News on Land

Cadasta is pleased to award a Data Accelerator Grant to the Council of Minorities, a Bangladeshi human rights organization founded in 2013 that works for establishing the rights of minority communities in Bangladesh. 

The Arab Land Initiative, facilitated by the Global Land Tool Network and UN-Habitat, is launching a call for proposals to solicit the interest from organisations working in the Arab region to the twinning arrangement initiative. The initiative aims at pairing two organisations from countries in the Arab region (or one from the region and one from outside the region) to exchange knowledge and experiences, and build networks in the area of good land governance and land administration.

In a bid to expedite the distribution of land ownership certificates to the landless people and decentralise the federal responsibility, the government has formed committees of the Landless Squatters' Problems Resolution Commission in all the 77 districts of the country. Each of the seven-member committees will include a chairperson and two others appointed by the government, with the remaining members representing the district Land Revenue Office, Survey and Forest Offices and the District Coordination Committee.

Main photo: Provincial hall spokesman Kheang Phearom (not in picture) said more than 300 families currently live on the sites of the 584 plots. Photo supplied

The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Administration will not certify land titles for more than 300 families in the communes of Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem and warned of legal action without exception against people interfering with state-owned property.

KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 29): The Energy and Natural Resources Ministry (KeTSA) has achieved a new milestone in forestry management with the adoption of the Malaysian Forestry Policy 2020 which involved consultations among the three regions in the country, namely the Peninsula, Sabah and Sarawak.

Its Minister Datuk Dr Shamsul Anuar Nasarah, in a statement today, said the policy outlined a clear objective for the forestry sector to face new challenges at the domestic and international levels.

Members of the Bougainville Physical Planning (BPP) Board, under the Department for Lands, Physical Planning, Environment and Conservation, were sworn in on Wednesday, January 27th.

The Board consists of nine new members who pledged their oath and are currently undergoing an induction workshop about the roles and responsibilities of board members.

ABG Minister for Lands, Physical Planning, Environment and Conservation, Robert Hamal Sawa, congratulatedthe new members of the BPP Board but also cautioned them to work within the confines of the BPP Act 2013.

Main Photo: Environmental officials inspect Prey Lang wildlife sanctuary in Sandan district, Kampong Thom province​ on 2020. Environment Ministry

The government has repealed all previously issued letters certifying sales, purchases, transfers, occupation or ownership of any land within the Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary.

The decision was made following an investigation into land disputes between 188 families and environmental officials in Kampong Thom province.

A PROPOSAL to introduce a policy to prevent Namibians from owning more than one farm is unlawful and will not be implemented.

This is according to an update report on the implementation of the second national land conference issued by the office of prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila at the end of last year.

The land conference held in 2018 was tasked with reviewing the resolutions of the first national land conference held in 1991 to try and find lasting solutions to Namibia's agricultural and urban land problems.

SINGAPORE - For close to 15 years, an architect and his wife unlawfully occupied 144.2 sq m of state land next to their three-storey house in Jalan Tari Zapin in Seletar, which was built in 2005 but had been left vacant since.

BAN SABWAI, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - For three generations, the family of Suwit Rattanachaisi has farmed a plot of land in a forest in northeastern Thailand’s Chaiyaphum province, growing cassava and maize while living in a modest home a few miles away.

The forest was declared a national park in 1992, and under a forest reclamation law passed in 2014, Suwit and dozens of other farmers from Ban Sabwai village were evicted.

With no other means to make a living, many returned to the Sai Thong National Park.

Lands, Agriculture, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Anxious Masuka has advised farmers to have a good relationship with banks as Government’s plan to establish Agribank as a land bank is in order and will be complete in the next two months.

Dr Masuka said Agribank will be responsible for investment support and group landing as the Government intensifies commercialisation of the agriculture sector.

He was speaking at Nyamuseve Irrigation scheme in Guruve while touring such schemes and farms in the province on a technical assessment visit.