News on Land

• Greenpeace Southeast Asia has identified nearly 3,500 hectares (8,650 acres) of peatland clearing in pulpwood plantations in Sumatra supplying Asian Pulp & Paper.
• Analysis of satellite imagery showed the clearing began in August 2018 and continued through June this year, despite APP having a “no peatland” and “no burning” policy that it also imposes on its suppliers.
• Greenpeace and local NGO Jikalahari also found evidence of fires in the concessions in question, which appeared to have been set deliberately to clear the land for planting.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) is providing technical and financial support to the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) on its Strategic Action Programme (SAP) implementation. A key component of this four and a half  year project is the demonstration of environmentally conscious livelihoods and socio-economic development in the Basin.

September 1, 2020 (Ezega.com) -- At least 12 people were killed and 10 others wounded in ethnic-based clashes over forest ownership rights in Ale special district in South Nations Nationalities and Peoples of Ethiopia, an official has said.

“Gunmen killed 12 persons and wounded several others in pre-arranged attacks in Gerama and Guroze localities in Ale district,” Government Communication Affairs Head of the district Sawra Gebeyehu told local media.

August 31, 2020 (Ezega.com) -- The Addis Ababa City Administration has faced allegations that it permitted land grabbing and illegally transferred condominium houses in a politically motivated decision.

In a briefing on Monday, Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (ECSJ) said thousands of square meters of land have been taken illegally over the past months.

Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice (ECSJ) said the land grabbing and illegal transfer of the condominiums have reached a “critical level” based on a study it conducted on the matter.

THE minister of urban and rural development, Erastus Uutoni, has applied to the High Court to evict about 2 000 people who allegedly grabbed unserviced municipal land at Okahandja.

Uutoni and the Municipality of Okahandja are asking the court to authorise the eviction of people who allegedly occupied some parts of the town's unserviced land illegally.

The Quezon City government has bought a property in Barangay Bagong Silangan and Payatas  to house some 3,000 informal settlers. 

Mayor Joy Belmonte has signed the deeds of sale of 214,057 square meter property.

“Ito’y umpisa ng hangarin nating mabigyan ng katiyakan sa paninirahan ang mga informal settlers sa ating siyudad (This is the start of our dream to assure informal settlers that they would have their own homes in the city),” Belmonte said, noting that when she was elected mayor, part of her agenda is to address the concerns of the city’s informal settlers.

(Main photo: Lao agricultural expert Sombath Somphone, who went missing in December 2012, in 2005 file photo. Courtesy of Somphone family)

The 10^th annual International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance Sunday offers a fresh reminder that Laos has done little or nothing to investigate citizens, including a highly respected development expert, who have vanished in the communist Southeast Asian nation, human rights groups said.

The efficiency of the one day land title transfer registration had contributed to the country's position in the 'Registering Property' indicator evaluated by the World Bank's 'Doing Business' report.

The Federal Territories Director of Lands and Mines Office (PPTGWP) said Malaysia is ranked a creditable 33rd out of the 190 economies for 2020 in the report.

A group of families in Banteay Meanchey province filed a lawsuit on August 5 against four officials and 13 local businessmen alleging they used forged documents to claim ownership of more than 100 hectares of land in a long-running conflict dating back nearly two decades.

After 30 years of independence, the “land question” is at a critical point in Namibia. Regarding rural land reform, a compromised “willing buyer, willing seller” approach and resettlement-based processes have yielded little success. Not only have they been expensive, inefficient, and often benefitting elites, but today some of those lower-income households that were selected for resettlement wish they had not “benefitted” given the precarious situation in which they find themselves.

Cambodia’s government has strenuously promoted long-term leasing of unused land as Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) to attract investors and encourage development in the impoverished nation, but observers say the policy has resulted in few benefits at the cost of huge social and environmental impacts.