Camvert and the forest peril in the Congo basin

• Afrik21
• 06 April 2021

Some local communities have joined NGOs to denounce the establishment of Camvert, a project to develop the largest palm plantation in Central Africa on 50,000 hectares of forest.

Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why?

• The Guardian
• 05 April 2021

The relationship to land – who owns it, who works it and who cares for it – reflects obscene levels of inequality and legacies of colonialism and white supremacy in the United States, and also the world.

Planned deforestation threatens Indigenous land, intact forest landscapes in West Papua

• Greenpeace
• 05 April 2021

New report from Greenpeace International‘Licence to Clear’ shows systematic violations of permitting regulations as plantations were pushed into forest areas. Since 2000, forest estate land released for plantations in Papua Province has totalled almost a million hectares.

Zimbabwe: Biti continues terrorising foreign dairy investor

• Zimbabwe Mail
• 02 April 2021

MDC Alliance VP Tendai Biti refutes rumours that a lucerne grass project, which is evicting people from their lands in Chilonga and is backed by the Scandinavian private equity firm Spear Capital, was stopped.

‘What other country would do this to its people?’ Cambodian land grab victims seek int’l justice

• Mongabay
• 01 April 2021

FIDH, along with Global Witness and Climate Counsel, submitted an open letter dated March 16 to Fatou Bensouda, the current prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC), urging to open a preliminary examination into land-grabbing in Cambodia.

Why is the Food Systems Summit silent on corporate land grabs?

• Bulatlat
• 30 Mar 2021

For farmers in Asia as elsewhere, land ownership and effective control is the key to any radical transformation of the food systems and for attempts to achieve genuine sustainable development to really matter.

Key Cerrado deforesters in 2020 linked to the clearing of more than 110,000 hectares

• CRR
• 30 Mar 2021

A new report by Chain Reaction Research presents data on specific actors linked to Cerrado deforestation in 2020, including the quantified risk exposure of the largest soy traders, meatpackers, and retailers.

Saudi Arabia: Food security is a priority

• Arab News
• 28 Mar 2021

The Public Investment Fund has transferred its ownership stakes in Almarai, the National Agricultural Development Company, and the Saudi Fisheries Company to the Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company (SALIC).

Food estate projects must not contribute to deforestation: experts

• ANTARA
• 28 Mar 2021

The Indonesian government last year started developing a food estate project in Central Kalimantan. While it is currently spread over 30.000 ha of land, the size of the food estate will be extended over the next two years. Now, the food estate project has been expanded to North Sumatra, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), South Sumatra, Papua, and Riau.

Transparency of land-based investments: Cameroon country snapshot

• CCSI and CED
• 27 Mar 2021

Communities continue to be excluded from decision-making around investments and the government pursues a top-down approach to concession allocation and remains reluctant to recognize all legitimate tenure rights.

Farmland investments in Tanzania: The impact of protected domestic markets and patronage relations

• World Development
• 26 Mar 2021

Article assesses the local impacts of farmland investments in the Kagera and Pwani regions of Tanzania, and particularly the Kagera Sugar operations in Misennyi district.

Palm oil firm Digoel Agri said to clear Papuan forest without Indigenous consent

• Mongabay
• 25 Mar 2021

A palm oil conglomerate has begun clearing the ancestral forests of Indigenous tribes in Indonesia’s Papua region without the locals’ consent. Subsidiaries of Digoel Agri group have cleared 64 hectares (158 acres) of forest in the first two months of 2021.