News on Land

Businesses need to start seeing communities as legitimate counterparts if we are to stand a chance of slowing down conflicts over land

Globally, over 70% of land lacks clear registration or is subject to ownership disputes. This phenomenon directly increases the vulnerability of the world’s poorest, as development agencies such as the World Bank now widely recognise.

Via Reuters.com

By: Megan Rowling

BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indigenous people and local communities lack legal rights to almost three quarters of their traditional lands, sparking social conflict and undermining international plans to curb poverty, hunger and climate change, researchers said.

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Maasai herders used to fighting to survive on the savannah have moved to a new battleground - a Tanzanian court - in a case highlighting increasing conflict in Africa between traditional culture and foreigners investing in land.

The Maasai, a semi-nomadic people known for dressing in distinctive red blankets and colourful beads, say they are trying to reclaim 12,617 acres of grazing land in northern Tanzania from a US safari company.

The Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment (CCSI) is pleased to offer two grants of $10,000 each for innovative uses of www.OpenLandContracts.org, the world’s first searchable online repository of publicly available commercial agriculture and forestry contracts. The grants are offered to support and advance innovative uses of the repository and of the content available through it.

Sep 12, 2011 (Public Agenda/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- So far, debates around Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) have almost neglected gender issues and the role women can play. Despite the fact gender equality is currently appreciated among many professions, professional foresters have not embraced the idea. Mrs.

By: Fionuala Cregan
Date: January 20th 2016
Source: IC Magazine

NEW REPORT DOCUMENTS CHALLENGES OF DEFENDING INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS IN THE PARAGUAYAN CHACO

"We don't care if our struggle involves going to prison or even dying. Our struggle is about justice because the land is ours and our children's." –Alejandro Servín

In a seminar organised in November 2015 by Mokoro, two experts who have recently returned from the field shared their insights about an agribusiness in Ghana and women’s legal claims to land in Tanzania.