From next month (January 2013), Tanzania will start restricting the size of land that single large-scale foreign and local investors can "lease" for agricultural use.

This piece is part of "Water Grabbers: A Global Rush on Freshwater", a special National Geographic News series on how grabbing land—and water—from poor people, desperate governments, and future generations threatens global food security, environmental sustainability, and local cultures.

Governments, IFIs and corporations are collaborating in major new projects to reorder land and water use and create industrial infrastructure over millions of ha in Africa to ensure sustained supplies of commodities and profits for markets.

Des représentants communautaires provenant des quatre coins du Liberia se sont réunis du 27 au 29 novembre dans la ville de Bopolu, dans le Comté de Gbarpolu, afin d'examiner les répercussions des activités des concessions agricoles d’huile de palme au Liberia sur des terres déjà utilisées et détenues (de façon coutumière ou autre) par les communautés.

Controversial farmland deals in developing countries can have a negative impact on the people who live on the land, according to a new U.N. report.

The question of how farmers will feed the world while adjusting to changing weather patterns appears to have been sidelined at the climate talks in Doha even as this year's crippling drought in the US sent grain prices to record highs.

“When things are mortgaged up to the hilt and the banks are involved then it’s either bank ownership or foreign ownership,” says South Australian sheep farmer Brian Wilson

Oxfam’s Phil Bloomer reports on the shocking scandal of (mostly) secretive land-grabbing, usually from those least able to defend their rights.

C’est la nouvelle démarche de la Banque mondiale pour rendre « socialement acceptable » l’accaparement de terres qui se développe comme une gangrène en Afrique.

Romanian authorities have a history of giving up fertile agricultural land to foreign companies or Romanian “fat-cats”, all to the detriment of small scale, diverse, economically sustainable and environmentally sound agriculture.

By virtue of Dominion Farms’ responsibility to train young students in farming techniques in Kenya and then absorb them into the enterprise or equip them for owning their own enterprises, this is not your typical land-grabbing project, writes Tukeni Obasi

Former Nigerian president Obasanjo calls on African Union to develop a framework for managing foreign investment in agriculture, and says governments should consider a moratorium on large-scale land deals pending legislation to protect smallholder farmers.

Olam is working closely with the Government of Gabon where it has developed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil New Planting Procedure in Africa.

"It seems incongruous that Herakles Farms claims it is trying to improve the lives of local people but then there is scarcely any consultation with those same people over what is to be done with the land they depend on for their livelihoods, nor any serious acknowledgment of the risks posed to local environments and the global climate," writes Kumi Naidoo

The company plans to expand its acreage in Laos to 5,000 hectares, grow arabica in Medan, Indonesia, and acquire existing plantations in Brazil, while clearing of land has begun on the 5,000 hectares Olam has leased in Ethiopia.

A slide show by GRAIN that profiles some of those who have been most actively pursuing or supporting farmland grabs around the world.

Of the $4.2 billion that the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, invested in agribusiness and forestry in the same period, just three investments – or 2 percent – had any component related to land acquisition.

Using or acquiring land for your company can indeed be a risky business and particularly when poor communities are affected.

Land rights advocates are hoping ASEAN will come up with a regulatory framework to check private sector investment in land, particularly for agriculture, as land grabs and land-related conflicts soar in the region.

Oxfam report says international land investors and biofuel producers have taken over land around the world that could feed nearly 1 billion people.

The World Bank rejected a call by aid group Oxfam International to freeze the lender’s investment in land-intensive agricultural projects, saying such a move would not help prevent abusive practices in the purchase of acreage

The Liberian government has leased nearly 6 per cent of Liberia’s total land mass to palm-oil companies. More than a million people live on those lands, and 150,000 will be affected in the first five years of the plantations.

We are witnessing a second scramble for Africa and other poor countries by rich nations and agribusinesses to acquire land for agricultural and biofuel purposes.

The land grab in Cambodia is creating an underclass of landless citizens who have no stake in society and nothing left to lose. Recourse to the law is not an option.

The Kingdom of Bahrain is seeking to conclude an agreement with the African Union Commission paving the way for the GCC bloc to ensure the food security by utilising the natural resources rich African continent.

Des organisations sociales se disent offensées par un article du Wall Street Journal écrit par le Directeur Général de la FAO et le Président de la EBRD appelant les gouvernements à adopter le secteur privé comme moteur principal de la production alimentaire globale.

Las organizaciones sociales han expresado su sorpresa e indignación por un artículo firmado por el Director General de la FAO y el Presidente del EBRD, en el que llaman a los gobiernos y a la sociedad a abrazar al sector privado como el principal motor de la producción global de alimentos.

Social organisations are shocked and offended by a Wall Street Journal article written by the FAO Director General and EBRD President that calls on governments to embrace corporations as the main engine for global food production.

İçlerinde La Via Campesina’nın da yeraldığı bir grup örgüt, Birleşmiş Milletler Gıda ve Tarım Organizasyonu (FAO) genel direktörü Jose Graziano da Silva ve Avrupa Kalkınma ve Yatırım Bankası (EBRD)’nin politikalarını protesto için bir imza metn hazırladılar.

Rising populations and the development of biofuels are increasing demand for arable land all over the world, and Arrianna Marie Conerly Coleman says that small farmers are the first to suffer.