This issue brief highlights the roots of land grabbing experienced in the aggrieved communities in seven countries. It also features the importance of advanced smallholder agriculture and local food industry, broadened land rights movement, and strengthened land governance in promoting the rights of the farmers.

The land administration system in Bangladesh is not well-developed. It is beset with multiple defects and problems. It is corrupt, inefficient, and unreliable and inherently contains systematic weaknesses. Corruption has become a grave issue in this sector. A World Bank survey reveals that most crimes and corruptions in Bangladesh take place in land-related services. It has estimated that more than 3.2 million land-related cases are pending before the judiciary. A large number of the aggrieved persons is not empowered enough to approach the courts for litigation.

This Situation Update describes events and issues occurring in Thandaunggyi and Htantabin townships, Toungoo District during the period from November 2014 to February 2015, including military activity, civilians’ situation, healthcare, education, land confiscation and landmines...

In Toungoo District, the Tatmadaw are as active as they were in the past. They send their rations to the camps once every three months. On February 12th 2015, Military Operations Command (MOC) #20 was replaced by MOC #5, bringing approximately 80 military transport vehicles with them...

The Complaint Letter below was sent to Saw Naw Dee, head of the Agriculture and Land Directorate, from the Karen National Union (KNU) Agriculture Department, Paingkyon Township. It was written by U B--- who is the representative of the land owners whose lands have been confiscated. The villagers’ uncultivated lands were confiscated by Cantonment Area Supervisor U Kyaw Hein from Border Guard Force (BGF) Battalion #1015 who then sold them.

This Situation Update describes events and issues occurring in Hlaingbwe Township, Hpa-an District during the period between April and May 2015, including a development project in which the Burma/Myanmar government built a new town on villagers’ lands, as well as healthcare and education updates...

Between 1981 and 1982, some of the A--- villagers fled to the refugee camps on the Thai-Burma/Myanmar border and left their lands behind. Between 2013 and 2015 the Burma/Myanmar government built a new town on these villagers’ lands and called it A--- Town...

...Like the other resource concessions, land grabbing for large scale agriculture and military purpose in ethnic areas is a military state-building strategy of Myanmar military led-government. Since 1990s, in Myanmar, a military-run dictatorship has adopted its own version of market economy. While maintaining ownership of all land, the state allocated large land concession to companies, which have strong network with generals or government officials, for logging, mining, and agribusiness purpose.

This Photo Set shows development projects including road and bridge construction in Win Yay Township, Dooplaya District between December 2014 and January 2015. These development projects destroyed villagers’ fruit and rubber plantations. Villagers report having not yet received any compensation for their destroyed lands.

The recent phenomenon of large-scale acquisition of land for a variety of investment purposes has raised deep concerns over the food security, livelihood and socio-economic development of communities in many regions of the developing world. This study set out to investigate the food security outcomes of land acquisitions in northern Sierra Leone.

Over the last decade considerable research has been conducted on the development and the impacts of large-scale economic land concessions for plantations in Laos and Cambodia. These studies have variously illustrated that concessions frequently result in serious negative impacts on local people and the environment, often leading to dramatic transformations of landscapes and livelihoods. As important as this research has been, these studies have largely focused on the immediate impacts of the “enclosure” process associated with gaining access to land by investors.

In the recent past, high profile cases involving land governance problems have been thrust into the public domain. These include the case involving the grabbing of a playground belonging to Lang’ata Road Primary School in Nairobi and the tussle over a 134 acre piece of land in Karen. Land ownership and use have been a great source of conflict among communities and even families in Kenya, a situation exacerbated by corruption.

Africa has been at the centre of a "land grab" in recent years, with investors lured by projections of rising food prices, growing demand for "green" energy, and cheap land and water rights. But such land is often also used or claimed through custom by communities. What does this mean for Africa? In what ways are rural people's lives and livelihoods being transformed as a result? And who will control its land and agricultural futures?

Villagers in Karen areas of southeast Myanmar continue to face widespread land confiscation at the hands of a multiplicity of actors. Much of this can be attributed to the rapid expansion of domestic and international commercial interest and investment in southeast Myanmar since the January 2012 preliminary ceasefire between the Karen National Union (KNU) and the Myanmar government. KHRG first documented this in a 2013 report entitled ‘Losing Ground’, which documented cases of land confiscation between January 2011 and November 2012.