RUNDU – Communal land boards across the country are facing a challenge of many requests for land in their areas, with over 30 000 applications yet to be processed, land reform minister Calle Schlettwein has said. 

Applications for both existing and new customary land rights have increasingly gone up despite numerous achievements recorded over the last three years by the outgoing communal land boards. 

Schlettwein last week Friday inaugurated the communal land boards for Kavango East, Kavango West, Ohangwena and Zambezi at Rundu.  

Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya has asked the National Land Commission to assist in repossessing land allocated illegally to senior civil servants.

Oparanya said that prime plots were allocated to former and current civil servants, politicians and influential businessmen who are demanding compensation for the land.

"We are battling cases where senior public officers allocated plots fraudulently are demanding compensation. This is an area where we require NLC's intervention because the plots are lying idle," Governor Oparanya said.

PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday reminded senior administrative officials to use good sense to boost investments, instead of being held back by law provisions

She made this remark when addressing senior administrative officials for various regions , cautioning them to undertake their duties diligently, as she will not tolerate underperformance.

The president said she was aware that those entrusted with such positions at local government levels abuse such positions, like arrogating land for their own use against interests of people in those areas.

Livestock farmers in Gomba District have asked Parliament to swiftly intervene and block attempts by National Forestry Authority (NFA) to parcel out the remaining part of two central forest reserves of Kalombe and Nsowe to private investors.
NFA is mandated to manage all central forest reserves in the country.

NUR-SULTAN -- Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev has signed into law a long-debated and sensitive bill that bans selling and leasing agricultural land to foreigners in the oil-rich Central Asian state.

Construction of the Lokichar to Lamu crude oil pipeline whose implementation was set for 2020 will be delayed until the end of the year due to land acquisition issues.

The 820km pipeline, which is a key component of the Sh2.5 trillion Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia Transport (Lappset) corridor project, is facing challenges related to land compensation.

(New York) – Thai authorities should immediately investigate the killing of Somsak Onchuenjit, a lawyer and land rights activist, in Trang province in southern Thailand, Human Rights Watch said today. Successive Thai governments have failed to prevent or adequately respond to attacks against human rights defenders who represent landless farmers.

The High Court in Kampala has ruled that National Environmental Authority was right to allow sugarcane growing on Bugoma Forest land.

Conservationists including Water and Environment Media Network Uganda Limited (WEMNET-U), National Association of Professional Environmentalists(NAPE) and the African Institute for Energy Governance went to court challenging the Environment and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) report approved by NEMA that allowed Hoima Sugar Limited to conduct sugarcane growing in the disputed Bugoma Central Forest Reserve.

PESHAWAR: Terror incidents reduced significantly in erstwhile Fata after merger with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The credit for improvement goes to the security forces and other institutions.

However, increasing land disputes are now troubling the peaceful environment of merged districts and dozens of people have lost their lives in clashes over such disputes. Peaceful resolution of these disputes by bringing all parties to disputes to negotiating table is a huge challenge for the administration.

Last week’s violence was some of the worst the border has seen, with more than 40 killed. 

Local people evicted and livelihoods at risk in Barguna district, as civil society group warns plant will damage important hilsa fish populations.

A Chinese-backed coal power plant is being built in Bangladesh allegedly by evicting locals from their land and grabbing a riverbed.

Fear of China fueled the activism, though frustrations had accumulated over stagnant living conditions in the provinces.

Kazakhstan is on the cusp of imposing a permanent ban on the sale and lease of agricultural land to foreigners. It is a rare victory for grassroots campaigning, but may be a blow for a sector in sore need of outside investment and expertise.