A few bright spots around the world regarding property rights

It has been a bloody year for many who have fought to hold on to their land and homes

THE fight over land and resources was bloody in 2018, with governments from Brazil to the Philippines accused of failing to protect campaigners, and indigenous people battling to hold on to their homes and land.

Despite compelling evidence that shows secure land rights can help improve food security, limit deforestation and tackle climate change, authorities in many countries have been slow to act, activists said.

Meanwhile, urban homelessness is rising, prompting a top UN official to accuse governments of “collective amnesia” in failing to fix the affordable-housing crisis.

Despite that, the year saw some bright spots when it came to property and digital rights. Here are five:

1. Liberia: In September, the West African nation passed a landmark law, after four years of debate, that activists said would help communities fight foreign land grabs by giving them ownership of ancestral territory.

In a country where most of the population has no formal rights to their land, the state has signed away more than 40% of national territory in concessions for logging, mining and agriculture, according to rights groups.

2. Indonesia: President Joko Widodo in September signed a long-awaited decree on agrarian reform, which seeks to issue title to the landless and raise farm incomes.

The new law is seen as a major step forward in the country’s land distribution programme, and a necessary measure to register all land by 2025, although activists said the plan failed to recognise the territorial rights of indigenous people.

3. India: The country’s Supreme Court upheld the validity of a controversial biometric identity system in September, but flagged privacy concerns and reined in a government push to make it mandatory for everything from banking to telecom services. Aadhaar is the world’s biggest biometric identity project, with more than 1 billion IDs on record.

But analysts have expressed fears it could spawn a surveillance state and activists said system errors had seen large numbers of poor people denied welfare benefits.

4. South Africa: In October, the Constitutional Court ruled that a platinum mine that struck a land deal with a tribal chief could not evict a group of black farmers living there. Lawyers and land policy experts said the implications were far-reaching and could raise questions about other mining deals signed between companies and tribal chiefs, which have stoked social strife and conflict in the country. 5. Honduras: In November, a court convicted seven people for the 2016 murder of campaigner Berta Caceres, who led opposition to the construction of the Agua Zarca hydroelectric dam on the ancestral lands of her Lenca tribe. The seven men – who will be sentenced next month – face up to 30 years in jail, a rare conviction amid violent attacks on land rights activists and campaigners around the world. |

Reuters A FULANI shepherd watches his cattle in Paiko, Niger State, Nigeria. The nomadic herders are losing access to grazing land owing to changing land use. |

AP THE Brazilian Environmental and Renewable Natural Resources Institute, members of a specialized inspection group of Ibama walk with their weapons up through an area affected by illegal mining, after landing in helicopters in Munduruku indigenous lands in Para state in Brazil’s Amazon basin. On the campaign trail, President-elect Jair Bolsonaro promised to loosen protections for areas of the Brazilian Amazon designated as indigenous lands and nature reserves, calling them impediments to economic growth. |

LEON LESTRADE African News Agency (ANA) THERE has been opposition to the development of housing on the best farmlands in the Philippi Horticultural Area in the Western Cape. |