Neil Sorensen joined the Land Portal as its Communications Specialist in October 2015. He has extensive experience leading communications for international organizations and developing relationships with civil society, donors, intergovernmental agencies, the media and the private sector. Previously, Neil worked for the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) as a Governing Bodies Officer and Strategic Adviser to the Secretary of IFAD. He has also led communications for three international organizations, including the International Land Coalition, the International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP) and the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM). He holds a Master’s degree in Global Diplomacy from the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as well as a Bachelor’s degree with a double major in German and Sociology from St. Cloud State University.
Details
Location
“Now that we own our land we can protect it.”
The Hadzabe people of northern Tanzania are one of the world’s oldest communities. Living at the base of the Rift Valley, believed to be the origin of human species, the Hadzabe live as they always have.
For tens of thousands of years, the Hadzabe have hunted and gathered food in their forests. There has never been a single account of famine.
BAGAYO PETRO, Hadzabe, Yaeda Valley, Tanzania
Myanmar: Govt. will return lands confiscated during military rule; legislator alleged that 200 acres were instead sold to businesses
Government vows to speed up return of confiscated farmland
The Myanmar government has almost finished a review of farmland confiscated during military rule and will hasten its return this year, an official of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation said.
Why Rattan Manjari Fights for Tribal Women's Land Rights in Himachal Pradesh
When Manjari was 23, she was elected the first woman pradhan in her village as well as in all of Himachal Pradesh. She hasn't looked back since.
Have your say on the amending the South African Constitution in relation to land expropriation
Have Your Say: The Draft Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill [B – 2019]
The ad hoc Committee to initiate and introduce legislation amending section 25 of the Constitution invites stakeholders and interested persons to submit written submissions on the Draft Constitution Eighteenth Amendment Bill [B – 2019]
The Land Portal Foundation Helping to Build AGROVOC Community of Experts for LandVoc Scheme with Online Course and One-Day Workshop in 2020
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations will work together with The Land Portal Foundation to create a community of experts for AGROVOC’s LandVoc scheme, enriching AGROVOC’s content, relevancy and use for the land and agricultural sector with an online course, along with a one-day workshop in May, 2020.
Land conference ends with call for actions to help root corruption out of sector
The 2019 Conference on Land Policy in Africa ended in Abidjan Friday November 29th with academic institutions pledging to work with traditional leaders in coming up with solutions to land governance challenges on the continent in an effort to root corruption out of the land sector.
Stakeholders attending the five-day conference made various calls at the end of the meeting but perhaps the most profound one was by the continent’s traditional leaders who made a commitment to review cultural practices and beliefs that have long denied women access to land.
Pygmy Indigenous leader imprisoned on false charges for defending land rights against ''conservation''
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, indigenous pygmy communities displaced from their lands for “conservation” and a community leader imprisoned for defending their rights
Colla Indigenous leader criminalized for resisting Canadian mining projects in Chile
Ercilia Araya is the President of Pai-Ote, a Colla Indigenous community of 60 people in the Atacama Region of Northern Chile. Since 2014, Ercilia has been criminalized and harassed for defending her community’s land rights against mining projects, and denouncing the pollution of sacred water sources in the Andes.
The ancestral territory of Pai-Ote is of great mineral wealth and includes the “Maricunga Strip”, one of the most important gold districts in the country. At least a dozen gold mining projects, most of them Canadian, are operating there.
Death threats for defending land and water from a coal mine: Force of Wayúu Women in Colombia
Members of the organization Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu (Force of Wayúu Women) have received death threats and been subject to defamation and stigmatization for opposing the harmful effects of a mining project in La Guajira, Colombia.
Force of Wayúu women is part of a group of four organizations that filed a nullity claim for the environmental license granted to the multinational company Carbones de El Cerrejón, which owns one of the largest open pit coal mining mines in the world. The presence of the mine in the region has had a devastating effect on the quality of li