News on Land

Introduction

In May 2021 the Land Portal conducted its fourth Annual Visitor Survey (AVS). The AVS is an important tool to assess impact, track progress and engage with the community, measuring the level of trust across visitors and partners, assessing the alignment with the current strategy, and identifying areas of improvement. With over 380 respondents from 80 different countries, this round of the Annual Survey provided plenty of results, insights, and ideas. The main points are summarised below.

Key Results

In May 2021, the numbers of households whose land rights have been secured with the support by the Global Programme Responsible Land Policy have reached a peak: Thanks to the hard work of our partners and project teams, 110.163 households had their land legally documented by then, corresponding to about  550.000 people directly benefitting.

Whenever the word ‘lease’ is mentioned, three things must come to mind; periodic holding, terms and conditions, and reversionary interests. These features are indispensable to this tenure system because by definition, it is the form of land holding that affords exclusive ownership to be granted by an owner of land, whom we call “the lessor” or “landlord” to another person, called “the lessee” or “tenant” for a period of time, after which such land “reverts” to the lessor. Leases accommodate no perpetuity, however long the period in the lease may be.

Dar es Salaam. Land acquisition by investors is said to be one of the major causes of land disputes in Tanzania - especially when locals are not involved in the processes.

Some leaders at the village level offer lands to prospective investors without getting approval from village authorities in accordance with the Village Land Act of 1999.

This, to a large extent, has been sparking land disputes, which normally result in stagnation of investment in the area and at times leading to violation of human rights.

Former Kiambu Governor William Kabogo is entangled in a Sh4.5 billion bribery court row with investors behind the Tatu City real estate project.

The investors have accused Mr Kabogo of illegally holding onto five title deeds as part of a ploy to blackmail them into ceding a five percent stake in a section of the multibillion-shilling project.

Kiryandongo – Uganda – As natives continue to resist illegal evictions, multinational companies opt to hire livestock as a new tactic to forcefully evict smallholder farmers from their land.

The European Investment Bank has large investments in Nepal, with four projects in its energy sector, but has done little to stop rights violations. 

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | The Batwa, a small indigenous forest-dwelling community found in Southwestern Uganda, are set to benefit from a new research project that seeks to understand the emotional effects of environmental change experienced by the world’s indigenous groups.

Tharaka Nithi Governor Muthomi Njuki has called on the national government to complete the land adjudication process and issue title deeds before initiating the process of replacing the late chief of Kamaindi Location who was killed way back in 2019 over land related issues.

The Bangladesh Forest Department has recovered 2,468 acres of forest land from grabbers in the last eight months.

Officials of the forest department shared this information at a meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on environment, forest and climate change affairs ministry at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

Ruling Awami League MP and chief of the parliamentary watchdog Saber Hossain Chowdhury presided over the meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban.

In the recent years, commercial banks have widened categories of assets that are considered for secured lending perhaps due to improved measures of risk mitigation.

Of particular interest has been the Bibanja Interests on land which the commercial banks now accept as collateral for secured lending.

Timothy Njakasi, a vastly experienced agronomist, is an organic farmer with an unconventional outlook.

Kasenge Riverford Organic Agricultural Centre is located near Mbalala stone quarry in Mukono District, an infertile stony piece of land about 30km on Kampala-Jinja Highway.

Njakasi’s farm, which acts as a demonstration farm, is the last arable piece of land as you ascend the hill to the quarry.