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Rick has over 40 years experience working in the land sector in Southern Africa. He is part of the Land Portal knowledge engagement team working to research and develop knowledge resources including data stories, blogs and in-depth country profiles for Southern, Central and Eastern Africa.
Rick is also a Senior Research Associate with Phuhlisani NPC - a South African land sector NGO and the curator of specialist Southern African land news and analysis website https://knowledgebase.land
He has just moved to the BlueSky social media platform @africaland.bsky.social
He has a PhD from the University of Cape Town. His research in Langa, Cape Town features as the central case study in a recent book Urban Planning in the Global South (2018), co-authored with the late Vanessa Watson, which examines the on-going contestations over land and housing in the rapidly growing cities of the global South.
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Displaying 211 - 220 of 470Fears mount over ‘free-for-all’ iSimangaliso forest invasion
Managers of iSimangaliso Wetland Park in KwaZulu-Natal say they are still committed to further engagement with community leaders over recent attempts to occupy land in the southern Futululu section of the park — but have also pledged to not ‘fold their arms’ in the face of the land invasion.
This would include pursuing legal options to safeguard the park’s World Heritage Site conservation status, the park’s senior biodiversity conservation manager, Sizo Sibiya, told an iSimangaliso investors’ conference at the weekend.
What’s behind Creecy’s legal backtracking on protecting communal land right holders against mining?
Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy has withdrawn an amendment to legislation that helped protect, among others, communal land rights holders from unwanted mining on their land. Was this because of Cabinet pressure from the mining ministry?
Implications of Ukraine Conflict on Food Access and Availability in the Eastern Africa Region
The World Food Programme has published a second update on the implications of the war in Ukraine for food security in Eastern Africa
Key Messages
• The disruptions in imports, production and the related surge in food prices induced by the current conflict in Ukraine have the potential to worsen the food security situation in the Eastern Africa Region, which is already been impacted by the effect of three consecutive below-normal rainfall seasons.
Can a reforestation project stop land grabs? Villagers in the DRC give it a try
Kinandu village residents in southern Democratic Republic of Congo are taking part in a reforestation initiative in the miombo woodlands while land grabs are simultaneously on the rise.
Removal of landowner consent requirement a slap in the face of mining-affected communities
Minister of Environment, Barbara Creecy’s recent revocation of the 2021 Environmental Impact Assessment Regulations Amendment is effectively reversing some of the very important progress communities have made in their ongoing fight for environmental justice and self-determination.
In South Africa on 3 March 2022, mining-affected communities and the broader environmental justice sector woke up to the news that the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, had removed a vital protection for mining-affected communities.
Mozambique: Cyclone Gombe death toll rises to 53
Tropical Cyclone Gombe has killed at least 53 people since it hit Mozambique a week ago, a sharp rise from earlier estimates.
According to the National Institute of Disaster Management (INGC) on Thursday, another 80 people have been injured and 400,000 affected since the cyclone swept into northern and central areas of the country, flooding towns and destroying houses.
The initial death toll in the southern African country was estimated at seven.
Uganda: 'Stop rich land grabbers'
To scale back large land grabs in the country, the Minister of Lands, Housing and Urban Development Judith Nabakooba has ordered resident district commissioners (RDCs) to routinely monitor, inspect and report every month land acquired by large land investors to ensure that land they acquire is not occupied by tenants or customary landowners.
She urged RDCs and the district security committees to heed President Yoweri Museveni’s recent directive stopping land evictions across the country.
Museveni’s moratorium on land evictions
Uganda: On Feb. 28, President Yoweri Museveni wrote a letter addressing it to Robinah Nabbanja, the Prime Minister. The letter directed her to halt land evictions across Uganda. Museveni said he was using his powers under Article 98(1) and 99(1) of the Constitution that enjoins him to ensure good governance and protect the Constitution, President Museveni directed as follows:
AR urges foreign land ownership limit
In Namibia the Affirmative Repositioning Movement’s chief activist, Job Amupanda, has urged members of parliament to do something useful for their people by passing a bill prohibiting foreign nationals from owning land in Namibia.
Amupanda made this plea on Tuesday when he and his delegation met members of the parliamentary standing committee on natural resources at the National Assembly.
“Who will remember 100 of you (MPs) who have done something significant in dealing with this problem of foreigners owning our land?” Amupanda asked.
Drought in Kenya: Time to Shift from Crisis to Risk Management
Drought is a global problem that affects an estimated 1.5 billion people, particularly those in the Southern Hemisphere. Between the 1970s and the early 2000s the percentage of the earth’s landmass affected by severe drought has more than doubled.