After a delay of almost five years to the day, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has finally got around to addressing a complaint filed against a company linked to clearing Papuan rainforests.

There is no other crop that has grown faster globally in the last decade than palm oil. This almost uncontrollable expansion leaves a deep trail of destruction and conflicts around it. As companies take over more community land, they also grab the water sources from them.

Hearing day in the case initiated against Bolloré by a collective of NGOs coordinated by Sherpa regarding the unethical practices of the Cameroonian Socapalm, directly linked to Bolloré.

As the world celebrates the International Day of Struggle against Monoculture Tree Plantations today, conservationists have warned transnational companies from Europe, America and Asia against scramble for land in Nigeria and Africa for industrial agro-business.

In this excerpt from her book, ‘Will Africa Feed China?’, Deborah Brautigam discusses China-Cameroon agricultural development and investment.

This pan-African parliamentarian campaign against land grabbing by investors from developed countries is the brainchild of Mr Sisa Njikelana, former member of the South African Parliament

Now the government of President Santos seems to be pressing for reforms to the law that would enable further concentration of land in Colombia, even though this would be incoherent with the government’s own commitments to date in the peace talks.

‘Feed Indonesia, then feed the world’. Backed by this slogan Indonesia companies, and companies from South Korea, China and Singapore as well, are buying land in the Indonesian province of West Papua in order to grow crops.

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.

“Every day I field calls from potential investors, from pension funds, from family businesses that want to buy” from inside and outside Canada, said Doug Emsley, president of Assiniboia Capital Corp.

The scariest aspect of this unfolding phenomenon is that despite the foreseeable terrible consequences, the appetite among the rich countries to own a piece of this developing-country fertile land continues to grow, turning to an ugly competition.

Participants at a 2-day High-Level Forum on Foreign Direct Investments in Land in Africa have resolved to promote land-based investment models that increase agricultural productivity and maximize opportunities for Africa’s farmers.

As the G20’s agriculture ministers arrived in Paris for a two-day meeting, more than 500 non-governmental organisations from around the world have delivered a petition calling for a halt to land grabbing under the guise of “responsible agricultural investment”.

Karuturi's 15 John Deere tractors plough 500 hectares a day on its 300,000 land concession in the Gambella region of Ethiopia. This is land clearance on a gigantic scale.

"All of a sudden the world is waking up and saying, 'Wow, emerging markets, food security... this asset class is going to really perform in the medium term -- the next 8-20 years,'" says new convert James Howard, manager of the Futuregrowth Agri-Fund

This Bill is designed to retain ownership and control of sensitive land within New Zealand.

The World Bank's principles, which would be entirely voluntary, aim to distract from the fact that today's global food crisis, marked by more than 1 billion people going hungry each day, will not be solved by large scale industrial agriculture, which virtually all of these land acquisitions aim to promote.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will add 46 farms covering 41,554 acres — or about 65 square miles — in eight US states to its vast portfolio, further bolstering its standing as an agricultural “titan.”

Hundreds of indigenous people began gathering in the Brazilian capital for a 10-day protest camp to oppose a government bill in Congress that would open their protected lands to commercial agriculture.

The Indonesian government has major plans to develop strategic infrastructures and agricultural projects, but for farmers, fishermen and indigenous communities, this represents a threat to their livelihoods, food, water, and even homes.

Stakeholders attending a two-day regional dialogue on oil palm development in West Africa have called for the inclusion of local communities in oil palm development in the sub-region.

Officials from 24 Latin American and Caribbean states have signed a legally binding treaty containing measures to protect land defenders, almost two years to the day since environmental leader Berta Cáceres was killed in her home in Honduras.

Hundreds of Myanmar farmers entered a seventh day of protest over land grabs, demanding the government return seized fields and protect them from a surge in prosecutions over property disputes.

Since the day it was released, the accuracy of the Australian government’s Foreign Owned Agricultural Land Register has come into question, with rural industry stakeholders disputing the amount of land actually held by Chinese interests

A day before the start of yet another trial brought on the Bolloré Group against French journalists, organisations denounce the imprisonment of 6 local community leaders affected by the investments of company linked to Bolloré

Amid massive land grabbing, land-use conversions and plunder of natural resources in the region by foreign and local investors, peasant organizations and land reform advocates vowed to further advance the struggle for genuine agrarian reform at a recently concluded two-day conference here.

A day-long conference will be held on Feb. 6, 2013 at the India International Centre, New Delhi to deliberate on the ongoing land takeover in India and in African countries like Ethiopia by Indian companies.

Following a two-day conference in Libreville, Gabon, civil society actors launched a land and resource rights initiative to challenge property laws and continuing allocation of community lands to logging, mining and agribusiness.

On the International Day of Peasant Struggle, Honduran peasants started massive land occupations, with about 3000 farm families occupying more than 12,000 ha in at least six departments.

Fonterra will develop two new dairy farms in China, increasing to five the number of farms the co-operative has in the country, while, the NZ Government is expected to announce any day whether Shanghai Pengxin can buy the 8000ha Crafar dairy farms.