Morris Kidir gestures at a wide expanse of dark-green land he says was earmarked for a school or clinic in his northern Liberian village, now covered in young oil palm trees.

In October last year, he recalls, workers from Malaysian conglomerate Sime Darby arrived at the plot and began filling in the only gap left in a forest of palms that stretch as far as the eye can see.

Deaths of environmental activists locked in conflict with mining, logging and agricultural companies across three continents has passed 150

• Interactive: recording the deaths of environmental activists around the world

The number of people killed this year while defending their community’s land, natural resources or wildlife has passed 150 – meaning 2017 is on course to be the deadliest year on record.

Indigenous leaders say operations in the remote Amazon violate rights and risk fatal epidemics

There are more indigenous peoples living in “isolation” in Peru than any country in the world except Brazil. All live in the Amazon - the majority in poorly-protected reserves, or areas where reserves have been proposed but never established, or “protected natural areas” such as national parks.

How can food companies stop contributing to deforestation? A panel of experts discussed solutions at a roundtable in New York

Corporations globally have made hundreds of commitments on deforestation. But what do these pledges really mean and why do scandals keep happening?

Unclear regulations on land ownership have led to overlapping claims, with some indigenous people occupying the concession areas of palm oil companies JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian security companies have seen a surge in demand for guards to protect palm oil plantations from fruit thieves and land grabbers, amid a rebound in prices of the commodity used to churn out everything from cooking oil to soap.

Villagers of Klong Sai Pattana say palm oil company responsible for targeted killings and harassment of their community. Chai Buri District, Thailand - As he manoeuvred his pick-up truck along the dirt track leading to his village of Klong Sai Pattana one afternoon, Supot Kalasong, 42, heard a loud bang. He had been driving home after getting an oil-change in a nearby town and for a split second, he thought one of his tyres had exploded, burst by one of the sharp rocks on the path.

Colonialism brought large-scale farming to Africa, promising modernisation and jobs – but often dispossessing people and exploiting workers. Now, after several decades of independence, and with investor interest growing, African governments are once again promoting large plantations and estates. But the new corporate interest in African agriculture has been criticised as a “land grab”.

 

When bulldozers rolled into their forest at the start of last year, the Ekuri community in southeast Nigeria protested: "Indigenes say no!"

 

They didn't want a superhighway that would wipe their ancestral lands in the Cross River National Park off the map.

Under pressure, the earthmovers left to do their work elsewhere.

But community spokesman Martin Egot said: "They destroyed all the crops, the source of our wealth: cassava, cocoa, plantain... ."

 

MONROVIA – When Liberia signed a series of contracts with international palm oil producers in the years after its protracted civil war, the news was greeted by some as a welcome sign of national renewal. Despite criticism voiced by local and international advocacy groups that the massive deals amounted to “land grabs,” the prospect of tens of thousands of jobs, tax revenues for a cash-starved government, and repaired roads and ports was too much for Liberian officials to pass on.

 

Thailand is aiming to increase its domestic palm oil production by up to 50 per cent over the next nine years while at the same time trying to reclaim encroached peat forest from smallholders.

“Look, the peat here is so deep” 61-year-old Preecha Chimtong, a smallholder farmer growing oil palm on his 49-rai (about 20-acre) farm in southern Thailand’s Chumphon province.

In almost every aisle of the grocery store, you can find products from the palm oil, soy, wood, and cattle industries. Together, these industries are responsible for more than a third of tropical deforestation annually, according to the non-profit organization Forest Trends. While strides have been made by all four industries toward establishing deforestation-free commodity supply chains, the cattle industry has lagged behind the others.