News on Land

• Expat demand for homes in Bali, Indonesia, is spiking.
• The spike is driven by the rise of remote work, a new second-home visa, and skyrocketing rents.
• "The last 18 months — I've never seen it been busier in Bali," said Nathan Ryan, the founder of Bali Realty.

Main photo: Pantai Berawa beach in Canggu, North Kuta in Bali, Indonesia 

Maasai are being evicted from a Tanzanian wildlife paradise to make way for neocolonial land grabs by the Dubai royal family. The reason? The right to hunt unhindered for the next 30 years.

Indigenous Maasai, widely acknowledged as exceptional wildlife conservationists, are being dispossessed of the lands of their birth in order to hand some of the finest wildlife territories of Tanzania to wealthy foreign hunters. And the government is bending over backwards to make sure it happens.

Citizens of rural communities across the country who are fighting for their land rights are outraged at the government’s treatment of them, likening it to apartheid and colonialism.

Violence, intimidation, assassinations and dispossession are continuing in parts of the country as black South Africans struggle to defend their land rights against moves by the government, often in cahoots with traditional leaders and private companies.

Pakistan Railways has leased out around 4,687 acres of its land during the last four years with the aim to transform the department into profitable entity by generating more revenue.

The leased-out land was located in seven divisions including Lahore, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Rawalpindi Multan and Sukkar, an official of the Ministry of Railways told APP.

Land tenure security is the protection people can have from the state that their land parcels will not be bullied away from them by vested interests through unfair evictions. 

It is the opposite of land tenure insecurity.

There are many forms of land documentation. This includes land titles (a legal document that outlines a person's rights) and deeds (legal document of transfer of land/title from one person to another). 

As the World Bank calls on nations to boost food production to combat the global food security crisis exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a conspiracy is festering on social media.

It lays the blame for the food crisis at the feet of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, claiming he has sold off 17 million hectares of farmland to US corporations.

No fewer than 55 communities in four local government areas of Edo State yesterday protested the acquisition of the communities’ rainforest reserve and farmland by the state Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in spite of pending court cases on the matter.

Some of the impacted communities which protested include Odighi, Odiguetue, Uhiere, Owan, Agbanikaka, Orhua, Oke-Irhue, Ekhen-Irhue, Ago Oshodin, Ekpan, Ofumwegbe, Umokpe, Agudezi, Ozalla, and Igbira Camp.

A summary of conference highlights follows below. See also the condensed analysis in the follow up article