In the fight for land and to protect the environment, communities around the world are struggling against governments, companies and criminal gangs

MUMBAI, Feb 6 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Last week's killing of Cambodian forest defenders, and the recent shooting of Indonesian farmers, show the increasing involvement of state forces in quelling dissent against agribusiness, campaigners said.

About 2.5 billion people around the globe, including 370 million indigenous people, depend on land and natural resources that are held, used, and managed collectively.

This means that one third of the world’s population is vulnerable to dispossession by more powerful actors. As stated by the “Land Rights Now” campaign, indigenous peoples protect more than 50% of world’s land surface but have formally recognized ownership over just 10%.

After lengthy treks through the muddy Amazon, indigenous men, women and children will greet Pope Francis Friday in a visit to the world's largest rainforest that indigenous leaders hope will mark a turning point for the increasingly threatened ecosystem.

After lengthy treks through the muddy Amazon, indigenous men, women and children will greet Pope Francis Friday in a visit to the world's largest rainforest that native leaders hope will mark a turning point for the increasingly threatened ecosystem.

UN indigenous rights chief urges Chile to stop using the country's anti-terrorism law to prosecute the Mapuche people

BOGOTA, Jan 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Latin America is trampling on indigenous rights and jailing ever more campaigners to stifle opposition to big business taking over ancestral lands, according to a United Nations expert.

Is the government of Papua New Guinea turning a blind eye while the country's forests are destroyed?

Environmental groups say Papua New Guinea's government is sitting back while the country's rainforests are being destroyed.

The Pacific nation has just overtaken Malaysia to become the world's biggest exporter of tropical hardwood.

• The Mercosur trade bloc (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay) and the European Union are expected to conclude trade negotiations and put finishing touches on a trade agreement by the end of this year.
• That pact will include landmark indigenous human rights clauses meant to protect indigenous groups from violence, land theft and other civil rights violations.

Indigenous peoples and other local communities play a vital role when it comes to mitigating the impact of climate change. But despite inhabiting 50 per cent of the world’s land, these communities legally own just 10 per cent of it. As a result, civil society groups are calling on governments around the world to scale up the protection of customary land rights.

Johannesburg – The Constitutional Court ruled on Monday that a black community holds a right to certain portions of the Salem Commonage in the Eastern Cape and was dispossessed of the land due to past racially discriminatory practices.

According to the judgment, penned by Justice Edwin Cameron and concurred by nine others, the community had rights – but not exclusive rights – to the commonage.

Forest foods are in high demand in haats or tribal community markets and nearby rural markets. Forest produce such as honey, amla and several fruits are in great demand in urban malls. Though this may appear as an opportunity for economic empowerment of the tribal communities, this may lead to degradation of the forests, hampering availability.

The Mashco Piro, an isolated tribe in Peru's Amazon, are increasingly making contact with the outside world

DIAMANTE (Peru), Dec 6 - In Peru's remote southern Amazon, villagers rushed to the riverbank to witness a rare sighting - a group of Mashco Piro nomads standing on the other side, brandishing bows and arrows.

An elder from the indigenous hunter-gatherers, who have lived largely in isolation inside the rainforest for millennia, called to the Diamante villagers to ferry them across.

The conflict in Argentina between the indigenous Mapuche community and the national government has claimed another victim: Rafael Nahuel, an indigenous 22-year-old who was killed while resisting a raid by government forces on indigenous activists in the province of Río Negro.