insert_link Namibia Advocating for Land Rights: The /Khomanins Community Takes a Stand Windhoek, Namibia — November 4, 2024: In a powerful demonstration of solidarity and resilience, the /Khomanins Landless Association and the Namibia Ancestral Land Foundation have submitted a final petition to the Namibian government, calling for urgent action to address systemic land dispossession and the ongoing plight of landless communities in Namibia. This petition comes in the wake of a mass demonstration aimed at highlighting the injustices faced by indigenous peoples, […] todayNovember 5, 2024 9
insert_link Local Ehi/Land/Sand Rites/Rights: A Mesmerizing Exhibition at the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre Celebrating Namibian Heritage Windhoek, Namibia – The Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC) is proud to announce the opening of Ehi/Land/Sand Rites/Rights, an evocative new exhibition that intricately explores the connection between land, memory, and identity through the geological and cultural landscape of Namibia’s Waterberg. This immersive installation, set to open Thursday evening, 31st October, invites the public to journey through layered histories, merging art and performance in a vivid homage to Namibia’s heritage. Ehi/Land/Sand […] todayOctober 30, 2024 5
insert_link Africa Ahead of COP16, groups warn of rights abuses linked to ‘30×30’ goal By Aimee Gaba, via Mongabay Two years since global policymakers agreed on the concept of protecting 30% of the world’s land and waters by 2030, there’s still little clarity on how achieving this goal will impact Indigenous communities who safeguard some of the most biodiverse areas on Earth. In October this year, government representatives are set to meet at the U.N. Biodiversity Conference (COP16) in Colombia to talk […] todaySeptember 19, 2024 13
insert_link Africa Sierra Leone’s women farmers use a custom called bora to access land – but it’s making them more vulnerable By Bankolay Theodore Turay, University of Lagos Bora – a type of thank you gift – is a Sierra Leonean custom of respect that is often used in relation to land. For instance, informal farmers pay bora to landowners to be able to farm on their land. But bora has changed over the years and is having a negative impact on women, who are responsible for much of […] todayAugust 21, 2024 24
insert_link Africa DRC communities turn up heat on EU lenders funding palm oil giant PHC By Didier Makal, via Mongabay On May 24, 2024, clashes broke out between members of a local community and security guards at an oil palm plantation in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the latest such incident in a long-running dispute over some 58,000 hectares, or 143,000 acres, of land. A source in the town of Lokutu said the community members were protesting the […] todayAugust 13, 2024 35
insert_link Africa Tanzania evicting tens of thousands of Maasai: HRW Tanzania is forcibly evicting tens of thousands of Maasai from their ancestral lands, Human Rights Watch said in a report on Wednesday, claiming that government rangers beat some members of the community with impunity. Long-standing tensions between the authorities and the nomadic community have sometimes resulted in deadly clashes, after the government launched a programme beginning in 2022 to relocate some 82,000 people from the world-renowned Ngorongoro […] todayJuly 31, 2024 13
insert_link Africa Under the shadow of war in the DRC, a mining company’s actions face impunity Land grabbing, lack of consultation, communities wiped off maps, and impunity. These are the serious accusations made against the mining company Alphamin Bisie Mining SA by the Indigenous communities of Banamwesi and Motondo, which oversee community forest concessions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Years of complaints by these communities and civil society organizations have been met with no reaction from provincial government officials or […] todayMarch 28, 2024 16
insert_link Africa Namibia hosted Africa’s 1st community-led conservation congress. Where will it lead? By Victoria Scheneider Via Mongabay Hundreds of Indigenous and local community groups, conservation organizations, governments and policymakers gathered to strategize how communities can play a bigger role in African conservation efforts, which are typically dominated by big international NGOs. However, the outcomes of the congress were vague, and some participants concluded that the dependence on large NGOs and policymakers, through equitable partnerships, was needed. Organizers say this congress is a […] todayNovember 2, 2023 9