Mining companies have faced community protests and threats to shut operations, but many residents believe only tribal leaders are benefiting
MOGALAKWENA, South Africa, Oct 8 (Reuters) - A new power struggle is unfolding in South Africa’s old homelands between global mining giants, traditional leaders and an impoverished rural populace.
The People’s Movement for a Just Society (P-Move) led the demonstration to demand government action, saying they had been campaigning on this issue for four years but there had been no improvement. Many people who have been involved in land conflicts across the country joined in the protest.
Land rights defenders from 29 countries call for greater vigilance in ensuring governments comply with laws
MUMBAI, Sept 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dozens of land rights defenders from 29 countries have written to the United Nations to draw attention to the increasing violence they face from states and corporations, and calling for greater vigilance in ensuring governments comply with laws.
As a 53-year civil war winds down, coca growers face growing pressure to shelve their lucrative crop.
Mauricio Quiróz has always had a plan.
The 38-year-old farmer and entrepreneur lives with his wife and three kids on a small ranch on the lush, steep mountainside that surrounds the municipality of Briceño, in the department of Antioquia in northwestern Colombia.
Activists disconnected transmission towers as part of a protest demanding that their lands be returned.
A group of Indigenous Guarani activists have occupied Jaragua National Park and switched off transmission towers in Sao Paulo to protest against the privatization of state-protected nature reserves by the government of President Michel Temer.
"The main consequence will be the reduction of our lands and our culture. It will end vegetation and will grow real estate speculation," Guarani leader of the Jaragua reserve Thiago Enrique said, according to Brasil de Fato.
As land becomes less productive and people are forced to migrate to cities or abroad, there is greater likelihood of conflict over dwindling resources
ROME, Sept 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - More than 1.3 billion people live on agricultural land that is deteriorating, putting them at risk of worsening hunger, water shortages and poverty, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) said on Tuesday.
The victims were targeted by a criminal gang who wanted to use their lands to grow lucrative palm oil, according to local indigenous leaders
Six farmers have been shot dead by a criminal gang who wanted to seize their farms to muscle in on the lucrative palm oil trade, according to indigenous Amazon leaders in Peru.
“We need peace. We are tired of conflicts. So many innocent people have died and we have to stop the violence. That is why I contribute to peace-making”, says Hadiza Adam, a 38-year-old woman from Angwan Rogo community in Jos North, located in the northern Nigerian state of Plateau.
