Nearly 88 percent of Gabon is covered in forests, but NGOs fear that the development of oil palm plantations threatens this viable resource. Local communities accuse SOTRADER, a public-private partnership between the government and the multinational Olam, of land grabbing.

WRM invite organizations, groups, networks and movements to sign this petition in solidarity with Gabonese communities threatened by OLAM/SOTRADER plantations by 19 September 2019.

A diplomatic intervention by the Indian government and law suits filed by the company appear to have pushed Ethiopian authorities to backtrack and offer a new lease in the Gambella region, this time for 15,000 hectares.

An overview of land grabbing in Africa and Asia as lessons for Sri Lanka. In September 2016 the International Criminal Court called land grabs as a crime against humanity and this is an area that Sri Lanka’s lawyers are advised to further look into.

Okomu's Managing Director surprised about attacks directed at the company over its RSPO certification, saying it would be the first palm oil company in Nigeria to be so certified by October this year.

Workers with the General Agriculture Workers Union of Liberia have agreed to go back to work after a 7-day solidarity work boycott, following the death of one of their colleagues on the Sime Darby plantation

Nasako Besingi has been jailed after opposing a US-funded palm-oil plantation and supporters say this is linked to Cameroon’s ‘anglophone crisis’

No new plantation has succeeded since Mozambique's independence, but this has not stopped Frelimo leaders from dreaming of giant mechanised farms funded by hundreds of millions of dollars from abroad.

A complaint lodged earlier this year about alleged abuses by a palm oil company in Indonesian Papua has raised questions over the credibility of the industry’s largest certification scheme in investigating member violations.

Unrest flared in Oromiya for several months until early this year over plans to allocate farmland surrounding the regional capital for development.

There has been growing evidence that forest land grabbing by both individuals as well as a powerful alliance of international corporations and government officials is one of the major factors currently driving this loss of forest cover.

Australians will get a chance to own a 20 per cent stake in the country's largest landholder, S. Kidman & Co, alongside large Chinese investors, after a deal was struck this week to buy the iconic cattle business for more than $370 million.

A new report on water for food security and nutrition shows how land, food and water issues are inextricably linked. This must be reflected in policymaking.

Companies with bad environmental records are increasingly turning to a little-known nonprofit called TFT to make sure they meet commitments to improve their practices. It remains to be seen if this is just a PR move.

Some of the factors influencing grain yields are natural, while others are of human origin. Natural conditions of inherent soil fertility, rainfall, day length, and solar intensity strongly influence crop yield potentials. Several areas of cropland with inherently high fertility are found widely scattered around the world: in the U.S. Midwest (often called the Corn Belt), Western Europe, the Gangetic Plain of India, and the North China Plain.

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.

Describing itself as a consultant and “master distributor” of products designed “to bring working capital to a variety of projects” – including upgrading farmland overseas and forestry –Intelligent Partnership published a 76 page report on the alternatives sector this week.

Currently reserved for Hungarians, farmlands will be available for purchase by foreigners from 2014. But as this EU imposed deadline looms, PM Viktor Orbán government is doing all it can to delay it. Meanwhile small farmers are battling with wealthy candidates, often close to sources of political power, for the most attractive lots.

The Financial Times reported this week that TIAA-CREF is developing a new “investment vehicle” that will bet the retirement funds of millions of American on the rising price of farmland around the world.

In this extract from his book The Landgrabbers: The New Fight Over Who Owns the Earth, Fred Pearce witnesses the relentless plundering by intensive commercial farmers of Brazil’s rich savannah

Governments in the global south are claiming farmland is 'empty' and 'unused' – and flogging it off to foreigners who promise investment. The June summit in Rio needs to call a halt to this.

“This so-called joint venture smacks of land-grabbing and conflict of interest on the part of President Aquino’s political lieutenant in the Gulf.” – Danilo Ramos, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas

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.

The highly-contested Principles on Responsible Agricultural Investment are back on the table this week, as the annual Conference on Land and Poverty opens at the World Bank.

How did this country turn from being one of the poorest post colonial states in the world to one of the largest land grabbers in recent years?

As swathes of their country’s land is leased, cleared and prepared for food production by foreign companies, Ethiopians are divided over whether this constitutes ‘agro-colonialism’ or much-needed development

K S Oils, one of India’s leading integrated edible oil food companies Wednesday announced further acquisition of 53,000 acres of land for palm oil plantations in Indonesia. This brings the company’s land bank in Indonesia to 1,38,000 acres [56,000 ha], the largest owned by any Indian company.

The Republic of Congo expects to finalize a multimillion hectare land deal with South African farmers by the end of this year, Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso said on Tuesday.

A conference to discuss ways of boosting agricultural production in Africa will be held in Zanzibar later this month

Rich food importers are acquiring vast tracts of poor countries' farmland. Is this beneficial foreign investment or neocolonialism?