White farmers who were forcibly dispossessed of their property in Zimbabwe are suing President Robert Mugabe, claiming the government owes them compensation.

Mugabe’s government introduced a controversial land reform program in 2000 that led to squatters invading and seizing the majority of white-owned farms across the southern African country. The seizures were often violent, and resulted in the murder of multiple white farmers.

Land Portal Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launch thematic portfolio on land conflicts

The entirety of three protected forests are now classified as private land, an investigation from rights group Adhoc has found, along with tens of thousands of additional hectares of what has once been state public land.

In total, an area slightly smaller than the size of Jakarta has been reclassified since the beginning of this year.

In three cases, Adhoc’s findings show that entire protected forests – Snoul Wildlife Santuary, Preah Vihear Protected Area and Peam Krasob Wildlife Sanctuary – have now been reclassified.

By: Mzingaye Brilliant Xaba and Monty J. Roodt

Date: January 4th 2017

Source: R News

South Africa’s land reform programme has suffered many failures and its beneficiaries have in many cases seen little or no improvements to their livelihoods.

By: Chris Arsenault

Date: September 15th 2016

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Campaigners and human rights lawyers said the move reflects increasing global recognition of the severity of environmental crime

By: Michael Peel
Date: March 1st 2016
Source: Financial Times

Michael Peel reports from Myanmar where the end of dictatorship has unleashed a struggle over land.

1. THE LOST FIELDS

Hla Ohn May still weeps when she takes the road past the twisted white piping of the gas terminal near the western Myanmar town of Kyaukphyu. The 46-year-old farmer and mother of five once owned land on this green strip perched above the blue waters of the Bay of Bengal.

By: Jeff Abbott

Date: January 29th 2016

Source: Upsidedown World