News on Land

With a population of 163 million people and an area of only 147,570 square kilometers, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Land scarcity, insecure tenure, and other factors have contributed to a high volume of land conflicts. Such problems are compounded by Bangladesh’s weak land governance systems, extensive informal settlements in urban areas and widespread landlessness in rural areas.

Small island state leaders at U.N. climate talks have spoken consistently of loss of life and property caused by powerful storms

BONN, Germany, Nov 17 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - From Fiji to St. Lucia, small island nations have taken every opportunity to flag the growing risks of climate change to their land and people at U.N. talks in Bonn - but their cry for help has fallen on deaf ears, officials and experts said on Friday.

Colombia's palm oil industry and big businesses have pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chainsefore

BOGOTA, Nov 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Colombia's palm oil industry and big businesses have pledged to eliminate deforestation from their supply chains as the country battles to reverse the growing destruction of its tropical rainforests.

Forest Minister B. Ramanath Rai says he will write to Centre to simplify rules for allotment of forestland

Providing title deeds to forest dwellers under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 was the focus of the interaction between children who live in forest areas and Forest Minister B. Ramanath Rai.

We all know the first and most basic lesson of economics: incentives matter. This is surely why, as a new investigation by The Guardian has revealed, fires in the favelas of Sao Paolo are happening where land values are greater.

Members of the Brazilian indigenous Guaraní community took part in peaceful protests against privatisation of state parks. Their demonstrations were also calling attention to their dire living conditions. For instance, Guarani living in São Paulo are confined to two tiny villages the size of four football pitches. Land is a vital part of the Guaraní culture and tradition, however their current condition means that they are slowly losing touch with their cultural past by not being able to utilise their land for fishing, gathering and planting.

BOGOTA, Nov 28 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indigenous groups in Paraguay, battling to protect their ancestral lands from expanding agriculture and cattle ranching, launched the first online map of their territory on Tuesday.

Paraguay’s beef and soy export industries are the main drivers of deforestation in the fast-growing South American nation, often coming into conflict with some 120,000 indigenous people, the World Resources Institute (WRI), a think tank, said.

The women noted that “foreign concepts” and exploiters supplanted traditional ways of life, resulting in the environmental catastrophe of the island.

Mothers Against Re-Opening the Panguna mine have released a statement championing traditional land rights of the Indigenous Black people of the South Pacific island of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, expressing their emphatic opposition to re-opening the Panguna Mine located in the Guava Mountains.

Mapping land boundaries is an important way to boost a country’s economic growth and development. It contributes towards better security of land ownership, allows land owners to get bank loans and helps governments to tax owners correctly.

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Dynamic country portfolios combine detailed narratives with Linked Open Data to provide comprehensive overviews of land governance systems

Developed in partnership with local experts and organizations, Land Portal’s latest country portfolios for Kenya, South Africa and Zambia on the Land Portal offer an in-depth look at both the current and historical land governance situation as well as access to a wide range of

“Today we mourn the fallen, but they died in a dignified way on Mapuche territory, on their land,” a relative of the deceased Mapuche member said.

Following the murder of a 21-year Mapuche member by Argentine police, the Indigenous community has declared it will continue to fight for its land rights regardless of increasing military and police repression under the government of Mauricio Macri.