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Mission
Our mission is to build a fairer, more sustainable world, using evidence, action and influence in partnership with others.
Who we are
IIED is one of the world’s most influential international development and environment policy research organisations. Founded in 1971 by economist Barbara Ward, who forged the concept and cause of sustainable development, we work with partners on five continents. We build bridges between policy and practice, rich and poor communities, the government and private sector, and across diverse interest groups. We contribute to many international policy processes and frameworks, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the UN conventions on climate change and biological diversity.
What we do
IIED carries out research, advice and advocacy work. We carry out action research — generating robust evidence and know-how that is informed by a practical perspective acquired through hands-on research with grassroots partners — and we publish in journals and maintain high research standards. We advise government, business and development agencies, and we argue for changes in public policy. We focus on bottom-up solutions, stay open to flexible, adaptable solutions and are marked by a tradition of challenging conventional wisdom through original thinking.
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Resources
Displaying 166 - 170 of 367Land deals and investment treaties. Visualising the interface
International investment treaties are an important part of the legal frameworks governing foreign investment. This report measures the extent to which they apply to agribusiness investments initiated as part of the recent wave of large-scale land deals in low and middle-income countries. It finds that 70% of ‘land grab’ deals worldwide are protected by at least one investment treaty. Public action to terminate, renegotiate or regulate land deals could expose states to the risk of treaty-based arbitration claims.
Défense des droits communautaires : enseignements tirés d’un projet de gaz naturel au Mozambique
Ces dix dernières années, le Mozambique est devenu une cible privilégiée de la ruée mondiale vers les terres. Les investissements croissants dans les secteurs de l’exploitation minière, des hydrocarbures, des plantations de forêts et de l’agriculture industrielle visent le plus souvent des terres rurales qui, en vertu du droit coutumier, sont détenues par les communautés locales. En découlent de fréquents conflits entre les communautés et les investisseurs.
Community-based advocacy: Lessons from a natural gas project in Mozambique
Mozambique has become a hot spot in the global rush for land in the last decade. Growing investments in sectors such as mining, hydrocarbons, forest plantations and industrial agriculture most often target rural land held by local communities under customary law, and conflicts between communities and investors often arise. Existing laws regulating land are poorly implemented and enforced, which is due to the power imbalances existing between the government, companies and local communities.
Testing REDD+ in the Beira Corridor
The Testing REDD+ socioeconomic baseline study of the Beira landscape corridor confirmed the drivers of deforestation and forest degradation as unsustainable agriculture practices, including shifting cultivation and fire used to clear land, to hunt and to collect honey. The role of hunting and honey collection shows how harvesting non timber forest products (often referred to as NTFPs) can degrade forests — because of the use of fire.
REDD+ and the private sector: tapping into domestic markets
Uncertainties in the international carbon market make it imperative the UN’s REDD+ framework engages a wider spectrum of the private sector than just international companies and investors. Countries with REDD+ programmes should work with their domestic private sector to provide the missing momentum. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are crucial, as these usually dominate in forest- and agriculture-based economies.