Land disputes: Govt urged to step in, carry out reforms

KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Government needs to intervene in land disputes involving all native customary rights and at the same time carry out land reforms to make land administration, particularly land alienation, fair, transparent and with integrity.

Star Sabah Chief Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan, who is also Bingkor Assemblyman, however, said while it is to be lauded that the elected representatives from Ranau and Kundasang and the Director of Land and Survey have met and come out with statements, the land dispute remained unresolved.

Urging the State Government to intervene soonest and resolve the ongoing land dispute and standoff in Kg Malinsau, Wayan and Sinurai, Ulu Sugut, Ranau, he said the land dispute needed to be seen from the right perspective. "If the villagers/native inhabitants did not form a human barricade with the aid of volunteers of SSPR, an NGO from Ranau, the disputed land would have been totally cleared and destroyed by now.

"Moreover, according to the native villagers, there were no ground surveys and no boundary markers in the disputed land as alleged by the authorities that a proper survey was done," he said.

Dr Jeffrey said that even then it did not stop the cutting down of about 300 rubber trees by the intruding mob with more than 100 foreigners and watched by the police with their vehicles and lorries ready to arrest and cart away the native villagers. "It was not just a case of clearing land for their proposed site office as allegedly reported.

"Luckily, there were no untoward incidents and eventually good sense prevailed and the destruction was stopped pending further negotiations. "Hopefully, a final resolution can be achieved with the native villagers getting to keep their lands and rubber trees that are not destroyed," he said in a statement here Saturday.

Dr Jeffrey said to resolve the land mess in Ulu Sugut, Ranau, and in many similar cases, the Government must intervene to resolve the land dispute and it is hoped that the Government will do so for the rights and welfare of the native villagers.

At the same time, he proposed that the State Government implement land reforms, including respecting and acknowledging native land rights by establishing clear-cut provisions for safeguarding of NCR and other land rights; mandatory provisions for ground survey/inspection and inquiry before land applications are considered; establishing of a Land Tribunal and if possible a Land and NCR Commission and a Native Land Foundation; making provisions for court proceedings to be allowed to challenge disputable decisions of the Director of Land and Survey and Collector of Land Revenue; widen the scope of land use of Native Titles so that the natives get better valuations on their lands and for development without sacrificing native lands to be converted to country leases.

"I hope to propose some suggestions at the next State Assembly sitting in November and hope that land administration to safeguard native customary rights can be further strengthened," he said.

Read this article:
Land disputes: Govt urged to step in, carry out reforms

Land clearing: The Caterpillar arrives
First Day of clearing. Paul arrives with his Caterpillar.

By: Carol Peckham

Visit link:
Land clearing: The Caterpillar arrives - Video

Land clearing: our drone joins in
The drone arrived to keep an eye on the dig.

By: Carol Peckham

Read more:
Land clearing: our drone joins in - Video

Land clearing: here comes the bulldozer
The bulldozer is driven by Evan. His father Paul has the Caterpillar.

By: Carol Peckham

Read the original here:
Land clearing: here comes the bulldozer - Video

Block and Land Clearing Cost Adelaide - Contact AdelaideTreeRemovalcom now at 08) 7100-1599
http://AdelaideTreeRemoval.com Emergency Tree Removal in Adelaide At Adelaide Tree Removal we really like our job and are very dedicated for the care and man...

By: Aaron Arborist

Continued here:
Block and Land Clearing Cost Adelaide - Contact AdelaideTreeRemovalcom now at 08) 7100-1599 - Video

Block and Land Clearing Service Adelaide - Call AdelaideTreeRemovalcom on 08 7100-1599
http://AdelaideTreeRemoval.com Tree Removal in Adelaide At Adelaide Tree Removal we really like our job and are very dedicated towards the care and management of trees. Tree removal is dangerous...

By: Aaron Arborist

See more here:
Block and Land Clearing Service Adelaide - Call AdelaideTreeRemovalcom on 08 7100-1599 - Video

Bobcat Mini Excavator Digging Small Stumps
On a recent job we did some small land clearing. We had to rip up some of the stumps for a pad for a shed and new lawn. Just a quick clip of me ripping out t...

By: MassHardscaper44

Visit link:
Bobcat Mini Excavator Digging Small Stumps - Video

Land Clearing Service Adelaide - Call AdelaideTreeRemovalcom on 08) 7100-1599
http://AdelaideTreeRemoval.com Tree Removal in Adelaide At Adelaide Tree Removal we enjoy our job and are very committed to the care and management of trees....

By: Aaron Arborist

Here is the original post:
Land Clearing Service Adelaide - Call AdelaideTreeRemovalcom on 08) 7100-1599 - Video

"They should be paying for it": Kevin Humphries says farmers should be reimbursed. Photo: Tamara Dean

Farmers banned from clearing their land should be reimbursed and society must pay to save native plants and animals on private property, says the top environmental economist heading a shake-up of NSW's biodiversity laws.

In an interview with Fairfax Media, Neil Byron, who is leading the independent review,has given the first indication of potential changes to contentious rules governing land clearing and threatened species protection.

Senior Nationals MPs have been heavily criticised for linking land clearing laws to the death of NSW environment compliance officer Glen Turner, who was killed while carrying out his work near Moree in July.

Killed: Environmental compliance officer Glen Turner. Photo: Supplied

Dr Byronbacked comments by Nationals MP Kevin Humphries that if the community wants farmers to set aside productive land "they should be paying for it".

Advertisement

"If we as a public want these things saved, we ... have to pay at least part of the costs," Dr Byron said, adding farmers should be encouraged to maintain land, not just set it aside.

"What frequently happens is having identified something of high importance, we then ignore it and let it degrade."

He said such reimbursement need not be "extraordinarily expensive to taxpayers" and might involve expanding biodiversity offset schemes, in which impacts from development on threatened species are offset by restoring equivalent biodiversity elsewhere.

Read more:
Pay farmers to save threatened species: expert

The Philadelphia Land Bank, a nascent agency organized to streamline the redevelopment of thousands of Philadelphias vacant and tax-delinquent properties, releaseda draft of a strategic planon Wednesday recommending a number of goals the new body should pursue over the next five years.

The plan, which was written by a team led by Philadelphia-based Interface Studios, is the result of four months of analysis of data provided by various city agencies and meetings with dozens of advocacy groups and city officials who wrestled the Land Bank into existence.

The Land Bank board will solicit community feedback at a public hearing in mid-October and complete a final draft of the plan by the end of the month. The plan will then be sent to City Council for its approval.

Those whove followed the development of the Land Bank closely over the past few years wont find any major surprises in the draft plan. Its overarching goal is simple: to return vacant and tax delinquent property to productive reuse. Deceptively simple, perhaps, given that the Land Bank itself wouldnt have been created if those few words didnt represent an intricate, elusive goal for Philadelphia and other cities around the country.

The Land Bank is intended to address the vacancy problem by consolidating ownership of city-owned properties, acquiring privately owned tax-delinquent properties, clearing tax liens and tangled titles, and selling or otherwise transferring properties in its inventory for development or other community uses. According to the plan, it will seek to promote new affordable and market-rate housing development, the creation of new businesses and the expansion of existing ones, the vitality of urban agriculture, and the availability of open space and green infrastructure.

As part of the strategic planning process, Interface Studioalong with partners Real Estate Strategies, Inc. and Lamar Wilson Associatesprovided an updated inventory of vacant and tax-delinquent parcels in Philadelphia.

Roughly 8,000 vacant parcels are currently under some form of public ownership in Philadelphia and not committed to a specific project.

Another 24,000 properties are vacant and tax-delinquent but privately owned, according to the plan.

Read more here:
Philadelphia Land Bank releases plan to tackle vacancy