Mongabay: South Korea's Daewoo has signed a 99-year lease for half of Madagascar's arable land, reports the Financial Times. The agreement covers 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) -- an area half the size of Belgium. Daewoo says it plans to plant corn on 1 million hectares in the arid western part of the island and 300,000 ha (740,000 acres) of oil palm on land in the tropical east, a region that is home to ...

Mongabay: Wal-mart may contribute to Brazil's fund for conserving the Amazon rainforest, said Brazilian Environment Minister Carlos Minc. Speaking to the press Friday following the first meeting of the Amazon Fund's Guiding Committee, Minc said that Wal-mart, Petrobras, and American energy company AES have expressed interest in contributing the Brazil's newly established fund for promoting conservation and sustainable development of the Amazon rainforest, according to O Globo. The fund seeks to ...