A court in northern Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province on Wednesday sentenced land-rights activist Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu to eight years in prison each for posting online articles and livestream videos criticizing the government for its handling of a deadly land-rights clash last year.

The eight-year terms for the pair, who worked to raise awareness of the socially and politically explosive issue of land grabs in the country of 95 million people, will be followed by three years each on probation, the court’s judgment said.

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.

• President Rodrigo Duterte has lifted a ban on issuing licenses for new mining operations in the Philippines, marking an about-face from a previous anti-mining stance that saw him ban open-pit mining in 2017 and close or suspend 26 mining operations for environmental violations.
• The government says the industry, which contributed 0.76% to the country’s GDP in 2020, is important in resuscitating an economy bogged down by the COVID-19 pandemic, by generating revenue and jobs and contributing to Duterte’s flagship infrastructure program.
• Duterte’s pi

DORDABIS residents have threatened war if the government fails to meet their demands listed in a petition they handed over last week, which land reform minister Calle Schlettwein said he had not received as of yesterday.

This is despite Windhoek rural constituency councillor Piet Adams confirming to The Namibian that he presented the petition to the minister's office.

Dordabis residents staged a demonstration last week over their landlessness and to demand an improvement in their living conditions.

 The Africa Region Director (ARD), Africa provides leadership for all of Landesa’s work in Africa and is part of a broader team developing and overseeing Landesa’s work globally. The ARD provides technical and managerial leadership, direction, and coordination of program staff to ensure the effective achievement of Landesa’s regional program objectives.

LAND grabs and encroachment on protected forest are becoming more rampant in northern Cambodia, said environmental activists.

Cambodian forest and wildlife conservationists said it was increasing, especially in the Phnom Tnout-Phnom Pok Wildlife Sanctuary, which spans two districts in Preah Vihear province and one district in Siem Reap province.

They said it was a bad sign for the future of Cambodia's wildlife sanctuaries if the trend continued.

Adan Medina, a vocal activist in disputes with loggers and landowners, was shot and killed by a group of men

An indigenous leader and activist was killed in northern Honduras, officials said on Wednesday, the second such murder in the Central American country in less than a week.

Adan Medina, 46, of the Tolupan indigenous community, was shot and killed by a group of men on Sunday after returning from work in the town of Candelaria, according to Noe Rodriguez, the president of a local indigenous federation.

Main image: photo of Grabbing char land, influentials have been digging ponds for fish farming in Sonagazi upazila of Feni. Dhaka Tribune

Leaders of plain land indigenous people demand to be supervised under a separate ministry

The indigenous people of the plain land are still victims of various discrimination and their demands, including constitutional recognition, stay in limbo. They are struggling to protect their lands from encroachers.

Police are still investigating the murder of a pagoda chief monk who was found dead on the morning of December 20 in Vihear Luong commune in Kandal province’s northernmost Ponhea Leu district.

The body of Chey Rith, the chief monk of Preah Chedei Thmey pagoda in Chedei Thmey village, was found in his room with bruises on his face and mouth and a rope had been tied around his neck.

The victim’s relatives claim that land titles and other valuable property have gone missing and were possibly stolen in the incident.

As indigenous campaigner Alessandra Munduruku wins the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award, she says the Amazon is 'crying for help

SAO PAULO, Oct 22 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Alessandra Munduruku, a leader of Brazil's Munduruku indigenous community, has seen her home broken into and been threatened over her work defending her people and their Amazon land from illegal miners and loggers, hydropower plants and other threats.