About 200 people from Kampot and Kandal provinces gathered yesterday at the Land Ministry asking for two separate disputes with development companies to be resolved.

The protesters asked the ministry to take land from the companies for them to us because they were struggling to make a living.

Bo Sambath, a representative of 308 families from Techo Angkanh and Techo Chrey Bak villages in Kampot province, said their dispute over 1,231 hectares with First Bio-Tech Agricultural (Cambodia) began in 2013.

It is well documented from the work of grass roots, civil society and non-governmental organisations that the women, in Africa, are among the poorest of the poor and their lack of access to land and housing is largely as a result of their limited access to resources. Unemployment and underemployment, particularly for women, and therefore insufficient wages to purchase housing means women have little chance to own their own home. Unfair inheritance and divorce laws also force women into situations of hardship and homelessness.

(Ecofin Agency) - Launched in 2005 with a financial support from the World Bank, Madagascar’s land reform has yielded satisfying results, the Bretton Woods institution said on its website.

“Many other countries could follow Madagascar’s example. Actually, various African nations are already showing interest in the Malagasy land reform as it tackles key challenges and provide technical and legal solutions which are reliable and accessible,” explains André Teyssier, land specialist at the World Bank.

Global population is projected for a rise from the present tally of about 7.1 billion to over 9 billion around 2050. This translates into an annual demand of over one billion extra tonnes of extra cereals and 200 million tonnes of livestock products, which means more aggressive agricultural expansion. Is this a problem? There are two ways to view it: we will need to produce more food and more importantly, produce more nutritious food. The latter has lately been a key challenge in the global food sector: eradicate hunger with high-quality food (Sustainable Development Goal 2).

A recently passed agricultural land law gives rural communities in Mali new rights to their traditional lands. Camilla Toulmin finds out more from an expert.

The Kichwa people of the San Martin region have traditionally occupied the upland forests which since 2005 were classified as the Regional Protected Area - Cerro Escalera by the regional government of San Martin. Today, many of these communities lack any secure rights to these forests and are regularly stopped and restricted from accessing its forest resources vital for their subsistence.

Indigenous peoples across Latin America have demonstrated their determination to protect their communities and their territories over the centuries and, in the process, have proven their role as stewards of the environment. Threatening to encroach upon ancestral lands, contaminate water sources, and divide communities with the construction of mega projects, national and multinational companies have long wreaked havoc on the environment and taken advantage of indigenous communities. Yet, the communities have not sat idly by.

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.

Land is integral to securing shelter, agriculture for food security, mobilising investments and for the sustainable management of resources. With these issues in focus, Habitat for Humanity's Solid Ground Campaign, in association with the Urban CSO Cluster of the Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) of UN-HABITAT, will be hosting a conference in Pretoria, 15-17 August.