News on Land

Brazilian councilwoman assassinated in Rio de Janeiro in March was killed by a militia looking to protect its interests controlling land in unregulated slums, Brazilian official says.

Marielle Franco, the Brazilian councilwoman assassinated in Rio de Janeiro in March was killed by a militia looking to protect its interests controlling land in unregulated slums, a Brazilian official has said.

Uganda’s land is demarcated into Mailo, Freehold, Leasehold and Customary occupancy, which some consider an irrational land system. Over the years, this tenure has gone through a metamorphosis of traditional, colonial and post-independence vicissitudes; the latter of the three periods, has been tumultuous.

SOMSAK SAE-LAO, an assistant village chief in the small Nan community of Pang Kob, still has no idea whether his villagers could be subject to any benefits for helping protect surrounding forest under a global scheme known as REDD+, if implemented here.

The village has unresolved overlapping claims with Khun Nan National Park on a high mountain, thus becoming uncertain about their land rights.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo handed over about 6,000 land certificates to residents during his working visit to Pekanbaru, Riau, on Saturday, as part of efforts to fulfill his administration's ambitious agrarian reform program. 

Of the total certificates, 3,000 were part of the land certification program, while the remaining half were certificates of land redistribution under the mechanism of land objects for agrarian reform (TORA). 

The world is vastly underestimating the benefits of acting on climate change. Recent research from the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate finds that bold climate action could deliver at least $26 trillion in economic benefits through 2030. This ground-breaking research, produced by the Global Commission and more than 200 experts, highlights proof points of the global shift to a low-carbon economy, and identifies ways to accelerate action in five sectors: energy, cities, food and land use, water and industry.

The world is at a “moment of opportunity” in eliminating violence against women and girls, UN-Women Deputy Executive Director Åsa Regnér told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, calling for “unqualified” support for a strengthened feminist movement.

As part of Women's Month and the centenary of Mama Albertina Sisulu, the Department of Social Development will today launch a women empowerment project at Mawewe Tribal Authority in Mgobodi village, Mpumalanga.

The project aims to empower and secure the livelihoods and rights of women living in rural areas, in the context of sustainable development goals and the current national discourse on women's rights to equitable access to productive land in South Africa.

Joan Carling is an indigenous rights activist and environmental defender from the Philippines. She has been defending land rights from grassroots to international levels for more than 20 years. Her main concerns include protection of land rights of indigenous peoples, ensuring sustainable development of natural resources and upholding human rights of marginalized people. She has actively participated in global processes to defend these concerns, including those related to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and REDD+.

Civil society and government convene to promote a new advocacy initiative to fuel concrete actions that prioritize girls and women in sustainable development programmes and policies in Kenya. 

More than 20 partner organizations today launched the Deliver for Good Kenya Campaign, a new advocacy initiative bringing together cross sector stakeholders to drive progress toward gender equality and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Kenya.

• Colombia’s deforestation rate has been accelerating since the country’s peace accord in 2016, which formally ended a more than 50-year civil conflict.
• The Interfaith Rainforest Initiative in Colombia was launched in November to bring together scientists, development experts, indigenous peoples and religious leaders.
• The aim is to use their combined expertise to reduce deforestation via public policy and grassroots action.

Illegal gold mining in the Amazon has reached "epidemic" proportions in recent years, causing damage to pristine forest and waterways, a conservation group said Monday as it released an unprecedented new map of the activities.