November 29th, 2024
Via GRAIN, a report on the impact that the AfCFTA may have on land grabbing in Africa: In late 2023, a group of experts and government leaders met in Addis Ababa to discuss land policy in Africa in light of the African Continental Free Trade (AfCFTA) agreement.[1] This agreement – from which State Parties expect nothing […]
Read more »Cotton Diplomacy: China’s Investment in Tajikistan Agriculture
November 20th, 2024
Via Global Voices, a look at China’s investment in Tajik agriculture: Even though Tajikistan is considered an agricultural country, only six percent of its territory is arable land, the rest is mountainous. Despite this, agriculture provides 20 percent of the country’s GDP and over 45 percent of the country’s employment. Tajikistan is one of the world’s top exporters of raw cotton. In 2022, […]
Read more »October 28th, 2024
Via Nikkei Asia, a report on Putin’s proposal for a BRICS grain exchange: Russia is leading a charge to turn the BRICS economic bloc into the top influencer of global grain prices. In a declaration following a three-day BRICS summit this week in Kazan, Russia, a call for the end of “illegal sanctions” against members […]
Read more »Carbon Colonialism and Land Grabs: Africa Must Eat or Be Eaten
October 1st, 2024
Via Pan African Review, commentary on how – if Africa can’t contribute to putting food on the world’s table – someone will buy or seize its lands by force and do so: Over the last year, the Liberian government has agreed to sell or has sold about 10% of the country’s land — equivalent to 10,931 square […]
Read more »September 23rd, 2024
Via Mongabay, an article on what some are calling the world’s biggest deforestation project in PNG: Land clearing has begun is what’s being called the biggest deforestation effort in the world, as Indonesia looks to establish 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of sugarcane plantations in the Papua region. One of the companies involved in […]
Read more »Laundering Carbon—The Gulf’s ‘New Scramble for Africa’
September 6th, 2024
Via Middle East Research and Information Project, a report on The Gulf’s ‘new scramble for Africa’: In early November 2023, shortly before the COP28 summit opened in Dubai, a hitherto obscure UAE firm attracted significant media attention around news of their prospective land deals in Africa. Reports suggested that Blue Carbon—a company privately owned by […]
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