BOVEN DIGOEL, Indonesia — It’s a hot and humid morning, and birds and insects are chirping deep in a lush rainforest in the eastern Indonesian province of Papua.
All of a sudden, the sounds are drowned out by tribal chanting and the thunder of dozens of people marching, echoing through the forest like a mild earthquake. Brandishing bows and arrows, they sing and dance their way toward the village of Uni in Boven Digoel district.
As energy-hungry India seeks to fuel its continued economic growth, millions of people are being pushed out of their homes by companies, villagers say
By Megha Bahree
PIDARWAH, India - Siyaram Saket refuses to give up his one-and-a-half acres of farmland in central India - no matter how much the coal mining company offers him.
Whatever the amount, said the 55-year-old, it will not be enough to replace the value of the fertile land feeding his family of six in Pidarwah village, Singrauli district.
"Gender, Land and Mining in Pastoralist Tanzania" is the product of rigorous field research over two years by WOLTS team members from Mokoro and HakiMadini. Significant stresses from mining, population growth and climate change, as well as disturbing levels of violence against women have been uncovered in this study of two traditional pastoralist communities in Tanzania. Initial findings are based on repeat rounds of participatory fieldwork by the WOLTS team and have already received attention at national and local level.
Successful agricultural development initiatives associated with poverty reduction have seldom included large-scale land-based investment. Feed the Future focuses on smallholder-led agricultural growth as the principal engine of poverty reduction and food security. Investment in agriculture of all sizes, however, can be constructive and is encouraged by the U.S. Government, but investments must take into account specific country contexts and circumstances and respect the rights of local populations.
NAIROBI - Chiefs across Liberia are petitioning lawmakers while activists prepare for a sit-in protest in the nation's capital as they push to secure ancestral land rights, regarded as key to averting renewed bloodshed in the resource-rich country.
About 100 women marched on the presidential palace last week to kick off a campaign to amend the Land Rights Act (LRA), a watered-down version of which was passed by the House of Representatives in August, after years of delay, activists said.
Land and water-related conflicts are flaring up across Kenya, amid drought, population growth and high unemployment
By Kagondu Njagi
CHUKA, Kenya - Phyllis Mugeni was watering her greens when she spotted a dozen armed men advancing from the lowlands to attack farmers working on the banks of the River Naka in the foothills of Mount Kenya.
GULU, Uganda - When Julius Peter was finally freed after seven years held hostage by Uganda's notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, he and his family hoped their lives would finally return to normal.
Instead, it was the start of a whole new ordeal.
As President Donald Trump ponders his response to yet another chemical weapons attack in Syria, advisers and commentators alike are mired in short-term calculations. But one day the Syrian conflict will come to an end. Whether this will involve the kind of negotiated settlement being sought in Geneva, or a much less formal accommodation of a bleak status quo, the resolution of housing, land and property (HLP) rights will be an essential part of any future peace.
Of the 312 human rights defenders murdered across the world in 2017, 212 of them (67.9 percent) were from Latin America, according to a new report by Ireland-based non-profit Front Line Defenders.
The group published the data in its annual Human Rights Defenders at Risk report.
Per the report, 80 percent of worldwide killings took place in four countries: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and the Philippines.
With a population of 163 million people and an area of only 147,570 square kilometers, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Land scarcity, insecure tenure, and other factors have contributed to a high volume of land conflicts. Such problems are compounded by Bangladesh’s weak land governance systems, extensive informal settlements in urban areas and widespread landlessness in rural areas.
