Legal Land Theft

In most countries with tropical forests, governments uphold the colonial legacy that declared the State to be the owner of forest lands. This has enabled governments to legally grant land to private investors, often violating communities' customary ownership of the land. As a result, corporate activities that destroy forests continue to expand.

Type of content

Country

B271
Other information 22 August 2024

Food and energy development project in Merauke threatening Indigenous Peoples and forests in Papua

peru law ecocidio
Other information 30 March 2023

Peru: Proposed “Genocidal Law” against uncontacted Indigenous Peoples

plantaciones total
Other information 16 January 2023

Families in Republic of Congo dispossessed of their land to make way for oil giant Total’s offsetting project

An investigation by SourceMaterial and Unearthed exposed some of the impacts of a major tree-planting carbon offsetting project in the Republic of Congo from oil giant TotalEnergies, which was announced at the end of 2021.
libro ecologia politica
Other information 22 March 2022

“Colonial history and the environmental crisis are closely linked”

The book, Une écologie décoloniale' (a decolonial ecology), written by Malcom Ferdinand, presents an analysis of how we cannot understand the current environmental crisis without knowing colonial history.
total
Other information 22 March 2022

Total announces further land grabs to offset its emissions

An article from Mongabay news portal alerted the announcement of French oil giant Total Energies for developing a 40,000 hectare monoculture plantation in the savannahs of the Republic of Congo to offset its emissions.
Other information 17 December 2021

In the midst of the pandemic, land invasions and killings of indigenous people increased in 2020

Other information 17 November 2020

Unravelling Concepts tied to Development

Other information 13 May 2020

Legalising land theft in Brazil while the focus is on Covid-19

Other information 13 January 2020

Statement from Indigenous Mapuche and others in Chile: No to market-based schemes!

Publications 2 September 2019

India: Compensating for Forest Loss or Advancing Forest Destruction?

This study looks at how Compensatory Afforestation is accelerating both, the destruction of forests in India by big corporations and the appropriation of community land for the supposed compensation.

cover 12 tactics
Publications 4 April 2019

Booklet: 12 Tactics Palm Oil Companies Use to Grab Community Land

The booklet “Promise, Divide, Intimidate and Coerce: 12 tactics palm oil companies use to grab community land” aims to support communities who want to strengthen their resistance and better prepare themselves to stop corporations from establishing on their lands.
Other information 31 January 2019

Report of the fact finding mission on the Human Rights situation in Malen Chiefdom after the violent incidents in January 2019

This report, released on January 29th 2019, was made by human rights defenders in Sierra Leone, concerned for the detention of activists and the death of two people who sustained gunshots from allegedly the state security personnel acting to protect SOCFIN on January 21th 2019