News on Land

Concession to extract timber from 148,000 hectares in upper Baram was granted despite repeated objections from local communities.

Main photo: Communities like Long Tungan are working hard to find a way to protect their lands and save some of the most valuable carbon and biodiversity stocks we have left. Photo courtesy of The Borneo Project.

About 52,257 hectares of degraded land has been recovered in Northern Ghana for agriculture activities through the implementation of the Sustainable Land and Water Management Project (SLWMP).

Mr Asher Nkegbe, the Upper East Regional Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), who is also the Head of the Technical Coordination Office (TCO) of the project, said this at the second 2020 Local Steering Committee Meeting of the SLWMP held in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region.

Emmanuel Okas Wike is the President, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers. He spoke to ANN GODWIN in Port Harcourt on how the Land Use Act has undermined professional practice, measures that could transform the real estate sector, and the role of estate surveyors in developing the economy.

Nearly 100 families living on a public sidewalk in Boeung Keng Kang district’s Tomnop Teuk commune in Phnom Penh were recently given plots of land by the government in Khasch Kandal district’s Vihear Suor commune in Kandal province to encourage them to move.

Eng Phearith, 24, moved from the sidewalk to one of the plots and told The Post on Sunday that it was a win-win solution for citizens and the administration orchestrated by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

The Preah Vihear Provincial Court has dropped all charges against eight ethnic Kuoy villagers who were in a land dispute with the Hengfu Group Sugar Industry Co Ltd since 2014.

Wednesday’s decision was made by the judge who tried the case on June 10. The eight were accused of detention and illegal confinement.

Defence lawyer Sam Tithseyha told The Post on Thursday it was the right decision because they are the victims and this decision shows their innocence as they are not guilty of the charges and have good names in society.

• Lawmakers in Indonesia want to question pulp and paper company PT Arara Abadi about its dispute with an Indigenous community in Sumatra that resulted in a member of the community being jailed on dubious charges.
• The company has held the concession to the land since 1996, but the Sakai Indigenous tribe have lived and farmed there since 1830, and claim ancestral rights to the area.

Oxfam International warned Thursday that up to 12,000 people could die each day by the end of the year as a result of hunger linked to the coronavirus pandemic—a daily death toll surpassing the daily mortality rate from Covid-19 itself.

April saw the highest global daily mortality rate for Covid-19 thus far with just over 10,000 deaths per day.

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the globe in a wide range of countries and very different environments. The pandemic has already affected countries in every region, making this a truly global situation where every country must take steps to prepare and respond.

Kampong Speu province is set to reclaim land in the Kirirom National Park after accusations from locals that environmental officers had encroached on 2ha of it.

The statement came from provincial governor Vei Samnang who vowed to get to the bottom of the matter.

The dispute began when a letter containing the thumbprints of nearly 20 residents was sent to a commune chief claiming that the signatories are witnesses in Chambak commune’s Thmei Village.

The Yunnan-based company has been criticised as secretive as some question whether it is equipped to run such a project

Main photo: The entrance to Namjin village seen on March 6 (Photo- Chan Thar/ Myanmar Now)

One day in late 2018, residents of Namjin, Kachin state, noticed drones fixed with cameras buzzing above their usually quiet village. Then word spread that some people from China were visiting an area nearby.

THE Municipality of Otjiwarongo has started profiling its informal settlements to better plan and upgrade the areas for their residents.

According to Adelheid Shilongo, the Otjiwarongo local authority's public relations officer, the profiling is important because it will provide the municipality with crucial and accurate data on the informal settlements' demographics, which in turn would enable better planning and the upgrading of the areas.