ANZ Banking Group violated its own policies and international human rights standards by providing 40 million $ loan to a Cambodian sugar company that seized land from local farmers, according to a statement released by Australian government body that monitors corporate behavior overs.
There are countless examples of governments handing it over at bargain prices to foreign investors, ranging from hedge funds to biofuel producers.
The growing financialisation of Brazilian agribusiness is enabling foreign investment in the industry most responsible for deforestation - and land grabbing
- Intercept
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23 November 2021
Women in Sierra Leone are losing their land and livelihoods in the face of land grabs, discriminatory traditions and customs, and the lack of a strong legal framework, reports Mariama Tarawallie of the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF)
- Open Democracy
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16 December 2013
Global demand for agricultural land has increased 14-fold since the 2008 spike in global food prices. With that comes increasing cases of land grab, violence, and force eviction. Why every actor that could have prevent that is becoming increasingly powerless to do so.
- Foreign Policy
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11 April 2016
Du point de vue de GRAIN, ce rapport très attendu de la Banque mondiale est à la fois une déception et un échec.
Oil palm, billed as a way to improve local economic opportunity and reduce poverty in the tropics, may not live up to that billing, a recent report shows. On the front lines of oil palm expansion, the indigenous forest-dwelling Arfak people of West Papua Province, Indonesia believe they are not the beneficiaries of the palm’s promise.
Stephen Marks looks at the latest rush by China and countries in the middle east to sign lease agreements in poor countries for agricultural production, and what this trend means in terms of food security and access to arable land for local populations.
- Pambazuka
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11 December 2008
An internal document recently posted on IRRI's website reveals that the Institute has been advising Saudi Arabia in the context of its strategy to acquire farm land overseas for its own food production.
Anywaa Survival Organisation's critique of the Ethiopian government's video presentation of rice land grab in the Gambela region.
Africa's untapped agriculture potential make it an ideal partner for resource-constrained Middle Eastern countries that seek to improve their food security, a new report from Standard Chartered Bank said.
- Trade Arabia
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22 July 2010
The ProSAVANA program intentionally weakens and creates division among peasants while there is an increased risk of even more peasants losing their land.
- No to ProSavana
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27 August 2016
Swedish investor EcoDevelopment registered a claim at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes against the Tanzanian government on September 11, 2017 for revoking a land title amid concerns over the impact on local communities and a wildlife sanctuary.
Some projects aimed at increasing food production in Asia have been dropped or delayed amid the financial crisis, notes a new report by IRRI and the Asia Society.
- Wall St Journal
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26 September 2010
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.
For investors like Susan Payne, the chief executive of Emergent Asset Management, farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is a hot bet.
UAE foreign investment in food production have so far focused on leasing Pakistan and Sudan’s agricultural land, with new prospects in Cambodian rice, Canadian wheat and Australian beef. Alongside the strategic deals at the national level, private investment has followed which should open new channels of trade, for example, Al Qudra Holding has plans to grow grain and vegetables in Vietnam and Croatia as well as Pakistan.
- The National
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25 October 2009
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
- Circle of Blue
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17 November 2009
Many of the areas from which people are being moved are slated for leasing by the Ethiopian government for commercial agricultural development, according to a new report from Human Rights Watch.
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.
It is not too late for equitable partnerships to flourish between foreign investors and local communities.
The government has not presented satisfactory and truthful explanations about its actions, let alone credible defense of its role as agency and facilitator of the abominable practices of farmland grabbing.
- tramnsformingethiopia
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11 August 2011
With the large and sometimes overexposed attention for land grabbing in Africa, good examples tend to be forgotten
- The Water Channel
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23 April 2013
As climate change, population growth and environmental damage shrink the amount of arable land on the planet, wealthier countries and corporations look to developing countries for land.
Ethiopia's potential can be maximized only if we Ethiopians are the producers and sellers of our own agricultural products. What Meles Zenawi is doing now is putting this upside down. He made our potential buyers the sellers of our commodity.
- Ethiomedia
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03 December 2009
Oakland Institute speaks about the findings of their latest round of in-depth research into land grabs in Africa.
- Pambazuka
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09 December 2011
The Ethiopian government’s ambitious target of harvesting 28 million tonnes of cereals in the first three quarters of the 2007/2008 budget year has failed. Authorities seem determined to change this situation by leasing huge chunks of land to other sovereign states for mechanised farming.
Nnimmo Bassey from Nigeria said that these principles legitimize a new form of colonialism with grave dangers for millions of local livelihoods and the environment.
- Radio Mundo Real
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28 April 2010
Demeter International got a 25-year lease for 10,000 ha of Bwabwata National Park, which it will start ploughing in October. Hundreds of families will lose access to the forest.
Over the past year, I have been collecting material on biofuels, land rights in Africa, and global land grabbing. Reading through this material worries me greatly, for it carries very strong echoes of Cecil Rhodes and his merry men.