News on Land

Growing demand for palm oil is depleting forests as the Orang Asli tribe fights for its rights.

Dendi Johari is an Orang Asli fighting for his tribe's rights in Malaysia's eastern state of Kelantan.

As an indigenous activist, Dendi makes trips from his village in the deep forest of Gua Musang to the state's capital to attend court hearings, community meetings and participate in forest road blockades to protest logging in the lands that Orang Asli consider theirs.

In this series, we try to assess the consequences of laws on the people they are intended for. How do laws, framed in Delhi, impact people in the corners of India? Do people understand laws framed for them? What is their impact on the targeted people?

This is the sixth story on the intersection of law and society by Raksha Kumar.

Reclaiming tribal land rights – one stone at a time

The government is set to take about half of the land in the area to build the world's longest electrically heated oil pipeline from northwest Uganda to Tanzania, leaving locals worried

HOIMA, Uganda - Ugandan farmer James Mubona, 73, looked pensive as he sat in a blue plastic chair under a mango tree next to three of his four wives, one breastfeeding a five-month-old baby, contemplating the imminent loss of his 22-acre farm to an oil pipeline.

NELLORE DISTRICT, India, Aug 7 2018 (IPS) - Under the blazing midday sun, a tractor moves slowly along a dirt trail in Nacharwari Pallem, a village of the Yanadi indigenous people located some three hours from Chennai city in South India. Atop the tractor, women of the village – 36 in all – sit expectantly, ignoring the heat. Squeals of excitement fill the air as the tractor slowly halts near a stretch of rice fields.  

Transparency International is seeking a filmmaker to produce a short film of approx. 40 minutes length that tells a story about women, land and corruption in Sub-Saharan Africa.

NAIROBI (Landscape News) – Almost a third of Africa’s land mass is degraded due to human activities – including farming and resource extraction – which damage the environment and put food security and livelihoods at risk.

Landscape restoration can reverse damage and lead to improvements for communities, but how are obstacles overcome and changes implemented?

Indigenous alliance accuses Jakarta of dragging its feet in coming up with measures to ensure ancestral lands are protected

Indonesia's indigenous people have condemned the government for failing to protect them from "greedy" corporations that they say continue to encroach on their ancestral lands without fear of legal reprisals.

On the rainy night of Friday, August 3, the community of Chácara do Catumbi had much to celebrate: after 17 years of struggle, 17 of the community’s 22 families were the first in Rio de Janeiro history to receive land titles through the legal instrument of collective adverse possession.

Background

There are more than 100 "uncontacted" tribes in Brazil's Amazon rainforest - the highest anywhere on the planet

RIO DE JANEIRO - Up to 2.5 billion people depend on indigenous and community lands, which make up more than half of all land globally, but they legally own just 10 percent.

The right of indigenous people to land and territories is protected by international legal conventions including the United Nations' Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which was endorsed by hundreds of countries in 2007.

Transparency International is seeking a consultant to analyse large sets of data and information generated by its Land and Corruption in Africa Programme, and to review, update, complement and finalise the programme baseline. The data and information are generated through desk-based as well as empirical research (quantitative and qualitative).

Sangrur, Punjab: “Our struggle is not just about money. It’s about owning a farm where we can go without fear,” said Paramjit Kaur, standing at the door of her kitchen, rolling a dough ball to make chapatis. “Now, our daughters can go alone to harvest fodder at any time.”

Paramjit Kaur was talking about the 15.5 acres of common land she is jointly tending with 200 other Dalit families of the village, earning 2.5 quintal wheat and Rs 1,200 annual profit per household.