This new OXFAM report shows that between 2000 and 2010 more than 60% of investments in agricultural land made by foreign investors occurred in developing countries with serious hunger problems. The crops produced on this land were either exported or used for biofuel production.

The forestry sector’s contribution to poverty alleviation in Asia and the Pacific is of great importance owing to the high prevalence of poverty in forested areas. Obstacles to reducing poverty through forestry are many.

From the World Bank to pension funds, efforts are under way to regulate land grabs through the creation of codes and standards. The idea is to distinguish those land deals that do meet certain criteria and should be approvingly called "investments" from those that don't and can continue to be stigmatised as land "grabs".

Given the role that forests play in mitigation and adaptation to climate change, there are potential synergies between REDD+ and the ability of populations to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Landless dalits and adivasis have occupied parts of a corporate rubber plantation at Chengara in Kerala for five years. Despite being pressurised in various ways, they have held out, sticking to their demand of land for them to pursue livelihoods. None of the agreements so far reached with the state government has been satisfactorily implemented. Yet, the issues raised by the Chengara struggle have a social and economic significance that no government can afford to ignore.

New research released by the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) at the International Workshop on Gender and Forest Tenure in Asia and Collective Forest Tenure Reform in China shows that despite more understanding, more resources, and policy recommendations, women continue to be largely marginalized and ignored or exploited in community based

The Green Revolution was India’s first industrial agricultural revolution that replaced the traditional farming system completely. But the adverse consequences of Green Revolution in the form of stagnation in production aggravated the problems of the farmers in the era of post-Green Revolution in 1980s and 1990s. The late 1990s witnessed an emergency of debt-driven suicides and rapid indebtedness that had taken hold of the countryside across the nation.

A number of REDD+ countries have begun to develop their own national safeguard standards, a development that – if carried out in a participatory, transparent manner and in compliance with international obligations – is to be strongly encouraged.

Disagreeing with R Vijay’s “Structural Retrogression and Rise of ‘New Landlords’ in Indian Agriculture: An Empirical Exercise” (EPW, 4 February 2012), the authors argue that the explanation for declining tenancy may not hold and that the hypothesis on the emergence of “new landlords” and the importance of tenancy can be explained by the changing terms of tenancy in the country.

Following three years of negotiations, members of the co-ordinating body for global food security efforts have agreed on a new set of voluntary guidelines aimed at bringing responsible governance to large-scale land acquisitions, which have become increasingly common as a result of the 2007-2008 food crisis. The Rome-based Committee on World Food Security (CFS) announced the new guidelines on 11 May.

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