Decades-long legal disputes over land could cost tens of millions of dollars, research says

LONDON - Food companies doing business in Africa risk becoming bogged down in decades-long legal disputes over land that could cost tens of millions of dollars, according to a report released on Monday.

From sugar to coffee and palm oil, agribusiness firms could find that the land they are using is already claimed or occupied by local people, researchers said.

The Supreme Court has directed 17 states to evict the Scheduled Tribe members and traditional forest-dwellers, whose claims to Forest Rights Act had been rejected, before July 27.

Innovation Programme Call for Proposals 2019. The Cities Alliance has launched a Call for Proposals to award small grants for innovative ways to improve tenure security, land and property rights in African cities.

The Secure Tenure in African Cities initiative

The Constitutional Court’s October 2018 judgment was pivotal in protecting the secure land tenure by persons previously disadvantaged by apartheid laws

The current clamour for redistribution of land in SA has heightened interest in land reform and placed raging sociopolitical discourse at centre stage.

Rapid felling of South Sudan's teak forests, largely by foreign-owned firms, has drawn protests - and brings environmental risks

KATIRE, South Sudan - Sprawling teak forests, planted nearly a century ago to supply lumber and government income, are fast disappearing in South Sudan as timber companies take advantage of the country's chaos to extract large amounts of wood, environmentalists say.

• New Minister of Infrastructure Tarcísio Gomes de Freitas is considered one of President Jair Bolsonaro’s most capable ministers.

The People's Movement for a Just Society (P-Move), a grassroots group campaigning for land rights for the rural poor, has asked the government to help 486 communities that are waiting for land title deeds. 

These forest dwellers, who have been living on national park land for generations, now find their homes are classified as encroaching on protected land following policy changes over the past 30 years. 

• A court in Ecuador’s Sucumbíos province has ordered that the mining concessions already in operation on territory claimed by the Cofán indigenous people, and those currently in the process of being granted, must be canceled, affecting some 324 square kilometers (125 square miles) in total.
• The ruling also requires that reparations be made for any impacts caused by recent mining.
• For the community, the court’s decision is a victory that represents a milestone for the rights of all indigenous communities in Ecuador.

In January 201

Agricultores do município da Cela, província do Cuanza- Sul, solicitaram ao governador da provincial, Job Capapinha, apoio para relançarem a produção agro-pecuária.

Celebrating Great Deeds in Legal Empowerment

The biennial Grassroots Justice Prize competition is the world’s only competition recognizing grassroots organizations and institutions, large and small, across the globe, that are working to put the power of law into people’s hands.

This year, we are offering 3 prizes of $10,000 USD.

PETALING JAYA: The Orang Asli community in Grik today claimed that the Perak government has encroached onto their land to carry out logging, barely a month after Putrajaya sued the Kelantan government for a similar alleged infraction.

Villagers from Kampung Tasik Cunex Grik have set up a blockade to prevent lorries from ferrying felled timber from entering the area.

On Feb 1, they lodged a police report on the matter.

They also claim the logging company and the Perak Forestry Department are threatening them.

Costa Rica decided to take the challenge of decarbonizing its economy, for which the transportation sector represents a fundamental challenge, followed by the solid waste sector.

Inventories of greenhouse gases (GHG) made by the municipalities of San José, Desamparados, Belén, La Unión, Monteverde and Golfito show that both activities are the main sources of GHG across the six municipalities.