News on Land

Partnering towards access to land and secure land rights for inclusive development

Natives of Akamkpa community in Cross River, hosting the Singaporean multinational company, Wilmar International, have accused the company of destroying their sources of livelihood by channeling chemical infested erosion water into their streams and farmlands.
According to the community, the company has also refused to pay compensation for the destruction of crops and fountains of drinking water.
Speaking, 88-year-old Madam Veronica Asuquo, said Wilmar’s activities had impoverished her entire family as their farmland and palm plantation had been completely destroyed.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent unprecedented and increasing global recognition of land rights—especially women’s land rights. Leaders across the globe have included three land-specific sex-disaggregated indicators:

• Under Goal 1 (No Poverty), indicator 1.4.2 measures legally recognized documentation of rights to land and perceptions of secure tenure;

By the end of winter, nomadic tribes of J&K, the Bakerwals and the Gujjars, will for the first time be counted in a state-level census. The 2011 census did survey J&K’s nomadic population but a large number were left out because they were camping in remote high-altitude areas during the survey.

"We are the original inhabitants of this island...this regulation denies us what is rightfully ours"

TAIPEI - Taipei's Peace Memorial Park is an oasis of calm in the bustling city, home to morning walkers and lunchtime strollers - along with a camp of indigenous protesters demanding justice.

For several months, the small group has lived in tents in a corner of the park, with a makeshift kitchen and a cluster of painted rocks, photographs and posters tracing Taiwan's indigenous history and their fight for land rights.

A recent report by Norway’s Office of the Auditor General had some tough criticisms for the country’s International Forests and Climate Initiative (NICFI), one of the chief funders of REDD+ initiatives around the world.

ULAANBAATAR - In a damp, single room in a disused bathhouse in the Sansar area of eastern Ulaanbaatar, 90-year-old Yuule Vandan cares for her disabled son and worries how he will survive without her.

Yuule moved out of a shared flat in an old Soviet barracks over three years ago while it was redeveloped but the project was shelved and she now struggles to pay 100,000 tugrik ($42) rent from a state pension of 250,000 tugrik for their one room.

Maasai from four villages on the outskirts of the Serengeti sued Tanzania for the right to return to their villages which have become part of a park

NAIROBI - Maasai herders near Tanzania's famous Serengeti wildlife park have asked a regional court to stop the government intimidating witnesses supporting their legal bid to return to their ancestral land, a lawyer for the community said on Thursday.

TA BOS, Cambodia  - The Cambodian rosewood had stood for hundreds of years, but its value finally proved too hard to resist and the giant tree came crashing down - inside a protected forest.

It's unclear exactly who was behind the felling - nobody has been charged - but it set off a series of events, which culminated in hundreds of villagers rejecting their community forest in favour of cutting more trees.

As logging and palm oil industries continue to decimate the Amazonian rainforest, the people who live in it are taking tech into their own hands to fight back.

"As African countries seek to achieve inclusive economic growth to combat poverty, unemployment, inequality and informality, among other challenges, it is imperative that their policies recognize and realize the potential of urbanization. Cities, if well planned and managed, can become engines of structural transformation through the expansion of the productive sectors of the economy, including industries and services. " These were the views expressed by the Head of the Data Centre of the Central Africa Office of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Ms.