Authorities in Koh Kong province are searching for the individuals who set up border posts on nearly 200ha of protected forest, with officials and activists claiming that powerful tycoons had hired local people to encroach on the land.

On Sothearith, governor of Koh Kong’s Thma Bang district, told The Post on November 22 that after protected forest land was allocated to people who had lived in the district’s Russey Chrum commune for many years, some people came in to claim the conservation areas with the intent to sell the land to businessmen.

Hundreds of people gathered in front of the Koh Kong Provincial Court on November 18 to await the sentencing of their three community land representatives who were accused of defamation related to a land dispute.

Provincial court prosecutor Un Sovantheany identified the three activists as Phao Nherng, Seng Lin and Khon Phon. They were sued for defamation by one of their former fellow representatives, Chhay Vy.

Vy said the three had falsely accused her of persuading people living in Sre Ambel district’s Chi Khor Leu commune to sell their community land.

With support of the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund through the project “Addressing Conflicts Over Land and Natural Resources in The Gambia”

The national government’s upcoming plan to re-open the world-class Porgera mine in Enga Province will hit a snag because local landowners are claiming billions of kina in compensation.

Prime Minister James Marape and Minister for Mining Johnson Tuke recently announced that the government was taking Porgera mine seriously and will re-open it in due time.

The Commission on Human Rights  highlighted issues faced by indigenous people as it observed the 23rd anniversary of the passage of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act and the National Indigenous Peoples Month this October.

Based on the experiences faced by CHR employees on the ground, most of the human rights violations perpetrated against indigenous peoples are land-related harassments, attacks, and killings.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has assured the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs that he will set up a committee to take a comprehensive look into the issue of the compulsory acquisition of lands by the government in the region.

The committee, which would be established to start work next year, would look at the possibility of restoring lands to their allodial owners, he said.

President Akufo-Addo gave the assurance when he addressed the Greater Accra Regional House of Chiefs in Dodowa yesterday as part of his working tour of the region.

A licence to restart work at an iron ore opencast mine has been issued despite complaints of poor working conditions and dust and water pollution affecting the surrounding areas.

The second-biggest mountain in eSwatini, located in the north-east near the main border gate, is called Ngwenya because, at first glance, it looks like a crocodile. On its crown is a massive man-made crater, and on its side is a small hollow big enough to shelter a pride of lions, called the Lion Cavern.

Main photo: The yak (Bos grunniens and Bos mutus) is a long-haired bovid found throughout the Himalaya region of south Central Asia, the Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia and Russia. (Used under Creative Commons license) Flickr/Arian Zwegers

An innovative community-based forest management policy has resolved a long-simmering land-use conflict between migratory yak herders and sedentary residents in a remote area of Bhutan.

Some chiefs in the Greater Accra Region have threatened to demonstrate against the government over lands that were seized from them by the state.

The aggrieved chiefs threatened a 4-day protest asking the government to immediately release to them lands that were confiscated by the state years ago.

The Religion Ministry will now require pagodas to have hard land titles as part of an effort to better regulate religious institutions in the country, a move some monks said would tighten authorities’ control of monks who participate in social work.

On Monday, the ministry issued a new directive requiring pagodas to file for land registration with authorities’ assistance, as well as announcing a temporary halt to new applications to establish Christian churches.

Main photo: Cambodian farmer and land rights activist Oum Samorl (photo: Ridan Sun)

Cambodian farmer Oum Samorl and her family lost their farm to a corporate land grab 15 years ago. They have never stopped feeling the loss, especially during the pandemic.

Oum Samorl remembers the day in June 2006 when tractors invaded her family’s farm in Cambodia’s Pailin province. 

The Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction said on Tuesday that it had completed handing out land concessions to 1,382 families in Kampong Damrei commune, in Kratie province’s Chhlong district.

Its statement came as some residents claimed they never received the land.

 

The ministry said the provincial administration and land division committee had separated families who were entitled to the land into three groups and completed handing it over on June 10.