News on Land

• President Rodrigo Duterte has lifted a ban on issuing licenses for new mining operations in the Philippines, marking an about-face from a previous anti-mining stance that saw him ban open-pit mining in 2017 and close or suspend 26 mining operations for environmental violations.
• The government says the industry, which contributed 0.76% to the country’s GDP in 2020, is important in resuscitating an economy bogged down by the COVID-19 pandemic, by generating revenue and jobs and contributing to Duterte’s flagship infrastructure program.
• Duterte’s pi

Main photo: Zulfi Bukhari, Special Assistant to PM on Overseas Pakistanis, Afzaal Mahmood, Pakistan Ambassador, Ahmed Shaikhani, President, PBC, Shabbir Merchant, Director PBC, Imran Chaudhry and guests at the PBC reception in Dubai on Sunday. Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News

The special courts will decide any property dispute within 30 days, says Bukhari in UAE

THE government has been forced to reintroduce its defunct Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) after financial institutions grouped under the Bankers Association and resolved not to accept the state-issued 99-year farm leases.

Agriculture Minister Anxious Masuka said his government had over the past 10 years held discussions with senior bank executives as they dangled a carrot for the bankers to finance the state issued 99-year farm leases.

The government’s proposal is that the farm leases will enable resettled farmers to access financial loans and boost production.

Augur Investments through its chief operations officer Tatiana Aleshina has implicated President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the land dispute in which the City of Harare entered into agreement with the company.

In a sworn affidavit before the High Court in response to Harare North legislator Norman Markham, Savings Scheme and Jacob Pikicha High Court application (case number HC 425/21) seeking reversal of the agreement, Aleshina implicated the President, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and legal affairs Permanent Secretary Ms Virginia Mabhiza.

Dzuds, a weather phenomenon characterized by extreme cold, used to be unusual. Now, they’re becoming the new normal.

DALANZADGAD, UMNUGOVI PROVINCE, MONGOLIA — Clouds gather in the moody winter sky, and the wind picks up. As the temperature plummets, sheep and goats turn from the pasture where they were grazing to huddle in the shelter of a shed.

Trend of large once green swathes of land turned into concrete jungles in recent years has environmentalists concerned

FAISALABAD, Pakistan

A mounting housing crunch is fast devouring Pakistan's agricultural lands, which may have cascading effects on the country's food security in years to come.

Avec un million de tonnes produites par les hévéas ivoiriens, le pays assure 80 % de la production africaine. Un succès obtenu en une décennie à peine, et qui permet à la Cote d'ivoire d'espérer renforcer sa filière de transformation du caoutchouc.

Kyrgyzstan has received swathes of land while granting Uzbeks control over irrigation resources.

Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have agreed on a treaty that should, its signatories hope, spell an end to the recurrent territorial disputes that have pitted border communities against one another.