(Ecofin Agency) - In an open letter sent to the president of Madagascar on August 17, the Tany group exposed its concerns about land grabbing by foreign investors in the country. For the civil society group, whose objective “is to support the development of Malagasy farmers and citizens and defend their lands and natural resources”, it is urgent to boost land tenure and establish a stricter framework for land related transactions.

NEW DELHI, Aug 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Upgrading slums and giving tenancy rights to residents is key to climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation in India's cities, an analyst said, as the country braces for extreme weather events of greater frequency and intensity.

With 1.3 billion people and densely populated cities, India is particularly vulnerable to damage wrought by drought, cyclones, floods and extreme heat.

President Koroma today, Monday 21st of August, visited the East-end of Freetown to take stock of flood-hit areas. Meeting flood affected persons from Mountain Cut, Culvert and Wellington communities who are now seeking shelter at Brima Attouga mini-stadium, President Koroma told residents that government would do everything possible to help them rebuild their lives.

LONDON, Aug 8 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A land activist from Papua New Guinea at loggerheads with the police and developers in his home country has vowed to continue the fight for his community from Britain. Joe Moses has accused PNG authorities of treating people unfairly in demolishing the Paga Hill seafront settlement in the capital Port Moresby to make way for a luxury hotel and apartments development and a ring road. The government granted a lease to the Paga Hill Development Company (PHDC), a joint venture between local and international investors, to build on Paga Hill.

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples celebrated in the Nilgiris The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples was celebrated at the Tribal Resources Centre in Udhagamandalam on Wednesday. Organised by the Southern Regional Centre of the Anthropological Survey of India, the eco-development committees in Wenlock Downs Shooting Medu, Avalanche and Cairn Hill, as well as the Nilgiri Primitive Tribal People’s Federation, the event was attended by top officials from the forest department as well as the district police, including Srinivas R Reddy, Field Director of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and District Superintendent of Police, Murali Rambha.

Fishermen say changes will lead to environmental damage, displace coastal communities and hurt the livelihoods of millions who depend on the sea for their survival

Villagers of Klong Sai Pattana say palm oil company responsible for targeted killings and harassment of their community. Chai Buri District, Thailand - As he manoeuvred his pick-up truck along the dirt track leading to his village of Klong Sai Pattana one afternoon, Supot Kalasong, 42, heard a loud bang. He had been driving home after getting an oil-change in a nearby town and for a split second, he thought one of his tyres had exploded, burst by one of the sharp rocks on the path.

Civil Society Organisations in Edo State, under the umbrella of Coalition for Protection of the Environment, recently staged a protest against land grabbing and deforestation. Adibe Emenyonu who was there, reports

Bose Eruanga is a peasant farmer from Uzalla, Owan West Local Government Area of Edo State. Eruanga, as a widow with six children depends on the produce from the farmlands in her community to train her children.

NAIROBI — In the months leading up to Tuesday’s general election in Kenya, civil society organizations have been laying the groundwork to prevent the kind of violence that has erupted during elections past.

Amid concerns that tensions between communities could spill over into violence if the election outcome is not perceived as legitimate, organizations have been working in recent months to mitigate localized conflicts over issues such as resources, borders and land rights.

Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities are stewards of natural resources and nature. We have been conserving our territories for thousands of years. Each indigenous community has its own territory. For indigenous nomadic pastoralists our territory consists of summering grounds, wintering grounds, migration routes, stopovers and mid-way stations with different ecological, social, economic and cultural assets. These assets include forests, rangelands, wetlands, lakes, rivers, coasts, seas, and many other types of ecosystems and wildlife.

“Us guys, we bust our butts. It’s dangerous work doing what we do, but I love it out here. There’s nothing like it.” So stated Tony Gale, a veteran logger from rural New York, in an interview with Huffington Post. The digital media company recently published a comprehensive piece on the intersection between suburban development and rural communities, and Gale is representative of many in America’s rural workforce who are challenged by the changing dynamics brought about by urban sprawl.

Kenya's colonial wildlife conservation system is displacing native pastoralist communities from their historic lands.