Editorial August 11, 2003 Issue

Who owns the land?

Editor

In Mexico's Chiapas state, remnants of the Mayan people who once ruled the region are contending for land rights in an ecological preserve that represents nearly half of Mexico's remaining rainforest.

In California, landowners and the beachstrolling public are at odds over who owns Malibu's ibu's sand. Some see the entire shoreline as a public treasure, and others argue that private ownership rights trump public access.

In Zimbabwe, farmers have been uprooted from land their families cultivated for generations, and the farmland has been occupied by squatters whose claim to these farms rests in ties to the party in power—and in ancestors who lived off that land centuries earlier.

Send a comment to the editors

This is the end of the issue. Ready to explore further?

Online features Audio