Lessons need to be learned to transform Africa's ‘resource curse’ into a ‘resource blessing’ and to mitigate against the negative impacts of large land-based investments.

The mad scramble for Africa. Critics say the financial firms that helped cause the global recession by inflating the real estate bubble -- are back. And this time they're being accused of pulling the same tricks with the world's food supply.

The fund will operate according to a Code of Conduct for Land Acquisition and Land Use in to prevent unsustainable practices.

Mounting concern over security of food supplies is spurring a wave of private-sector investment in Africa.

"We’re dealing with a different enemy now: not with an enemy that emerges from the center to the periphery, as they used to say, but with an enemy that comes at us from all sides."

The 2010 edition of the Africa Progress Panel report, produced under the chairmanship of Mr Kofi Annan, addresses land grabbing in Africa.

An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens

The funding comes from the UK's CDC Group. Norfund and the US DFC.

Across Africa and the developing world, a new global land rush is gobbling up large expanses of arable land.

Canadian company pursuing a carbon offset project in Sierra Leone says it is committed to equitable revenue sharing arrangements with local smallholders and a transparent consent process monitored by the NGO Namati.

Carbon Done Right Developments has dropped a 10,000 ha project in Ghana, put a 32,000 ha project in Sierra Leone on hold and is looking for new investors to expand its 25,000 ha rewilding project in Sierra Leone, after BP Carbon Trading did not exercise an option to pre-purchase carbon credits.

Investment Corp. of Dubai in tie-up with Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote that "could run into billions of dollars" and involves ventures in agriculture.

"Will the Chinese government purchase goods in China to be used on their farmland in Africa? We have seen a few tenders, yes, definitely. Is this becoming a trend? Most likely, and this will be a nice add-on to the business case that we are running here."

A move by Madagascar's army-backed leader to nix a huge South Korean farming deal has exposed the risks of such ventures in Africa, where land remains an emotive issue prone to populist or nationalist opposition.

Carbon Done Right plans a stock market flotation and says it has secured access to 57,000 hectares in Sierra Leoone—but no leases have been registered with local authorities

Community and civil society representatives from Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast are in Brussels to denounce land grabbing by a Belgian rubber and palm oil company.

Oakland Institute founder Anuradha Mittal profiles the heroic, dangerous work of Global South land rights activists like Nasako Besingi and Pastor Omot Agwa, who face violence and terror charges from hostile governments.

Those keen to see an end to years of environmental destruction and see genuine change in the behavior of major palm oil producers and suppliers feel there is still a lot to be mistrusting of.

A US government agency, a World Bank Group member and a private equity fund plan to help half a million small-scale farmers boost yields and improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa.

KKR will invest about US$200 million from its European fund in Afriflora, an Ethiopian flower farm.

Trilogy Capital is involved in a large scale agriculture project in Ethiopia with US-based Morrell Agro Industries.

A new report published this week claims farmers in Africa are being driven off their traditional lands to make way for vast new industrial farming projects backed by European hedge funds seeking profits and foreign countries looking for cheap food.

Karuturi has an agreement to provide 40,000 tons of rice to neighboring Djibouti.

The studies that we have seen can prove no link between land purchases and food security, says German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Personal Assitant on African Affairs.

With vast tracts of land being sold in Madagascar, and Sudan and other African governments actively seeking investors in agricultural land, are we witnessing a neo-colonial land grab or will the investment result in greater food productivity to the long-term benefit of recipient nations?

Four African leaders attending the rich nations’ meeting that opens in Washington today have been cautioned to be wary of the G8’s New Alliance to Increase Food and Nutrition Security, noting that it poses a serious threat to small-scale farmers in Africa.

For investors like Susan Payne, the chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is a hot bet.

Mohd Bakke Salleh, president and group chief executive of Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur earlier today that the group has identified 300,000 hectares (ha) of land in Cameroon that could be suitable for palm oil plantation.

Economic Commission for Africa and African Union representatives agree on the need for agricultural investment models that minimize land transfers and lead to shared prosperity at local and national levels.

Wealthy U.S. and European investors are accumulating large swaths of African agricultural lands in deals that have little accountability and give them greater control over food supply for the world's poor