With 6000 hectares, the land comprises conservation areas, a plywood mill, and a voluntary carbon project focused on plantation afforestation, reforestation, and revegetation issuing carbon credits

Six communities in Maconteh Chiefdom, Port Loko District, including Rogbessh, Faidugu, Rokama, Robat, and Kirima have staged a peaceful protest against agroforestry company Rewinding BKM for failing to pay 2024 land lease fees.

The tech behemoth is betting that planting millions of eucalyptus trees in Brazil will be the path to a greener future. Some ecologists and local residents are far less sure.

Under the guise of ‘conflict mediation’ and community empowerment, the work of certain corporate NGOs results in communities continuing without access to and control over their lands, and in strengthening destructive production models.

Global demand for arable land is rising, making Africa a key target for large-scale acquisitions to tackle food and energy challenges.

On March 25, 2025, the people living in Apouh A Ngog village in the Litoral Region of Cameroon witnessed a brutal and traumatising act of intimidation : heavily armed government forces, including heavily armed soldiers and gendarmes arriving to supervise the replanting of oil palms by staff of SOCAPALM, part of the multinational corporation Socfin Bolloré.

Le 25 mars 2025, les habitants du village Apouh À Ngog, dans la région du Littoral au Cameroun, ont été témoin d'un acte brutal et traumatisant: des forces gouvernementales composées de militaires, de gendarmes lourdement armées ont investi le village pour encadrer le replanting du palmier à huile par le personnel de la SOCAPALM, partie de la multinational Socfin Bolloré.

Dama Jean Dare Ratolonjanahary, community activist and co-founder of the Comite de Defense des Terres, told New Lines that, “Carbon credits are an excuse to continue destroying nature in exchange for money”.

The Italian multinational Tozzi Green has begun planting trees on land that local residents claim was stolen from them

The Ghana Green Guard USD$25 billion climate futures initiative is a public-private collaborative partnership that will generate over 305 million carbon credits across 12 million hectares with projects based on reforestation, regenerative agriculture and other activities.

Better Cotton has released an update to the ‘action plan’ it put in place to curb unsustainable and illegal practices in Brazil’s cotton sector but it fails to even acknowledge the reality of land grabbing that has underpinned the sector’s expansion in recent decades at the expense of native ecosystems and the livelihoods of traditional communities.

Pese a la ofensiva arancelaria de Donald Trump, el sector agrícola de España y Portugal sigue acaparando el interés de los fondos nacionales e internacionales, a los que se ha sumado un actor especialmente relevante: Farmland Reserve, una compañía de inversiones dependiente de la Iglesia mormona que se alza como el quinto mayor propietario institucional de tierras agrícolas de Estados Unidos, con cerca de 690.000 hectáreas en el país norteamericano.

For four days on 11-14 March 2025, more than 250 indigenous peoples and local communities affected by Indonesia National Strategic Projects, as well as various civil society organisations, gathered in Merauke, South Papua to challenge the mega projects for rice, sugarcane, oil palm as well as others that will grab million of hectares of community and indigenous territories across the country.

L'organisation faîtière des agences catholiques de développement en Europe et en Amérique du Nord appelle à un arrêt immédiat des projets de crédits carbone sur les sols mis en œuvre parmi les Maasaï du nord de la Tanzanie, après des processus jugés « douteux ».

Study finds that two large-scale carbon projects on the grazing lands of the Maasai in Tanzania have committed serious abuses and make traditional grazing practices impossible.

Une série de rapports, publiés le 14 février 2025 par Earthworm Foundation, révèlent de nouvelles allégations de harcèlement sexuel et de spoliation des terres entre autres dans les plantations de la Société camerounaise des palmeraies (Socapalm), filiale de Socfin.

The project, spanning 20,000 hectares in Madhya Pradesh State, will see up to 11.6 million mixed native trees planted across farmer and community land.

Depuis 2021, la Socapalm – qui est détenue majoritairement par la Socfinaf, une holding luxembourgeoise détenue en partie par le groupe Bolloré – replante des palmiers pour rajeunir sa plantation à Edéa, au Cameroun, créant d'énormes difficultés pour les communautés riveraines.

How thousands of Indonesian soldiers are forcing through a vast agricultural project in indigenous lands and forests

“Taking into account the importance of food security in the near future, I think we can implement and start joint investment projects in agriculture. We want the situation to be win-win — one project in Kazakhstan and one project in Saudi Arabia.”

The 25-year deal would enable Chestnut Carbon to plant trees on 60,000 acres of land across Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas

Le gouvernement indonésien envisage d'utiliser 20 millions d'hectares de zones forestières pour produire du riz, des palmiers et de la canne à sucre, a récemment déclaré le ministre des Forêts Raja Juli Antoni.

As millions in public money flows towards the planting of trees, some are also raising concerns about the environmental credentials of many schemes.

The food estate in Merauke - spanning more than two million hectares - seems set to join the long list of such projects that have failed since the concept was first proposed in 2010, only to leave behind broad damage to the rights of indigenous peoples and the environment, including the loss of customary land belongs to 40,000 indigenous people.

"Brazil cannot achieve its emission reduction targets by simply reducing deforestation. We need to restore (deforested) areas by creating concessions" of land for the carbon market, says Para governor Helder Barbalho.

Sous les palmiers à 6000 kilomètres de Fribourg, la colère ne faiblit pas dans une plantation d’Okomu, une filiale de Socfin, dont le commerce de matières premières passe par Fribourg.

Net-zero pledges from 140 countries would require turning territory the size of the US into a giant greenhouse-gas sponge and generate a massive land grab that will go on for decades.

What can possibly be wrong about planting trees? This investigation digs deeper into a conflict unfolding in southern Madagascar, between the local community and an Italian multinational. As similar green projects multiply, this case highlights a critical challenge.

We must recognize and stop the growing takeover of forest, grassland, and farmland by powerful financial actors, which is being perpetrated in the name of new myths of false solutions to climate change.

Tajikistan leased around 18,000 hectares of its land to China for cotton, rice, grain, and corn cultivation for a 49-year contract. The agreement was part of a broader initiative to strengthen economic ties between the two countries.