Internationally-funded Guatemalan palm oil and sugar cane interests evict Mayan Qeqchi families from their historic lands, destroying homes and crops, killing one, injuring more, while thousands are without food or shelter.

Logging companies in PNG are using special agricultural leases to clear vast tracts of rainforest timber, on the promise of roads and economic development for remote villages. Jemima Garrett investigates.

Area nearly the size of France purchased, leased for food production around the world Africa, South America, parts of Europe targeted by cash-rich, food-poor nations

In a move to attract foreign investment, Cambodia has awarded big concessions to companies, mainly from China, Vietnam and South Korea, to run mines, power plants and farms, leading to a rise in forced evictions by state officials profiting on the sale and lease of farmland for use by foreign and local companies.

The much-discussed Congo land-lease, granting 200,000 hectares to South African farmers with a further 10 million hectares in the balance, appears to mark a departure from the usual terms underpinning foreign acquisition of fertile land by multinationals

Meeting of delegates from eight districts and twenty chiefdoms affected by large scale land acquisitions for agribusiness in Sierra Leone ends with formation of a coalition to serve as a watchdog on land issues in the country.

Land grabs in Canada have not been well-documented. Provinces do not keep inventory on large-scale land acquisitions. This blind eye approach has some people, particularly farmers, worried.

Between the farmers and Olam lies one of Lao’s most powerful, and some allege, corrupt families, the Siphandones.

Both public and private sector investors in the Gulf are also looking at ways to improve local food supplies, by investing in a range of outlets from arable farm land in the Sudan, Algeria and Pakistan to introduce new technology to enhance the local production of foodstuffs and grains, livestock, poultry and fish.

The social consequences of these land grabs are significant.

Lawrence Asset Management's Ravi Sood suggests investing in food production in low-cost areas that are water-rich – Brazil, tropical Africa, Malaysia and Indonesia.

The Congo ventures are not core businesses to be based in the Congo but instead, extensions of businesses located in South Africa