News on Land

SINGRAULI, India -- After years of developing the thermal energy sector to meet the demands of a nation prone to outages, India is now facing a power glut with over 30 such producers teetering on bankruptcy. Yet the government shows no letup in its drive for more coal power and the effect of oversupply is rippling out to other sectors such as banks.

India's embrace of coal has allowed it to triple power generation over the past 15 years to 344 gigawatts, surpassing Japan to become the world's third largest electricity market.

NAIROBI, Kenya – Burkina Faso and Tanzania announced at the just-concluded 2018 Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Africa Conference that they are committed to restoring 5 million and 5.2 million hectares of their degraded forest landscapes, respectively, by 2030.

India's $7.5 bln plan to turn 100 urban centres into Smart Cities by 2020 does not address structural issues and ignores the needs of low-income and marginalised groups, experts say

LAVASA, India - When David Cooper and his wife were looking for somewhere to retire, they wanted a place by a river or a lake, away from Mumbai's congested streets, worsening pollution and vanishing green spaces.

Dar es Salaam — Access to potentially-productive land is crucial to combating discrimination against females. When they are denied access, they are disadvantaged, economically powerless.

Tanzania is among developing nations where gender inequality denies women the right to access land for economic production.

For more than half a century, the indigenous Kaiowá and Guarani people of Brazil have been deprived of their ancestral lands, and consigned to small reserves where it is impossible to maintain their traditional livelihoods. Generations of these indigenous peoples’ lives have been marked by violence and vulnerability as they have tried to reclaim what, according to the Brazilian constitution, is rightfully theirs.

Indigenous communities can prove useful allies if brought on board with programmes to plant and safeguard trees

NAIROBI - Initiatives to restore African forests, decimated by loggers and land-hungry farmers, must include indigenous people if they are to succeed, experts said on Wednesday.

Analysis shows that forest-dwelling communities often sabotage efforts to plant or safeguard trees when they are excluded from them, whereas they can prove valuable allies if they are brought on board, they said.

New UN report highlights drastic increase in violence and legal harassment driven by rapid expansion of development projects on indigenous lands

Cameroon’s Code on transparency and good governance is finally here. The law promises to remove the shroud of secrecy that has hovered over contracts and concessions the government has signed with natural resource investors.

After series of failed appeals, communities impacted by the business activities of Wilmar PZ, a multinational company involved in agro palm cultivation in Cross River State have taken Wilmar to the State House of Assembly for alleged pollution and land grabbing.
 

Local Gov’t, Amendment to Constitution, Alien and Nationality Bills Soon?

Following years of open hearings, debates, committee reports, and conference committee work, the Senate at its 54th day sitting last Thursday, unanimously voted to concur with the House of Representatives on passage of the Land Rights Act.

NAIROBI (Landscape News) – Deforestation and land degradation amount to almost a third of Africa’s landmass, which has a devastating effect on the environment and livelihoods.

Growing populations clearing land for farming and rapid development of mining resources have resulted in an estimated 2.7 million hectares of lost forests every year on the continent.

A farmers’ leader shot in the back is one of 18 activists killed this year, targeted for opposing evictions, logging and mining

At 9am on 9 May, Luis Arturo Marroquín walked out of a shop in the main square of the small town of San Luis Jilotepéque in central Guatemala. Eyewitnesses say a black Toyota Hilux pick-up then drove up and, in full view of passersby, two men wearing hoods shot Marroquín repeatedly in the back.