Joan Baxter profiles Indian national Chinnakannan Sivasankaran and his quest to make his Siva Group into the largest player in the production of palm oil by leasing land and establishing oil palm plantations from Papua New Guinea to Sierra Leone to South America.
In less than ten years, agricultural land granted by the Government of Madagascar, often unilaterally and completely opaque, has run up to hundreds of thousands of hectares.
The Land Policy Initiative will host a workshop on 30 September to evaluate recommendations arising from a study by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, which has developed a high level strategy and business plan; as well as an M&E framework to guide the implementation of the African Union declaration on land.
As foreign governments and corporations lease and purchase large tracts of land across the globe, in Africa, such ‘land grabs’ have allegedly provided the grievance behind protests, riots, coups, and other conflict from Mali to Madagascar.
DfID accused of assisting land grab in Sierra Leone by providing aid for European energy business
It is wondrous how the threat of climate change, a clear sign of the excesses and limitations of advanced economies, could ever become a driver of grand visions of progress in the developing world.
The High Court in Auckland has formalised a wide-ranging asset freeze against the unsuccessful bidders for the Crafar farms, Jack Chen and May Wang.
Civil society organisations appeal for suspension of MIFEE project in Papua pending redress for local communities
On the margins of the annual World Bank land and poverty conference in April a donor roundtable agreed to establish a first global donor working group on land, which was launched recently. Video interview with the first chair of the group, from DFID.
The People's Coalition on Food Sovereignty recently released its critique on the responsible agricultural investment guideline calling it essentially the same as the World Bank's Principle on Responsible Agricultural Investment.
The returns on investments in South African farmland consistently outstrip those of local and international equities, bonds and real estate, says Futuregrowth Asset Management, the venture capital arm of Old Mutual.
The right to purchase agricultural land belongs to citizens of Ukraine, the state, the Land Bank, and territorial communities, according to a new draft law "On Agricultural Land Turnover".
