PENAMPANG: The country’s first indigenous Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum may get a “tweak on the ear” when the United Nation Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples makes her official visit to Malaysia.

Senator Adrian Lasimbang said on Monday that Malanjum’s appointment to the top post of the judiciary has been one of the highest recognition to the vulnerable and minority indigenous communities in Malaysia.

He believes the Sabahan’s top judge’s appointment has also been one of the many positives under the new government of the country.

If the main purpose of government is to provide for the common security of its citizens, surely ensuring the security of the food system must be among its paramount duties.

The United Nations identifies the food crisis as one of the primary and overarching challenges facing the international community today. It is inter-related in complex ways to the current global economic crisis and the longer-term environmental and climate crises that stand before us.

Monrovia – A three-day Experience and Lessons sharing workshop on a range of land tenure topics, including Land Administration Reforms, Customary Land Rights, Land Administration Systems, and Spatial Planning is being convened at a local hotel in Monrovia.

• A still controversial 2012 update to the Brazilian Forest Code that reduced the area required for legal reserves on rural private properties is endangering more than 15 million hectares (57,915 square miles) of Amazon forest, an area roughly the size of the U.S. state of Georgia, according to a recent study.

In El Estor, Guatemala, women lead fight for land rights despite added risk of sexual violence and stigma.

El Estor, Guatemala - Since her teen years, Maria Magdalena Cuc Choc, now 39, has defended the natural resources of El Estor, a predominantly Mayan Q'eqchi' community on the western edge of Lake Izabal. The calm, blue water surrounded by lush forest cover is home to hundreds of species of freshwater fish, lizards, crocodiles, manatees and more.

The claims are by tribal or pastoral communities seeking community rights over forest land they have inhabited for generations.

Under a land reformation act, millions of farmers across Myanmar could be forced from land they have tilled for generations. Many are unaware of the danger they face. Peter Yeung and Carlotta Dotto report from Yangon.

It took less than a day for Daw Oo Naing's entire banana plantation to be destroyed. A group of 21 men carrying long knives arrived quietly in the morning and made quick work of hacking down her 600 trees, which were still young with tender trunks.

As the Samburu fight for control over natural resources, Samburu women are demanding to be heard

The Samburu, a pastoralist indigenous tribe from the vast semi-arid and arid rangelands of Northern Kenya, face many of the same challenges as other indigenous communities around the world. They have few opportunities to influence or manage activities that affect their environment, and insufficient information and understanding of their entitlements and rights when large development and infrastructure projects come to do business on their lands.