News on Land

Urban displacements greatly diminish the living conditions of already desperate populations living on the brink of poverty.

On 15 November, Minoo Kyaa, a community activist from Mukuru kwa Njenga, South Nairobi, tweeted,

We keep asking each other “we unaenda wapi?” [Where are you going?] and even tho it isn’t funny we laugh about it and stare at each other in disbelief.

Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, is a “ticking time bomb”, according to Hlobi Dlamini, a gender and women’s rights advocate from that country. Reflecting on the state of Eswatini in the wake of a June 2021 uprising in pursuit of democracy and human rights, Dlamini said it is only a matter of time before there is another explosion of unrest.  

• For years, people have settled illegally in national parks around Indonesia, clearing the land and farming it in the hope they will eventually be granted legal title to it.
• While the authorities’ default response has been to evict them, a new government program is taking a more collaborative approach that aims to be a win-win for both the parks and the people.
• Under the “conservation partnership” program, the settlers acknowledge that they cannot lay claim to the land and must work to restore damaged ecosystems.
• In turn, they’re

Join leaders and women’s land rights actors from across Africa and the world to celebrate International Women’s Day and our shared vision for accelerating secure women’s land rights as a foundation for achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment, and sustainable development.

Women’s rights to land, housing, property, and natural resources are fundamental human rights – foundational to livelihoods, food, shelter, peace, security, identity, status, and power.

 grouping called Land Justice Consortium has vowed to ensure that land law amendments favor the marginalized, saying there is need to liberate the country from land colonization since most of the arable and prime land is “in the wrong hands”.

The grouping comprises organizations such as Land Governance Alliance (LAGA), Economic Freedom Fighters Movement, Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), MOVE, Peoples Federation for National Peace and Development (PEFENAP) and Mzuzu Youth Caucus.

Main photo: Aubergines are a staple in Hason Ara's community of Ukhiya in Cox's Bazar. Bangladesh. WFP/Sayed Asif Mahmud. 

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PEMBA, Mozambique

The three young men looked exhausted, their jeans and t-shirts grimy and baggy from constant wear. The youngest of them was barefoot and seemed a bit embarrassed by it.

After almost a week of walking and sleeping rough, they had arrived only the day before in Nacaca, a displacement camp in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province. They had left their families behind in nearby towns, and pushed on to find somewhere safe, as far from the gunmen who had attacked their village as they could get.

This episode of LandUP! addresses an often overlooked topic by discussing the land rights of widowed women. Widowed women face vastly different hurdles and challenges when it comes to accessing land and this moment of their lives is worth exploring. With this in mind, we spoke to human rights lawyer Faith Alubbe, land economist Nana Ama Yirrah and Mokoro Principal Consultant and Land Portal Board Member Dr. Elizabeth Daley about widowhood and how women's land rights are often tied to a man's, with a specific focus on Africa.

Ecuador has elevated nature as a legal subject in its constitution - and still allows harmful copper mining. A young woman learns to fight back 

Local residents of Gaur, Rautahat, have lamented the failure of police administration to arrest people involved in a plot to capture the land of Gaur Rice Mills, including a government employee who confessed he forged official documents.

Set up in 1946, the mill was closed after 22 years due to various reasons. As the mill could never resume operation, its land was being used as playground and programme venue for political parties and other organisations.

• An investigation by El País/Planeta Futuro has found evidence of irregularities in the allocation of “conservation concessions” and carbon-trading schemes in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• The investigation uncovered allegations that concessions covering millions of hectares were illegally reassigned in 2020 and converted to carbon credit projects without public oversight. The Portuguese-owned titles overlap with a protected area and Indigenous lands.