Terra

The Global Farmland Rush

Published in Friday February 8th, 2013 In Opinion

OVER the last decade, as populations have grown, capital has flowed across borders and crop yields have leveled off, food-importing nations and private investors have been securing land abroad to use for agriculture. Poor governments have embraced these deals, but their people are in danger of losing their patrimony, not to mention their sources of food.

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Land Grabs and Human Rights Violations Exposed in Liberia Ahead of Global Development Summit

Published in Monday February 4th, 2013 In In the media

Palm oil companies are grabbing more than 1.5 million acres of land in Liberia and are violating the human rights of local communities, warn Liberian NGOs including Friends of the Earth Liberia (SDI – Sustainable Development Institute), Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU) and Social Entrepreneurs for Sustainable Development (SESDev).

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Judges and Urbanism in Latin America

Published in Monday February 4th, 2013

Antonio Azuela, a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, investigates issues and concerns in judicial rulings that have an impact on land use and urban planning in Latin America. Click here to watch the video.

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Sand-mining threatens homes and livelihoods in Sierra Leone

Published in Saturday February 2nd, 2013 In In the media

In the village of Lakka whole stretches of coastline are littered with the remains of buildings whose foundations have been washed from underneath them as a result of sand-mining. Many coastal residents can only watch as the coastline draws ever-nearer to their homes.
Balu Kargbo lives just a few feet away from a cliff of loose sand at the edge of Hamilton Beach, 8 km from Freetown. She is very concerned about the threat to her home but, like her neighbours, she cannot afford to move. “The beach is getting shorter all the time,” she says.

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Diamonds Are Not Forever, but the Land Is

Published in Friday February 1st, 2013 In In the media

In the village of Makonkonde in western Sierra Leone, Mabinti, who no longer knows her age, sits on a low wooden stool in the dappled shade of several palm trees. She clutches a solitary papaya fruit in hands toughened by a lifetime of hard manual work.
Small-scale farming is not an easy way to make a living in rural Sierra Leone. Mabinti’s only real chance of selling her papaya is by waiting for customers travelling along the sandy track running through town, which sees just one or two motorbikes per hour.

‘Inequal Land Rights Aggravates Women’s Status’

Published in Thursday January 31st, 2013 In In the media

The impact of the inequality in lands rights has aggravated women’s socio-economic status, allowed for sexual harassment and violence against women and contributed towards marital instability, separation and divorce.
This assertion was made by the Executive Director, Women Environmental Programme (WEP), Ms. Priscilla M. Achakpa in her address entitled “Gender land evaluation using gender evaluation criteria” presented at a training workshop on gender and land evaluation held in Abuja yesterday.

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Haiti’s road to reconstruction blocked by land tenure disputes

Published in Tuesday January 29th, 2013 In In the media

A practically non-existent land registry, fraudulent land titles, unclear processes for land transfer, and a tangle of bureaucracy have halted the road project and similar major international investments.

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Colombia renews pledges to its displaced people

Published in Monday January 21st, 2013 In In the media

For years, left-wing guerillas, extreme right-wing paramilitary militias and the government have been fighting for control. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and millions have been displaced in the course of the fighting. Now, things are supposed to change.

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Families evicted from Maela land in Kenya

Published in Tuesday January 15th, 2013 In In the media

Tension is high in the volatile area of Maella Naivasha after APs evicted several families from a piece of land. The heavily armed officers raided Ngambani village destroying property worth thousand of shillings.
Maize crops were destroyed during the early morning eviction supervised by senior AP officers. The officers said the land in question had been set aside for the construction of an AP post. Families affected threatened to hold a demonstration and called on Lands minister James Orengo to intervene as the issue has raised anxiety in the area.

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In India, Delhi Chief Minister will regularise all unauthorised colonies

Published in Wednesday January 9th, 2013 In In the media

Promising to construct three lakh houses for low and middle income families in national capital, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Saturday said she will get all unauthorised colonies regularised as soon as possible.
Assuring that her government would not allow any house or colony to be demolished, Dikshit, who was addressing a convention of representatives of unauthorised colonies falling under ridge or Archaeological Survey of India’s land here, conceded that the government had failed to provide housing to migrant population due to which the problem of unauthorised colonies had arisen.

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