Even after the Maya’s watershed 2015 Caribbean Court of Justice land rights victory, the Government of Belize continues to condone land grabs in Indigenous territory.
In spite of its lofty ideals, FPIC (free and priori informed consent) has one failing — it has no legal backing.
Foreign ownership of farmland in some states has surged to as high as 25 per cent as China maintains its position as Australia's most powerful foreign investor.
Those accused were all members of the Malen Affected Land Owners and Users Association (MALOA), advocating for the land rights of their members in the face of the operations of the palm oil company SOCFIN.
Aminata Fabba, Chairlady of the Malen Land Owners Association, spoke out at the First Peoples’ Hearing of Mano River CSO Platform in Liberia about the abuses here community in Sierra Leone is facing at the hands of SOCFIN.
Two major US commodity traders – ADM and Bunge – are failing to ensure that the hundreds of Indonesian palm oil mills they source from in Indonesia are free from abuse against land and environmental defenders.
The complex to be built by Israel-based Agrotop includes seven broiler farms and a slaughterhouse capable of treating 60,000 birds per week and will be built on 50 hectares of land in Toumodi.
An area of natural forest the size of 1,500 football fields has been cleared since January in an oil palm concession in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua by a company that ultimately supplies major traders and global brands.
Communities affected by land grabbing from different parts of Uganda have formed a movement to fight for food sovereignty while pushing back on land grabs by multinational agribusiness companies and individual investors.
Land inequality is even larger than previously thought, and that this has dramatic effects on poor people’s livelihoods, particularly those of women and young people.
The industry boom in the demand for palm oil has come at the high price of rainforest destruction, labour exploitation, and brutal land and water grabbing. The pressure from oil palm plantations has pushed communities in West Borneo on a common struggle to access clean water and continue producing food.
Eva Bande was jailed for her role as a community organizer against land grab by extractive industries on the Indonesian island, Sulawesi. Ten years on, her fight continues.