Members of the organization Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu (Force of Wayúu Women) have received death threats and been subject to defamation and stigmatization for opposing the harmful effects of a mining project in La Guajira, Colombia.

Force of Wayúu women is part of a group of four organizations that filed a nullity claim for the environmental license granted to the multinational company Carbones de El Cerrejón, which owns one of the largest open pit coal mining mines in the world. The presence of the mine in the region has had a devastating effect on the quality of li

Ranked as a country most vulnerable to the impact of climate change, The Philippines is also the most dangerous place in the world to defend land rights and the environment. President Duterte’s government has enabled seizures of Indigenous lands by an environmentally damaging gold and copper mining project. When communities stand up to defend their land, they face threats, intimidation, criminalisation and even murder.

Bernardo Caal is an indigenous Q’eqchi leader from Guatemala currently serving a seven year prison sentence. His crime? Defending the Cahabón River, one of the largest in the country, against two hydroelectric dams.  

The river is of plays a central role in the lives of 195 Q’eqchi communities in the municipality of Santa María de Cahabón, in the department of Alta Verapáz. Today it is under threat from seven hydroelectric projects that have already destroyed hectares of primary forests and hills that are sacred to the Q’eqchi.  

The 2019 Conference on Land Policy in Africa ended in Abidjan Friday November 29th with academic institutions pledging to work with traditional leaders in coming up with solutions to land governance challenges on the continent in an effort to root corruption out of the land sector.

Stakeholders attending the five-day conference made various calls at the end of the meeting but perhaps the most profound one was by the continent’s traditional leaders who made a commitment to review cultural practices and beliefs that have long denied women access to land.

GENEVA - The U.N. human rights office is lambasting the Colombian government for failing to stop massacres of indigenous peoples by criminal gangs.
 
The latest atrocity occurred Tuesday in Tacueyo in Northern Cauca in southwest Colombia. Criminal groups trying to enter indigenous ancestral lands shot and killed five indigenous people and severely wounded six others.  Among the victims is a prominent human rights defender, Cristina Bautista.

Karina García is the latest candidate to be killed ahead of local elections. Residents say the peace that a 2016 deal was supposed to bring has not arrived

When she launched her campaign to be the town’s first female mayor, Karina García was already household name in Suárez, a conflict-ridden municipality in western Colombia.

ILC and the Sheffield Institute for International Development - University of Sheffield are inviting members to express their interest to host Master students for six to eight weeks in June and July 2020. Students are self-funded. They will carry out research on land governance related issues (at least 60% of their time), and support institutional tasks (up to 40% of their time).

Deadline: 15 November 2019

• Indonesia’s outgoing parliament has decided to hold off passing a slate of new bills, including on mining and on land reforms, that have been criticized as being pro-business and anti-environment.
• The decision comes amid massive student-led protests across the country in response to the earlier passage of another contentious bill widely seen as weakening the national anti-corruption agency.
• The postponement means the incoming batch of legislators will decide on the bills, but activists point out that they won’t have to start their deliberations f

Study shows martial law in an island territory is also being used as pretext for violence

President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs and declaration of martial law in an island territory are being used as a pretext to attack people defending their land and environment in the Philippines, new research shows.

Community rights activist Eakachai Itsaratha recalls his brush with death after being abducted in southern Thailand.

Bangkok, Thailand - As an outspoken community rights activist in a country with one of the worst records of enforced disappearances in the region, Eakachai Itsaratha long understood that one day he too would become a target.

The state’s high cost of living and tourism-focused development is making it difficult for some Native Hawaiians to keep their homes.

Joddy ʻIwalani Manuwai and her family will lose their ancestral home in Kailua, on the island of O’ahu in Hawaiʻi, if they don’t raise $1 million to buy back land that has been theirs for five generations ― and they only have until Thursday to do it. Otherwise, their only hope is convincing a judge to give them more time.

Branching off the state highway that cuts through the Bandipur Tiger reserve is a single-lane road that leads to a cluster of villages which fall under the Mangala gram panchayat. Mangala is located on the northern fringes of the tiger reserve and more than 15 villages are part of this gram panchayat. Many of these are Adivasi settlements, where people belonging to the Soliga, Jenu Kuruba and Betta Kuruba tribes live.