On a late night in December, I arrived in the village of Lunjuk on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. A warm breeze welcomed me as I sat down with 30 women and men from Forum Petani Bersatu — the local farmers’ union — who had gathered to share stories of their ongoing struggle to reclaim their land.
HATIYA, Bangladesh, Jan 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ferdousi Akter's family struggled to survive after a crumbling riverbank forced them to abandon their home and move to a new part of the island where they live, off the Bangladesh coast.
Her husband worked as a day labourer on fishing boats but earned too little to cover their expenses.
Just over a year ago, however, the five-member Akter family was one of 45 households offered land on Hatiya Island under a decade-long free lease by the Bangladesh Forest Department.
La deforestación en el estado Amazonas se ha intensificado en los últimos cinco años, pues la pequeña minería ilegal al sur del río Orinoco ha cobrado más fuerza, desde que se oficializó la Zona de Desarrollo Estratégico Nacional “Arco Minero del Orinoco”, un decreto con el que se entregaron concesiones mineras a empresas nacionales y extranjeras, para la explotación de bauxita, cobre, diamante y oro en 112.000 kilómetros cuadrados.
Landscapes need to be restored. The growing global population needs enough food to eat. How can both needs be met at once?
In Uganda, there were at least 17 “land grabs” since 2000 with contracts totaling 74,831 hectares of land, according to Land Matrix data
A new report has linked land grabbing to worsening climate change, calling on governments to secure community land rights to protect the world’s natural resources such as “forests” that mitigate effects of climate change.
In the 1980s, the hilly Qianyanzhou region in Jiangxi Province, southern China, faced severe soil erosion due to deforestation and unsustainable farming practices. Fertile red soil was being washed away causing crop yields to tumble.
Global climate negotiations take place on the international stage, bolstered by countries’ national policies. But preventing greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and other land-use changes requires work at the local level.
For those efforts to be effective, it is important to understand who is involved at each level and in every sector, and how they interact, say scientists from CIFOR, who have conducted research about such multi-level governance.
IXTLÁN DE JUÁREZ, Mexico, Jan 3 2019 (IPS) - “I dream of a healthy, sustainable, well-managed forest,” says Rogelio Ruiz, a silviculturist from southern Mexico, who insists that “we have to clean it up, take advantage of the wood, and reforest.”
These activities are essential for the ecosystem, especially to adapt to the impacts of climate change, the president of the La Trinidad Communal Lands Commissariat, in the municipality of Ixtlán de Juárez, in the state of Oaxaca, some 840 km south of Mexico City, told IPS.
The world is losing an estimated USD 6.3 trillion to land degradation every year, while restoring 300 million hectares by 2030 could have a return of USD 7 to 20 for each dollar invested.
The Indonesian government launched the One Map Policy Geoportal (KSP Geoportal). This policy involves a more detailed map of land use, hence aiming at resolving overlapping claims - as well as preventing the emergence of new cases - across the country, including in forest areas. The map was launched by Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Tuesday (11/12).
City representatives said they had moved beyond national climate battles and were now taking action
KATOWICE, Poland - Compact pedestrian neighborhoods, urban forests and even carbon-sucking technologies must make the to-do list of more city mayors if the world is to avoid catastrophic climate change, scientists said at U.N. talks on Monday.
