News on Land

By: Leander C. Domingo, TMT

Date: January 2nd 2017

Source: The Manila Times

NAGTIPUNAN, Quirino: For the Bugkalot tribe, it is a blessed New Year receiving their Certificates of Land Ownership (CLOA) as Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) from Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano.

Cientos de miles de pobladores de toda la cordillera resisten como lo han hecho todas las poblaciones a lo largo de la historia. Todavía hay gente que vive en otras zonas del país que no entiende la lucha cordillerana: estos pueblos no quieren la minería. No la quieren. No. No la quieren por muchos y sólidos motivos, científicos y no científicos. Quizá sea difícil de entender para quienes no viven allí. ¿Por qué defender a ultranza una modernidad perimida, que llega a destiempo, con ínfulas de progreso y desarrollo que nadie cree ni puede sostener?

Date: February 13th 2016

Source: Human Rights Watch

Halt Forced Eviction, Assess Claims to Chao Lay Ancestral Land

By: Kizito Makoye Shigela

Date: 12 January 2017

Source: IDN - InDepthNews

Kiyowela village in Tanzania’s southern highlands, every widow has a story to tell about how community volunteers have helped them solve property disputes with their relatives.

Rome, Italy - Information on land governance is critical factor for enabling developing and emerging economies to establish effective land tenure systems and ultimately ensure secure and equitable access to and control over land. To this end, the International Land Coalition, together with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), today announce the integration of information on land from FAO databases accessible through the Land Portal, the global reference point for land related information on the internet.

By: John Kamau

Date: February 21st 2016

Source: AllAfrica.com / Daily Nation

OPINION

Many Kenyans have never heard about the Z-Plots - yet if anyone wants to investigate the origins of land grabbing in Kenya, this is where they should start.

Pirgong, Bangladesh -  A young landless peasant was brutally killed in a landless territory called Zoykur at Pirgong, Thakurgoan district on July 3. Kamolakanto Kanu, member of the Joykur Peoples Organization which is facilitated by the Community Development Association (CDA) of Bangladesh, and ILC member. Kanu was brutally killed and 8 others were injured by local influential land grabbers. A certain Satu Ram and his group were trying to occupy the Khas land in Joykur village already occupied by Kanu’s group for the past 12 years.

By: Ben Ezeamalu

Date: February 29th 2016

Source: Citiscope.org

A key regional meeting ahead of Habitat III resulted in a forward-looking declaration and a landmark document outlining a shared regional stance.

By: Kieran Guilbert

Date: March 8th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

DAKAR, March 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Rural women across West Africa will march to demand equal land rights on Tuesday to mark International Women's Day, as activists urge African nations to invest in female farmers.

The Center on Global Legal Transformation at Columbia University is launching a call for proposals by junior researchers on governing scarce, essential goods. The research project is coordinated by Prof. Katharina Pistor, the Director of the Center on Global Legal Transformation, and Prof. Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food.

By: Devex Editor

Date: March 15th 2016

Source: Devex.com

This week in Washington, D.C., the World Bank is hosting its Annual Conference on Land and  Poverty, a professional meeting that has swelled considerably in the past five years. Attendee numbers have expanded to a downright packed 1,200 people from governments, development agencies, academia, nongovernmental organizations and technology firms.