ABSTRACTED FROM CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: The preceding chapters of this book give a central place to the Powers of Exclusion framework for understanding transformations in land relations, as developed in our 2011 book on Southeast Asia. A couple of the main aspects of the two books make for an interesting comparison. The first is that each employs a regional frame of reference to explore themes in changing land relations. The second is their respective development and application of a common conceptual framework.

WEBSITE INTRODUCTION: In the Mekong region, conflicts between local communities and large scale land concessions are widespread. They are often difficult to solve. In Cambodia, an innovative approach to conflict resolution was tested in a case involving a private company, Hoang Anh Gia Lai (HAGL), and several indigenous communities who lost some of their customary lands and forests when the company obtained a concession to grow rubber in the Province of Ratanakiri.

China's presence in Africa has gained growing attention at an international level in the last two

decades, especially since the 2007 food crisis, however China's presence in Africa is far from new.

China can not been perceived as a new international actor, still its reemergence as a world's leading

economic power needs to be reconsidered. China's presence in Africa has been generating a

growing misunderstanding at a different level that Debora Brautigam clearly describes in her paper

China's presence in Africa has gained growing attention at an international level in the last two

decades, especially since the 2007 food crisis, however China's presence in Africa is far from new.

China can not been perceived as a new international actor, still its reemergence as a world's leading

economic power needs to be reconsidered. China's presence in Africa has been generating a

growing misunderstanding at a different level that Debora Brautigam clearly describes in her paper

A video showing how Lutheran World Federation is working with rural communities, village chiefs, local and national administration to raise awareness and to support people in claiming their legal rights in a context in which a land law was passed to protect small-scale farmers and rural communities but often the legal procedure is not respected and farmers lose the land on which their livelihood depends.

Report shows that Dutch-based banks continue to finance deforestation and land grabbing in Liberia. Thousands have lost their homes, local communities have been intimidated or imprisoned, and large swathes of forest have been cleared or burnt down. Milieudefensie argues that it is time for the banks to fulfil their sustainable banking promises, and to withdraw their investments in the industrial palm oil sector as soon as possible.

Includes fracking and the global land grab; how does unconventional gas work against a green future?; what are the ecological risks of fracking?; where is the global boom of fracking happening?; who are the main actors involved in fracking today?; where is the resistance to fracking?.

Includes the rise of land deals in sub-Saharan Africa; land grabbing and risks for small scale farmers; land grabs: another yoke over women’s land rights?; is land grabbing threatening pastoralism?; opportunity for groups at risk: the African Union’s continental standards on the land question.

Includes background – the global land grab; FPIC in response to land grabbing today; whose consent is required or desired?; the key challenge is political, not technical. Concludes that as long as there is a significant gap between what is promised and what is delivered by the state, there will always be cause for poor people to engage in rightful resistance. The current global rush to cloak land grabbing in FPIC may ultimately end up sparking such resistance.

Asks and responds to a series of questions about land grabbing, including what is it, what is its scale, its history, its impacts, how does it take place, what is new, how is it tied to water grabbing, what is green grabbing, who or what are the main drivers, what is the role of the EU, what solutions have been proposed, why are guidelines and transparency not sufficient, what systemic changes are needed, what does the concept of food sovereignty have to offer, and what resistance is being undertaken?

Includes summary; global land resources and projections for the future; soils and soil policies; ecosystems’ services; biofuels and impacts on land use; biofuel production and land use in Brazil; land and national self-sufficiency; land use and increasing production; overseas land investments (often called ‘land grabbing’); land rights and ownership – the Rwandan example; international voluntary guidelines for land investment; conclusion.

Examines the impact of the recent farm invasions in Zimbabwe. The independence compromises forced on Zimbabwe (and Namibia and South Africa) implied the legitimation of a century and more of past white land grabbing which could only be changed with the consent of the beneficiaries of this past expropriation. But Mugabe has now torn up the old rules of the game and let the genie of redistribution out of the bottle, earning himself much popular support elsewhere in Africa and causing alarm to many governments and a hasty revision of existing plans for land reform.