News on Land

A study conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources showed that 180 of 421 rivers and other bodies of water nationwide are so heavily polluted they may soon be declared biologically dead. The DENR study showed that the biggest culprit was domestic sewage followed by commercial and industrial wastes.

If the Philippines will not protect its rivers and rehabilitate those dying and dead ones, the people will definitely face a dire consequence: ecological catastrophe and economic debacle.

MIRI: A group of Malay villagers in Kampung Usahajaya Tukau near Miri held a peaceful demonstration Sunday (April 28) to highlight their fears over their fate.

The villagers said they have received news that a private developer had acquired a parcel of land for development and that their village will be partially affected.

Sarawak PAS commissioner Jefri Jaraiee said the villagers had approached the party to raise their concerns.

"The residents want the village to be protected. They said they have received notices that a developer had taken over their land.

SANTIAGO: With songs like “We’ll Beat the State,” Chilean rappers Wechekeche Ni Trawun are on a mission to support the Mapuche indigenous people’s fight for justice and land rights.

Before the Spanish arrived in 1541, the Mapuche – or “people of the earth” in the Mapudungun language – controlled a territory that stretched 500km south of central Chile’s Biobio River.

Ecuador's Waorani indigenous tribe won their first victory Friday against big oil companies in a ruling that blocks the companies' entry onto ancestral Amazonian lands for oil exploration activities.

After two weeks of deliberations, a criminal court in Puyo, central Ecuador, accepted a Waorani bid for court protection in Pastaza province to stop an oil bidding process after the government moved to open up around 180,000 hectares for exploration.

Kampala. Advocates for Natural Resources and Development, an advocacy organisation, have blamed government for licensing quack Chinese investors who have invested in mineral extraction activities that have caused environment destruction and affected surface rights of people whose land falls within licensed areas.
This was revealed during a training of judicial officials at the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) in Kampala yesterday to equip them with knowledge on how to dispense justice in cases relating to extractive activities and environment.

Monrovia – A civil society organization, the Foundation for Community Initiatives (FCI), has begun a project to assist rural communities in Liberia to legalize their customary ownership of their lands.

The Protection of Customary Collective Community Land Rights (P3CL) project, which began since January this year and will end in December next year, targets 24 communities in Bong, Grand Bassa, Lofa, River Cess, Nimba and Sinoe Counties.

• Newly released data indicate the tropics lost around 120,000 square kilometers (around 46,300 square miles) of tree cover last year – or an area of forest the size of Nicaragua.
• The data indicate 36,400 square kilometers of this loss – an area the size of Belgium – occurred in primary forest. This number is an increase over the annual average, and the third-highest amount since data collection began.

Escalation of violence against indigenous groups in Brazil pushes growing number of native women to lead the movement.

Sao Paulo, Brazil - Celia Xakriaba was 13 years old when she joined the fight for indigenous rights. Her indigenous Xakriaba community is one of the few who survived the advancement of colonisers and missionaries in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais during the 18th century.

This week, thousands of Indigenous People from all over Brazil are gathering in the capital to demand their human rights and changes to political decisions that threaten their survival

Since the new Brazilian government came to power under President Bolsonaro, commitments to dismantle the rights of Indigenous People have accelerated.

Systematic racism and the failure of governments to recognize and respect land rights are at the root of violence leading to the murder of Indigenous peoples around the world, said Vicky Tauli-Corpuz, U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples on Tuesday. 

For Ashton Janvier, land and water are the portals to teaching and preserving the Denesuline language, which he says originates from the environment. 

“In my culture, everything that we talk about and everything that we teach one another has to do with the land,” said Janvier, an educator and filmmaker from La Loche community near the Clearwater River Dene Nation in Canada’s province of Saskatchewan.

A recently ended six-month occupation of a public square in central Asunción by the Tacuara'i community has brought attention to systemic violations of the land rights of indigenous groups in Paraguay. Español.