category: Commercial Pressures Key Readings, case studies, research papers
This blog, which is part of a wider global initiative on Commercial Pressures on Land led by the International Land Coalition, contains press reports, research papers, case studies and any other relevant information about the new wave of “commercial pressures on land” that poor rural land-users are facing all over the world.
It seeks to provide updated information to all those trying to monitor, quantify and understand the extent of this ongoing phenomenon.
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Read more about the Commercial Pressures on Land Initiative
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Investment contracts and sustainable development: How to make contracts for fairer and more sustainable natural resource investments
Posted on 24 March, 2010 No comments
IIED, march 2010By Lorenzo Cotula
“Economic liberalisation, improved transport and communication systems, and the global demand for energy, minerals and agricultural commodities have fostered natural resource investment in many lower- and middle-income countries. Increased investment may create opportunities to improve living standards, but it also creates risks such as environmental damage and loss of key livelihood assets like land, water and grazing. Investment contracts define the terms of an investment project and the extent to which it advances – or undermines – sustainable development. Government capacity to negotiate and manage contracts and civil society capacity to scrutinise government dealings can make a real difference to getting a better deal from natural resource investment. Drawing on test trainings in Ghana and Central Asia and targeting host governments and civil society, this guide discusses how to structure investment contracts for natural resource projects in ways that maximise the investment’s contribution to sustainable development.”Download document at: http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=17507IIEDCommercial Pressures Key Readings, case studies, research papers (english), *Africa*, *Asia*, agriculture, human rights, land rights, mining, [Ghana], [Kazakhstan], [Liberia] -
Land grab? The race for the world’s farmland
Posted on 31 December, 2009 No comments
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Asia Programme
Edited by Michael Kugelman and Susan L. Levenstein, December 2009
This volume is the one of the first attempts in the United States to shed some light on commercial pressure on land due to agricultural production.
The base for the volume is an event held by the Woodrow Wilson Center hosted in May 2009. The event examined patters and motivations of investments, considered the implications for investors, host countries and food security and highlighted case studies from Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
The first part of the volume gives a general framework to the topic. The first essay by David Hallam focuses on trends, motivations, impacts and policy implication of land acquisitions; the second essay by Alexandra Spieldoch and Sophia Murphy questions the power relations in such investments between countries and within them; the third essay by Gary R. Blumenthal focuses on the perspective of investors; the fourth essay by Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Helen Markelova proposes some questions aimed at determining how beneficial such deals are for the local communities, for the host governments and for the investors.
The second part of the volume draws together experiences from Africa (Chido Makunike), Asia (Raul Q. Montemayor) and Central and Eastern European Countries (Carl Atkin).Download document at: http://wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1462&fuseaction=topics.publications&group_id=587120
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, case studies, research papers (english), *Africa*, *Asia*, *Gulf States*, agriculture, CPL affecting family farmers, CPL affecting women, evictions, food production, Land acquisition for food production, land loans, policies and laws, right to food -
Biofuels, land access and rural livelihoods in Tanzania
Posted on 16 December, 2009 No comments
iied, December 2009By Emmanuel Sulle and Fred Nelson
“During the past several years, biofuels in rich countries have come to be regarded as an important option for reducing consumption of petroleum, which is a main policy goal as a result of recent high oil prices, energy security concerns, and global climate change. The use and development of alternative sources of energy are increasingly encouraged in western countries, and private and public sources of financial support for biofuels development have increased greatly. For African countries, this is leading to growing interest from western and Asian private investors in biofuels projects, as well as growing support from development partners for incorporating biofuels into government policies and development plans. For African countries which are non-oil producers, biofuel production has the potential to provide a substitute for costly oil imports which are one of the major uses of foreign exchange and sources of inflation in African economies, and to provide a new source of agricultural income in rural areas. Read the rest of this entry »
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, case studies, research papers (english), agrofuels, Land acquisitions for agrofuel production, [Tanzania] -
The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor
Posted on 23 October, 2009 No comments
The Oakland Institute, October 2009By Shepard Daniel with Anuradha Mittal
“In a new report, The Great Land Grab: Rush for World’s Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor, the Oakland Institute sounds the alarm on the threat that land grabbing poses to food security and livelihoods. Land grabs–the purchase of vast tracts of land from poor, developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors–have become a widespread phenomenon, with foreign interests seeking or securing between 37 million and 49 million acres of farmland between 2006 and the middle of 2009. While such land grabs have not gone unnoticed, much attention has focused on individual countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, buying land in poor nations. The Great Land Grab lays bare the insidious role played by international financial institutions like the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank and Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), as well as rich nations, in promoting and facilitating this widespread land reappropriation–all in the name of promoting food security through foreign investment in agriculture. Read the rest of this entry »
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, case studies (english), *Africa*, *Asia*, *EU*, *Gulf States*, *Latin America*, agrarian reform, agribusiness, agriculture, CPL affecting family farmers, CPL affecting IPs, food security, human rights, indigenous people, Land acquisition for food production, Land acquisitions for agrofuel production, land based conflicts, land rights, private sector, [Abu Dhabi], [Algeria], [Argentina], [Brazil], [Cambodia], [China], [Colombia], [Costa Rica], [Ghana], [Guatemala], [Honduras], [India], [Indonesia], [Japan], [Kenya], [Madagascar], [Mongolia], [Morocco], [Mozambique], [Myanmar], [Pakistan], [Philippines], [Qatar], [Russia], [Saudi Arabia], [Senegal], [South Korea], [Sudan], [Sweden], [Syria], [Thailand], [Ukraine], [United Arab Emirates], [United Kingdom], [USA], [Vietnam], [Zimbabwe] -
The new farm owners
Posted on 20 October, 2009 No commentsCorporate investors lead the rush for control over overseas farmland
GRAIN, October 2009
Photo: Graeme Robertson of Vitagrain signing agreement with Mauritius Minister of Agro Industry Satish Faugoo. Source: Le Matinal
This table accompanies this article
“With all the talk about “food security,” and distorted media statements like “South Korea leases half of Madagascar’s land,”1 it may not be evident to a lot of people that the lead actors in today’s global land grab for overseas food production are not countries or governments but corporations. So much attention has been focused on the involvement of states, like Saudi Arabia, China or South Korea. But the reality is that while governments are facilitating the deals, private companies are the ones getting control of the land. And their interests are simply not the same as those of governments. Read the rest of this entry »
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, press (english), *Africa*, *Asia*, *Gulf States*, *Latin America*, agribusiness, agriculture, agrofuels, food prices, food production, food security, food sovereignity, free trade agreements, GM, policies and laws, private sector, transnational private investment funds, [Benin], [Brazil], [China], [Madagascar], [Mauritius], [Mozambique], [Philippines], [Saudi Arabia], [Singapore], [South Korea], [Swaziland] -
Land grabs: Another scramble for Africa
Posted on 17 September, 2009 No comments
Pambazuka.org, 17 September 2009, By Ama Biney
”How is it possible that in the 21st century the world has the capacity to feed every single human being on the planet, yet the majority of people in Africa and the rest of the Global South, who are poor – whilst obesity soars in the West – go rampantly hungry? In addition, why has there been a recent ‘land grab’ in Africa by rich countries? The short answer to the first question lies in the unequal distribution and control of global wealth and its ownership, which lies in a few hands. The answer to the second question is tied to the first and is the focus of this article.
The recent haste i.e. within the last 12 months, to buy land in Africa, has its origins in a number of factors related to global food security concerns, particularly the increase in world grain prices between 2007-2008 which led to food riots in over 20 countries around the world, including Haiti, Senegal, Yemen, Egypt and Cameroon. Read the rest of this entry »
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, press (english), *Africa*, *Asia*, *EU*, *Gulf States*, agribusiness, agrofuels, climate change, CPL affecting family farmers, environmental degradation, evictions, food security, food sovereignity, Land acquisition for food production, Land acquisitions for agrofuel production, land based conflicts, land rights, legal empowerment, migrations, private sector, public sector, [Bahrain], [Brazil], [Cambodia], [Cameroon], [China], [Egypt], [Ethiopia], [Ghana], [Haiti], [India], [Kenya], [Kuwait], [Libya], [Madagascar], [Malaysia], [Mali], [Nigeria], [Oman], [Pakistan], [Philippines], [Qatar], [Russia], [Saudi Arabia], [Senegal], [South Africa], [South Korea], [Sri Lanka], [Sudan], [Sweden], [Syria], [Tanzania], [Ukraine], [Yemen], [Zimbabwe] -
New ILC discussion paper - Increasing commercial pressure on land: Building a coordinated response
Posted on 28 July, 2009 No commentsIncreasing commercial pressure on land: Building a coordinated response
Launched during the DPRN Expert seminar Commercial Pressures on Land: Rethinking policies and practice for development, held in Utrecht in July, this paper takes stock of current understandings of, and responses to, commercial pressures on land by organisations within and beyond ILC’s membership. It outlines key current initiatives to engage with the phenomenon; comments on recent trends in land transactions; discusses ten myths that are commonly associated with ‘land grabbing’; outlines key emerging concerns that responses to the phenomenon should address; and puts forward some key considerations and questions for building a
coordinated response.Increasing commercial pressures on land: Building a coordinated response
CONFERENCES & SEMINARS, Commercial Pressures Key Readings, ILC GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON CPL - Documents -
Human rights principles to discipline “land grabbing”
Posted on 15 June, 2009 1 comment11 -06 - 2009, Geneva and Brussels
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Mr. Olivier De Schutter, issued today a call to consider as a minimum a set of eleven human rights principles in the elaboration of transnational large-scale land acquisitions and leases, more commonly referred to as “land grabbing”. His call comes at a time when Governments prepare to negotiate on responsible investment in agriculture at a forthcoming G8 Summit. The Special Rapporteur highlighted the recommended principles…
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, statements CPL leading to land use change, food security, indigenous people, Land acquisition for food production, Land acquisitions for agrofuel production, policies and laws -
Land grab or development opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa
Posted on 26 May, 2009 1 commentLand grab or development opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa
IIED, FAO and IFAD, Lorenzo Cotula, Sonja Vermeulen, Rebeca Leonard, James Keeley, Jun 2009“Land acquisitions in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia have made headlines in a flurry of media reports across the world. Yet international land deals and their impacts still remain little understood. This report is a step towards filling this gap.
The outcome of a collaboration between the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the report discusses key trends and drivers in land acquisitions, the contractual arrangements underpinning them, and the early impacts on land access for rural people in recipient countries – with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.
The report draws on national inventories of approved land acquisitions since 2004 in five African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali and Sudan) and on case studies in Mozambique and Tanzania. National inventories and case studies were prepared by teams of researchers in each country. The report also draws on a literature review, on qualitative interviews with key informants internationally, and on the legal analysis of applicable law and of a small sample of land deals.”
To access the report and see the work on related topics by IIED, FAO and IFAD, please click / go to :
IFAD: http://www.ifad.org/english/land/index.htm
IIED: http://www.iied.org/pubs/display.php?o=12561IIED
FAO: http://www.fao.org/nr/tenure/infores/newpubs/en/
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, research papers (english), *Africa*, *Asia*, *Latin America*, CPL affecting agricultural workers, CPL affecting family farmers, CPL affecting IPs, CPL leading to land concentration, CPL leading to land privatization, CPL leading to land use change, Land acquisition for food production, Land acquisitions for agrofuel production -
Land grab: The race for the world’s farmland
Posted on 03 May, 2009 No commentsLand grab: The race for the world’s farmland
The Independent, 3 May 2009“Neo-colonialists are buying up agricultural land in Africa – and local farmers could be crushed unless there are international rules to protect them. Margareta Pagano reports
In Africa they are calling it the land grab, or the new colonialism. Countries hungry to secure their food supplies – including Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, South Korea (the world’s third biggest importer of corn) China, India, Libya and Egypt – are at the forefront of a frantic rush to gobble up farmland all around the world, but mainly cash-starved Africa.
Over the past few months, Saudi Arabian investors have paid $100m for an Ethiopian farm where they hope to grow wheat and barley, adding to the millions of acres they already own in the war-ravaged country, as well as in neighbouring Sudan. The Saudis also have land in Indonesia and Thailand for growing rice. China owns vast tracts of overseas land, mainly in Algeria and Zimbabwe, and one estimate suggests that more than a million ethnic Chinese farm workers will be living on the continent this year. Kenya and Tanzania have leased land while the Ugandans have been big sellers, allocating two million acres of land to Egypt for wheat and corn. Read the rest of this entry »
Commercial Pressures Key Readings, press (english), *Africa*, *Gulf States*, agribusiness, agrofuels, CPL affecting family farmers, CPL affecting IPs, food security, Land acquisition for food production, Land acquisitions for agrofuel production, land rights, transnational private investment funds, [Algeria], [China], [Egypt], [Ethiopia], [Haiti], [India], [Indonesia], [Kenya], [Lybia], [Madagascar], [Pakistan], [Saudi Arabia], [South Korea], [Sudan], [Tanzania], [Thailand], [Uganda], [Zimbabwe]
