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Saturday, December 9, 2023
News and Views from the Global South
Land Rights
Indigenous Conflicts over Land Spread, Fueling Debate in Argentina
In 1994 Argentina recognized in the constitution the ethnic and cultural pre-existence of indigenous peoples. However, enforcement of respect for their rights has fallen short and almost 30 years later the question of land is generating growing conflicts, which sometimes pit native communities against the rest of society.
Indigenous Rights Approach a Solution to Climate Change Crisis
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) was held in Bonn, Germany to rally behind a new approach to achieving a future that is more inclusive and sustainable than the present – through the establishment of secure and proper rights for all.
Farmer-Herder Conflicts on the Rise in Africa
Violent clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria’s Middle Belt in June reminded me of a smelting hot afternoon a year ago. I was sitting in my living room watching a herder grazing his cows in my yard in the small town in southwestern Cameroon where I live.
South African Lawsuit Could Bring Sweeping Changes to Land and Mining Rights
South Africans await judgement to be handed down in a court case that could set a sweeping precedent by empowering communities on communal land with the right to reject new mining projects.
When Women Have Land Rights, the Tide Begins to Turn
In Meghalaya, India’s northeastern biodiversity hotspot, all three major tribes are matrilineal. Children take the mother’s family name, while daughters inherit the family lands.
Large Landowners Jeopardise Indigenous Revival in Brazil
The attack with guns and machetes that left at least 10 Gamela indigenous people wounded, in the northeastern state of Maranhão, highlighted the growing threats against the resurgence and survival of native people in Brazil.
Urban Land – a Key Building Block to Full Rights
Now that the wind no longer blows her roof off and her house belongs to her, Cristina López feels safe in the shantytown where she lives on the outskirts of the Argentine capital. But she and her neighbours still need to win respect for many more rights they have been denied.
Opinion: It’s Time to Put Local Communities in Charge of Liberia’s Forests
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recently affirmed her commitment to the land rights of Liberia’s local communities, who rely on the forests for their livelihoods and have cared for them for generations.
Opinion: Don’t Leave Indigenous Peoples Behind in SDGs
U.N. member states are meeting throughout the year to finalize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will set the global development agenda for the next 15 years. The goals are supposed to be universal and aspire to “leave no one behind.”
Moving Indigenous Land Rights from Paper to Reality
Frustrated with decades of marginalisation, and of seeing their rights respected only on paper, Indigenous peoples are calling for major recognition from the international community.
Civil Society and Politics March for Negev Bedouin Recognition
There was a symbolic dimension to a recent four-day march from the periphery of Israel to the corridors of power in Jerusalem to seek recognition for Bedouin villages.
Four Fast Facts to Debunk Myths About Rural Women
We are lucky to live in a country that has long since abandoned the image of the damsel in distress. Even Disney princesses now save themselves and send unsuitable “saviours” packing. But despite the great strides being made in gender equality, we are still failing rural women, particularly women farmers.
Opinion: Bridging the Gap – How the SDG Fund is Paving the Way for a Post-2015 Agenda
The countdown has begun to September’s Summit on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with world leaders discussing the 17 goals and 169 targets proposed by the United Nations Open Working Group.
Opinion: Let’s Grant Women Land Rights and Power Our Future
Women are not only the world’s primary food producers. They are hardworking and innovative and, they invest far more of their earnings in their families than men. But most lack the single most important asset for accessing investment resources – land rights.
Bamboo – An Answer to Deforestation or Not in Africa?
Deforestation is haunting the African continent as industrial growth paves over public commons and puts more hectares into private hands.
Model Contract to Help Protect Developing Countries From ‘Land Grabs’
When the Korean company Daewoo attempted to acquire half the arable land of Madagascar for free, it unleashed a tsunami of investor interest in agricultural land, popularised as the 'land grab'.
They Say the Land is ‘Uninhabited’ but Indigenous Communities Disagree
Disregarding the rights of indigenous people to their traditional lands is costing companies millions of dollars each year, and costing communities themselves their lives.
New Fund to Build on “Unprecedented Convergence” Around Land Rights
Starting next year, a new grant-making initiative will aim to fill what organisers say has been a longstanding gap in international coordination and funding around the recognition of community land rights.
Can Land Rights and Education Save an Ancient Indian Tribe?
Scattered across 31 remote hilltop villages on a mountain range that towers 1,500 to 4,000 feet above sea level, in the Malkangiri district of India’s eastern Odisha state, the Upper Bonda people are considered one of this country’s most ancient tribes, having barely altered their lifestyle in over a thousand years.
The ‘Global’ Land Rush
The first years of the twenty-first century will be remembered for a global land rush of nearly unprecedented scale.
Forest Rights Offer Major Opportunity to Counter Climate Change
The international community is failing to take advantage of a potent opportunity to counter climate change by strengthening local land tenure rights and laws worldwide, new data suggests.Next Page »
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