Tanzania’s experience in the global land grab post-2008 led to shattered hopes, land conflicts & misery for small farmers. Yet, the current govt risks repeating history. A new report looks at this critical moment for Tanzania's small farmers & pastoralists.
Bloomberg exposé on Frank Timis' plan to turn Les Fermes de la Teranga (ex-Senhuile) into a major source of animal feed for the Gulf States and the implications for Dakar's water supply
- Bloomberg
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14 November 2023
In the country known as the “breadbasket of Europe,” agriculture has been dominated by oligarchs and multinational corporations since the privatization of state-owned land following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Will this change, now that a controversial law to create a land market entered into effect on July 1, 2021?
- Oakland Institute
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06 August 2021
Global commodities giant Cargill continues to buy soybeans from a farm in Brazil that cultivates on illegally acquired and deforested land, including lands acquired by US teachers’ pension fund TIAA.
- Mongabay
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04 February 2021
A Bangkok court ruled that about 3,000 Cambodians could proceed with a class-action suit against Mitr Phol, the world’s fourth-largest sugar producer. Farmers in Oddar Meanchey province are seeking compensation after the Cambodian government allocated land to the company for sugar plantations.
Satellite maps show the connection between Harvard and TIAA's farmland acquisitions in Brazil's Cerrado and the massive number of fires that have been burning in the region since July of this year.
- FOE US, GRAIN,NFFC, Rede Social
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22 October 2019
The case is significant as it could change the way community displacement in the wake of large-scale land deals is tested and prosecuted
Une société new-yorkaise chargée de la gestion de l'épargne-retraite des travailleurs en Suède, aux États-Unis et au Canada se soustrait aux lois brésiliennes sur les investissements étrangers pour acquérir des terres agricoles
A New York company managing the retirement savings of workers in Sweden, the US and Canada is evading Brazilian laws on foreign investment to acquire farmlands from a businessman accused of violently displacing local communities.
Conversation with Maria Antonelli about the main drivers and implications of land transactions around the world, with a particular focus both on the role of EU.
- ClimateScience&Policy
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22 October 2014
There are countless examples of governments handing it over at bargain prices to foreign investors, ranging from hedge funds to biofuel producers.
Can we minimize downsides and maximize benefits of transnational land investments?
Wilmar says it plans to expand its oil palm plantations holdings in West Africa and to start producing sugar in Burma.
Building land inventories, Wikipedia-style, would be a cheap and easy way for poor, rural communities to compile a record of property rights and land usage patterns and could reduce corruption and help lessen illegal land grabs.
A slew of countries and investors — from Chinese state corporations to Gulf sheiks to Wall Street firms — have started buying up farmland overseas, in an apparent attempt to acquire as much precious soil and water as possible.
- Washington Post
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26 January 2013
Given the power imbalances at play, it is folly to assume that land-seekers will suddenly embrace, en masse, a set of voluntary rules promoting sustainable and equitable investor practices, says Michael Kugelman
- Sustainable Security
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02 August 2012
Between the farmers and Olam lies one of Lao’s most powerful, and some allege, corrupt families, the Siphandones.
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
UAE is ready to build small dams for cultivation on lands they would acquire in Pakistan, provided the government ensures that there is no ban on exports.
- Pakistan Observer
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18 April 2011
Le Comité de la sécurité alimentaire (CSA) de l'Onu s'est contenté de "prendre note" d'un code de conduite sur les investissements fonciers à l'étranger, sans pour autant l'adopter, au grand dam d'ONG défendant les petits exploitants agricoles de pays en développement.
The UN Committee on Food Security has failed to endorse a code of conduct on foreign land investments, in a blow to efforts to draft international guidelines to regulate so-called "land grabs".
L'idée qui germe au Japon de consacrer une partie des énormes réserves de change du pays à l'achat de matières premières industrielles est susceptible, si elle est appliquée, de provoquer des bouleversements économiques et financiers.
Du point de vue de GRAIN, ce rapport très attendu de la Banque mondiale est à la fois une déception et un échec.
GRAIN says the World Bank's much anticipated report on the global farmland grab is both a disappointment and a failure.
It is not too late for equitable partnerships to flourish between foreign investors and local communities.
Cargill and Bunge among firms setting up funds to buy farms in Asia and South America.
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.
Les organisations mondiales et les ONG commencent à s'alarmer de l'ampleur du rachat des terres agricoles. Le problème, selon elles, c'est que ce sont les gouvernements des pays hôtes qui négocient directement les accords avec les investisseurs, sans consulter les populations concernées.
- Journal du Net
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14 January 2010
Uganda has agreed to allow Egypt to cultivate wheat on Ugandan soil.
- Daily News Egypt
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12 January 2010
China's sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corp, has bought a 14.5 per cent stake in grain trading and production firm Noble Group for US$850 million.
- Reuters
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22 September 2009