By: Sizwe Sama Yende
Date: November 1st 2016
Source: City Press

Criminal charges have been laid relating to one of the biggest land claim scams in the country – potentially costing the government millions – but the rural development and land reform department says it knows nothing about it.

Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan opened a criminal case on October 14 regarding the inflation of land prices in the Badplaas area.

Press release by War on Want

Date: November 2nd 2016

Source: War on Want

By: Alisa Tang

Date: November 3rd 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Land conflicts in Myanmar have escalated in recent years, with military and armed groups driving people from their land, and new laws failing to protect farmers, a rights watchdog said on Thursday.

By: Sulok Tawie

Date: October 25th 2016

Source: The Malay Mail Online

KUCHING, Oct 25 — Tan Sri Adenan Satem can prevent more deaths by establishing a Land Rights Commission to deal with disputes between natives and plantation companies, Sarawak PKR chairman Baru Bian said today.

By: Lewis S. Teh

Date: October 11th 2016

Source: The New Dawn Liberia

Liberia’s Minister of Information has warned here that land remains a major source of conflict in Liberia. Minister Lenn Eugene Nagbe said government has been involved in a land reform process for the past years, and the significance behind such reform process is to halt all disputes about land across the country.

By: Mark Keith Muhumuza

Date: October 10th 2016

Source: AllAfrica.com / The Monitor

Kampala — Land owners will have to sell their land to the government if a prospecting mining company makes a discovery.

In the ongoing review of the Mining Act 2003 and Mining Policy, landowners will no longer be required to negotiate with investors - mineral rights holders - for compensation on their land if a mining company wants to carry out mining activities.

By: Rina Chandran

Date: October 4th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

MUMBAI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indian officials have been slow to implement a landmark law giving rights to forests to indigenous people because they view it as a handicap to development projects spurring expansion in the fast-growing economy, a land rights campaigner said.

By: Jatindra Dash

Date: October 3rd 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

BHUBANESWAR, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Villagers in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand vowed to continue their protest against a coal mine after four people were killed when police opened fire during clashes at the weekend, forcing a halt to operations at the site.

By: Cod Satrusayang

Date: October 3rd 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the Thai capital on Monday calling on the junta to address land rights and housing needs in what police and organizers said was one of the biggest demonstrations since the May 2014 coup.

By: Manuela Picq

Date: September 29th 2016

Source: Intercontinental Cry Magazine

Challenging Terra Nullius in the courts of Guatemala

Copones is a large Maya Q’eqchi’ territory in Guatemala, in the northern province of Quiché along the Mexican border with Chiapas. Q’eqchi’ communities have lived in Copones for millennia, caring for rivers and the land generation after generation. Their territory extends over 20,000 hectares of clean rivers and fertile land.

By: Chris Arsenault

Date: September 29th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

RIO DE JANEIRO (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - One of the world's biggest gold mining firms has pledged to improve its dispute resolution practices following an 18-month investigation into a bitter, ongoing conflict over land between farmers and its Peruvian subsidiary.

By: Chris Arsenault

Date: September 28th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

BRASILIA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When George Porto joined Brazil's environment agency 13 years ago, the country didn't have access to satellite data on illegal logging -- let alone heat maps tracking deforestation patterns or gun-toting agents dedicated to stopping ecological crimes.

How times have changed.