News on Land

MANILA, Aug 28 2019 (IPS) - With the record rate blaze in the Amazon that struck Indigenous communities, the world is confronted by a humanitarian crisis in the midst of an ever-worsening political-economic condition.

The International Indigenous Peoples Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) joins the international chorus of condemnation and call for immediate actions to put an end to the unfolding crisis that jeopardizes the lives of Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon and planet’s survival.

16 August 2019: The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the UN Human Rights Office signed a cooperation agreement on protecting environmental and human rights. The agreement responds to the growing threats to individuals and communities defending their environmental and land rights in many parts of the world. While seeking to increase support for national implementation of human rights-based environmental policies, the partnership aims to also promote global recognition and acceptance of the human right to a healthy environment.

Drone data has allowed us to find solutions for a wide range of social challenges, like humanitarian aid, resource conservation, resilient urban planning and many more. But as the field has expanded, three pressing issues have emerged:

1. how to produce impactful analysis in a rapid manner;
2. how to then bring back results to beneficiaries to turn data into action; and
3. how to make ethics a main concern in each step of the process.

Tribe vows to fight encroachment of outsiders

AMAPÁ, Brazil - Deep in the heart of the Amazon, Ajareaty Waiapi performs one of her tribe's most traditional rituals. The tribal chief crushes blood red urucum seeds into a thick paste and generously applies it to her face, bare chest and torso. The mixture protects her skin from the sun and insects. It's also believed to ward off evil spirits.

As part of UNIDROIT’s work on private law and agricultural development, a UNIDROIT Working Group is currently developing a Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Canada aims to conserve 17 per cent of its land and fresh water by the end of 2020. This noble objective will help protect water, air, food and biodiversity and improve the health of humans.

After unsuccessfully trying for more than 22 years to lay claim to a portion of SA’s most expensive and prestigious school, labour tenants from the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands are one step closer to becoming land owners. 

The constitutional court on Tuesday ordered the reinstatement of a land claims court (LCC) order to appoint a special master to oversee claims by families who laboured on farms in lieu of payments and permission to live on a portion of the farm.

Abundant downpours during the rainy season bring deadly floods every year but officials are increasingly worried about another trend: diminishing water reserves

FREETOWN, Aug 19 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Half the year, Iyatunde Kamara worries torrential rains will wash her house off its hillside and into the rivers of waste that flow through Sierra Leone's capital Freetown.

The other half, she rarely has enough water to fill a pot.

Mongabay Latam and Semana Sostenible travelled to two of their reserves. The forests of the Serranía del Perijá Regional Nature Park are being burned and indigenous peoples are living in difficult health conditions.

The unending, sometimes deadly clashes involving Keta Lagoon indigenes and Seven Seas Salt Company located at Adina, in the Ketu South Municipality, has attracted international attention.

The University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa, is currently hosting a short course on “The Political Economy of Land Governance in Africa”, here in Ghana, the Keta Lagoon debacle forming the case study.

Mansa, Punjab, India - With a scarf around her head and a bottle of cold water in her backpack, Kiranjit Kaur goes door to door as the sun beats down on Kotra Kalan village, calling on women to join an upcoming meeting about farmer suicides.

Two years ago she set up the Kisan Mazdoor Khudkushi Peedit Parivar Committee, an organisation to support families of suicide victims, bringing together widows and relatives of impoverished farmers who - struggling with crippling debt - killed themselves in Punjab, the breadbasket of India.

This month, the world’s leading climate scientists issued a report on land confirming what we already know: forests are a critical weapon in the battle against climate change. Yet as competition for land mounts, the destruction of forests for agriculture, mining, and infrastructure rages on.