• A new report suggests that the garment industry is contributing to deforestation in Cambodia due to factories relying on illegal forest wood to generate electricity.
• Garment factories were found to use at least 562 tons of forest wood every day, the equivalent of up to 1,418 hectares (3,504 acres) of forest being burned each year, according to the report.
• Between 2001 and 2019, Cambodia is reported to have lost an estimated 2.7 million hectares (6.7 million acres) of forest through deforestation.

• With the Indonesian government refusing to renew a three-year ban on issuing licenses for new oil palm plantations, experts are warning of a deforestation free-for-all.
• The end of the moratorium means companies can once again apply to develop new plantations, including clearing forests to do.
• This coincides with a rally in the crude palm oil price due to tightening supply, which activists say portends a possible surge in deforestation.
• According to one analysis, rainforests spanning an area half the size of California, or 21 mil

Almost four years’ of political manoeuvring to amend the Constitution to expressly provide compensationless expropriation ended with a whimper. But Tuesday’s debate brought out lowbrow political slander, with references to sell-outs, cowards, handlers and counter-revolutionaries across the floor of the House.

The Expropriation Expert Group, founded in 2013 as a collaborative effort of the universities of Cape Town, Groningen, and Nijmegen, is inviting original and innovative contributions to our sixth international conference and the fourth part of our Rethinking Expropriation Law series. We are returning to our roots, Groningen in the Netherlands, the place of our first conference, to continue the stimulating intellectual exchange on expropriation law at our previous conferences.

Bruce Whitfield gets comment from Associate Professor of Law Elmien Du Plessis (North West University). 

Audio from the interview is available from Radio 702

It took three years to get to this point, but the National Assembly has rejected the ANC policy on the expropriation of land without compensation.

The National Assembly has failed to pass the Constitutional Amendment Bill to allow for expropriation of land without compensation.

On Tuesday, the ANC failed to convince parties and muster the two-thirds majority vote it needed to push the bill through.

Only 204 MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 145 voted against it.

During the debate, ad hoc committee chairperson Dr Mathole Motshekga said the amendment bill sought to address a crime against the African majority.