Ethiopia's Mursi tribe says they were imprisoned and tortured to protect Chinese sugar plantations.

OMO VALLEY, Ethiopia — One night, in his village of 20 grass huts in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, Golonkiwo had a nightmare. As a komoru, or mystic of the Mursi tribe, Golonkiwo’s duty is to receive and interpret dream prophecies. It is a vital role, passed down from father to son in one of the world’s oldest surviving cultures.

“In my dream, I saw the government soldiers coming for us,” Golonkiwo stated. “They killed a lot of people.”

The nature  and scale of investments in land in developing countries has divided opinion  many contexts, especially where local people depend on access to land for agriculture.

It has been more than a decade since 64-year old Khorn Khorn lost three hectares of land to a close ally of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

PHNOM PENH — 

It has been more than a decade since 64-year old Khorn Khorn lost three hectares of land to a close ally of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen. The controversial senator Ly Yong Phat wanted the holding to expand a sugarcane plantation in Kampong Speu province.

One of the many recommendations made by President Hage Geingob’s High-Level Panel on the Namibian Economy (HLPE) is that Namibia implements its comprehensive national policy on climate change released in 2011. 

The goal of the national policy on climate change is to contribute to the attainment of sustainable development in line with Namibia’s Vision 2030, through strengthening national capacities to reduce climate change risk and build resilience for any climate change shocks.

• Indigenous communities and human rights NGOs contend that Pluspetrol violated a set of business standards issued by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• The complaint, delivered March 11 in the Netherlands, says the company has avoided paying taxes and has failed to address damage to the environment in the Peruvian Amazon caused by its oil-drilling activities through 2015.

The Minister of Environment Professor Foday Moriba Jaward, has disclosed to Head of Ministries Departments and Agencies ( MDA)that deforestation is a serious threat to water supply in Sierra Leone.  Large-scale cutting down of trees, construction of buildings and other environmentally unsustainable practices, in and around the capital city’s water catchment area according to experts, accounts for some of the main reasons why Freetown is plagued with water shortages particularly during the dry season. The discussions were held at the request of Vice President Dr.

A group of 160 poor families from the Bunong indigenous community in Mondulkiri province’s Pech Chreada district have filed a complaint against their representative, accusing him of selling land earmarked for them as part of a social land concession.

Community member Kroeung Tola told The Post on Wednesday that the 160 families were entitled to 2,400ha to be divided between them as stated in a sub-decree in 2012, but as of now, most of the poor families had not received their plots.

Green Scenery a Civil Society Organisation working on environment issues has issued a press release calling for government to halt all logging and exporting of timber. Green Scenery is anxious to see the Government of Sierra Leone put behind logging and log exporting as a means of revenue generation.

Politicians and influencers are signing up to the campaign, but to get things right we must keep in mind the science behind it, says Tom Crowther

GBARNGA, BONG COUNTY – A conference on the formalization of customary land on Thursday opened in Gbarnga, Bong County for local and county officials of Lofa, Bong and Nimba. 

The Land Rights Act of 2018 recognizes customary land ownership but communities must first meet certain requirements the law mandates to have legal right to their land. As per the requirements, communities must first identify themselves as land bodies, create a community land governance structures, harmonize their boundaries with their neighbors, and then conduct a confirmatory survey.  

For Mimi Pabai, 42, a mother of three, she can now see light at the end of the tunnel with the introduction of the EU-funded Boosting Agriculture and Food Security (BAFS) project in which selected farmers in Bo District are beneficiaries. In the Faala community of the Bo District, Southern Province of Sierra Leone, where she is head of the Gualatima Women’s Cooperative, there are visible signs of the gains brought to her farming activities. “Life was hard when I lost my husband during the January 6, 1999 rebel invasion of Freetown at the climax of the 11-year civil war of Sierra Leone.  I r

The Land Portal Foundation is seeking a dynamic and highly motivated Information Management Officer to support us in leading the information and data sharing needs of the Land Portal.  The Information Management Officer will ensure the development of information partnerships, lead the development of land information ecosystems, contribute to open data capacity building efforts, as well as promote and enrich land data standards.