman and activist, to Morocco World News. 

“Whether they like it or not, it is our right. The law is on our side now.” 

The 12-day long 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) to United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) concluded with thought-provoking discussions on land management, restoration of degraded land, drought, climate change, renewable energy, women empowerment, gender equality, water scarcity and various other issues. India was the proud host of UNCCD COP14,which witnessed widespread participation from over 9000 participants from all across the globe at India Expo Centre & Mart, Greater Noida from 2nd to 13th September 2019.

An online project aims to map all of the world's indigenous lands to secure legal rights and alert communities to the threats of illegal logging and mining

BANGKOK - An online project mapping all of the world's indigenous lands will help secure legal rights, and alert communities to the potential threats of illegal logging and mining, land and indigenous rights groups said on Friday.

The state’s high cost of living and tourism-focused development is making it difficult for some Native Hawaiians to keep their homes.

Joddy ʻIwalani Manuwai and her family will lose their ancestral home in Kailua, on the island of O’ahu in Hawaiʻi, if they don’t raise $1 million to buy back land that has been theirs for five generations ― and they only have until Thursday to do it. Otherwise, their only hope is convincing a judge to give them more time.

With many in Asia still dependent on farming and fishing, there is a real risk that large-scale renewable energy projects will change land use and hurt communities, say experts

BANGKOK, Sept 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Huge renewable energy projects planned in Asia, such as solar parks and hydropower dams, risk accelerating the conversion of farmland, uprooting communities and destroying livelihoods, energy experts and human rights activists warned on Tuesday.