• Critics of a government plantation scheme have slammed the program following revelations that only a fraction of forest reserves cleared for plantations over the past decade have actually been replanted.
• An investigation by environmental news site Macaranga found that only 5% of the 77,331 hectares (191,089 acres) of forest reserves cleared in Pahang state for plantations between 2012 and 2020 were replanted.
• A Pahang state opposition lawmaker has called the program a “cover-up” for a logging scheme, while an environmental activist has criticized

COLOMBO (IDN) — As land forgery continues unabated in Sri Lanka, something has to be done to prevent the prevalent rate of land fraud, with legal owners and innocent buyers unknowingly falling into these traps.

According to news sources, the Registrar General N C Withanage had said, as far back as March 2019, that 40 to 50 per cent of land deeds in Sri Lanka are forged documents.

But unfortunately, things continue to go from bad to worse.

• The Indonesian government’s decision to revoke permits for plantation firms to operate in forest areas could lead to lawsuits filed by the companies, environmental law experts say.
• The permits were rescinded at the start of the year, not because of any environmental violations, but rather because the concession holders were deemed to be moving too slowly in exploiting the resources.
• But the unilateral revocations have set up an unprecedented legal mess, observers and industry representatives say, with no clarity over whether a company that has lo

CSEP researchers studied 714 land conflicts in India to find that beyond being ‘influenced’ or ‘sensationalised’, there are objective reasons that decide media coverage.

Photo: Land in New Delhi. (Representational Image) | Photo: Manisha Mondal | ThePrint

Banner photo: Since most of the evicted families were Bengali-speaking Muslims, it was alleged that they are illegal immigrants who had forcibly occupied government land as well as land of indigenous people and also settled on grazing land. (PTI PHOTO.)

Mediation between Bunong indigenous communities in Busra and rubber company Socfin Cambodia has concluded with agreements to end a long-standing Mondulkiri province land dispute. The conflict began in 2008, although mediation did not begin until 2016.

Signatures were added to the final agreements in September, said Khloek Keosingieb, a community representative involved throughout the negotiation process. “I can’t tell you about the compensation today but we will release details when the company provides it in early 2022,” said Keosingieb.

Over 1,000 people deported to Djausdjan province. The move favours their Pashtun supporters in northern Afghanistan. Tribal council convened to resolve the case. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan ask the Taliban government to address the ethnic issue.

China’s new land border law that recently grabbed headlines apparently seeks to legitimise its use of the civilian settlement to support territorial claims along its disputed boundaries with India and Bhutan.

Land grabbing is a major cause for concern in Bangladesh. Of course, a huge amount of land is illegally grabbed. According to the Land Ministry, about 1.3 million hectares of government-owned lands are currently grabbed by influential elites. Influential persons illegally grabbed government-owned lands in char areas, riversides, roadsides, forests, hill tracts and other areas. But it is difficult to exactly say about the total amount of lands illegally grabbed because there is a lack of record of illegally grabbed private lands.