Freetown, August 8, 2022 – Sierra Leone’s Parliament has passed two groundbreaking bills that transform communities’ ability to protect their land rights and the environment. The new legislation serves as a model for the rest of the world.
Passed by unanimous votes, the Customary Land Rights and National Land Commission Acts will, among other things:
Ignoring the plight of 20 million people in the Horn of Africa is a political choice.
The 20 million people struggling to survive a scorching drought in the Horn of Africa are victims not only of a climate crisis but of the failings of governments and humanitarians to heed the lessons from earlier disasters.
Karamoja, Uganda: Karamoja is one of the poorest regions in Uganda with a poverty rate of 66%, more than three times the national poverty rate
Erosion and tidal surges are threatening fishing communities in West Africa. As a result, many people are fleeing inland — losing their livelihoods. The sea has already encroached two meters into the country's interior.
Cash-strapped and cut off from international aid, the Taliban-led government is tapping into Afghanistan's natural resources to boost revenue.
Since the Taliban toppled the Western-backed government in Kabul and seized power in August 2021, the export of and custom duties from coal have become a key source of revenue for the militant group.
Singapore has launched a reforestation campaign after losing huge amounts of mangrove habitats in the past century.
It plans to plant 1 million trees within 10 years to improve living conditions for wildlife and people.
The scheme began in March 2020 and had led to the planting of 51,819 trees by October 2021.
One goal of the project is to have all Singaporean households approximately a 10-minute walk from a park.
Representatives of a group of civil society organisations are calling for the United Nations Development Programme to retract a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone that could contribute up to 10% of South Africa’s total emissions from all sectors combined — and threaten water security from Limpopo to Zimbabwe.
The session Energy and Climate Justice: A Community aimed to cover discussions onglobal trends around renewable energy and climate finance by adopting a nexus approach connecting land tenure, community, and justice. The following aspects were drawn from comparative experiences from global south reflected on land conflicts and contestations in the context of mega solar park projects, community stewardship as a potential carbon solution, netzero triggered land use changes for carbon offset and implications on community & commons.
Chhatarpur (India) – As the monsoon storms bear down on India, a dedicated group of women hope that after years of backbreaking labour, water shortages will no longer leave their village high and dry.
