News on Land

Adan Medina, a vocal activist in disputes with loggers and landowners, was shot and killed by a group of men

An indigenous leader and activist was killed in northern Honduras, officials said on Wednesday, the second such murder in the Central American country in less than a week.

Adan Medina, 46, of the Tolupan indigenous community, was shot and killed by a group of men on Sunday after returning from work in the town of Candelaria, according to Noe Rodriguez, the president of a local indigenous federation.

The people of the village of Aasikulam, Vavuniya stressed the hardships caused by the Sri Lankan Forest Department seizing their land earlier this month, with around 50 families stating they had been affected.  

One of the villagers said, “We depend on the agriculture to maintain our livelihoods and we make our living through the means of Chena cultivation.”

UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre vigilant on potential impacts of oil and gas exploration in Namibia and Botswana on the Tsodila and Okavango Delta World Heritage properties.

The European Union provided 20 million euros to support the Informal Economy Conversion Program in Angola.

The agreement signed this Monday is part of the plan to respond to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s economy.

According to the Angolan Minister of Economy and Planning Sérgio Santos, this funding will be applied to initiatives already registered in the State Budget, which is expected to start in January 2021.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) working on the environment and human rights have expressed concern about filling parts of Boeung Tamok Lake to create new parcels of land on the outskirts of Phnom Penh.

Located in Prek Pnov district’s Kouk Roka commune, Boeung Tamok, also known as Kob Srov Lake, is the largest lake remaining within the municipal borders with an area of more than 3,000ha.

• Reconnaissance Energy Africa, an oil and gas company with headquarters in Canada, has recently begun exploratory drilling in northern Namibia.
• Conservationists and local communities are concerned over the potential environmental impact that oil and gas extraction could have on such an important ecosystem.
• Northern Namibia and Botswana have a number of interconnected watersheds including the Okavango Delta – the potential for pollutants to enter watercourses and spread throughout the region are a particular concern.

On December 21, Reconnaissance Energy Af

The Ministry of Environment on December 28 issued a report detailing crackdowns on illegal activities in protected natural areas and biodiversity conservation corridors.

According to the report, forest rangers responded to 8,917 cases of natural resource crimes over the past 12 months, an increase of 3,442 cases, or 63 per cent, over last year’s 5,475 reported incidents.

Rangers had logged 27,588 patrols for the year, up from 24,048 the previous year, but the number of cases sent to courts for prosecution had declined from 631 to 605.

The Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR) released a statement on “Business and Human Rights: Corporate Accountability in Land Rights Violations”, dated December 25, to give an overview of the challenges in seeking corporate accountability regarding land rights issues.

According to the press release obtained by The Post on December 27, the CCHR examined various mechanisms available to those facing land rights violations in the country and the methods employed by communities to achieve a resolution.

Main photo: Residents of OC8 Batu Arang doing a recce of the area before starting to clear the land. (Hamzah Osman pic)

PETALING JAYA: Ninety-four families in Rawang, restless over a long delay in receiving their land titles from the Gombak district office, have decided not to wait any longer.

Lawyer extols value of traditional knowledge and tenure systems

The Preah Sihanouk Provincial Court has placed eight men in pre-trial detention on charges of “intentional violence” in relation to a land dispute with tycoon Pheun Phalla, who holds the honorific “oknha” title, in Prey Nop district.

The land dispute involving oknha Phalla and 500 families living O’Oknha Heng commune’s O’Oknha Heng and O’Ta Sek villages erupted into violence on December 20.