News on Land

Illegal land grab cases are on the rise in protected areas as land prices have soared and the development of the agricultural and agro-industrial sectors has ballooned, Ministry of Environment spokesman Neth Pheaktra said.

“In 1964, Cambodia was 73 per cent forest land with a population of only 5.7 million. But in 2018, the country was 46.86 per cent forest land – 8.5 million hectares – with a population of 16 million,” he said.

Pheaktra said the lost land has been turned into plantation or for housing.

Fishermen say a development on two islands could destroy their livelihoods

KARACHI, Nov 3 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In the quarrel over building a gleaming "new Dubai" on two small islands off Pakistan's Arabian Sea coast, the voices of the fishermen who have plied these waters for centuries often go unheard.

Steering his boat out of the Jamote jetty in the village of Ebrahim Haideri, 25-year-old fisherman Shakil said the islands around which he catches fish, crab and shrimp are now patrolled by armed guards.

Close to 20 million hectares of land have already been restored, as part of the Great Green Wall (GGW) initiative, according to the implementation report released recently at a virtual meeting of environment ministers from Nigeria, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Djibouti together with regional partners, international organisations and development agencies.

The United Nations urged civic leaders to build more liveable urban centres better for public health, society and the environment

TBILISI, Oct 31 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - COVID-19 will not spell the end of world cities, which are set to grow further over the next decade, the United Nations said on Saturday, urging civic leaders to use the pandemic as a springboard to build better, more liveable urban centres.

Land is life in Papua New Guinea. Handed down over generations from father to son, or mother to daughter. To own land is to have a lifeline, our bloodlines, our inheritance, our identity is dened, strengthened and made complete by it.For centuries the world over, blood, sweat and tears have been spilled, empires built and crumbled, heroes have risen and fell in itsdefense or acquisition, whether rightfully or not.

The Commission on Human Rights  highlighted issues faced by indigenous people as it observed the 23rd anniversary of the passage of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and the National Indigenous Peoples Month this October.

Based on the experiences faced by CHR employees on the ground, most of the human rights violations perpetrated against indigenous peoples are land-related harassments, attacks, and killings.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs that he will set up a committee to take a comprehensive look into the issue of the compulsory acquisition of lands by the government in the region.

The committee, which would be established to start work next year, would look at the possibility of restoring lands to their allodial owners, he said.

President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance when he addressed the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs in Dodowa yesterday as part of his working tour of the region.

Landowners of the Porgera gold mine in Enga Province, are seeking relief orders from the Supreme Court to declare unconstitutional recent amendments to the Mining Act that will enable the State to cease negotiations with landowners over royalties.