In recent years,proponents of 'green and clean fuel' have argued that the costs of overreliance on fossil fuels could be reduced through transition to biofuels such as bio-ethanol. Global biofuel discourses suggest that any transition to biofuel invariably results in significant benefits, including energy independence, job creation, development of agro-industrial centres at local level and high revenue generations for the state with minimum negative impacts on the environment.

In this case, which was  heard before the Constitutional Court of the Republic of South Africa, The Restitution of Land Rights Amendment  Act 15 of 2014  was declared invalid. The Act, among other things, sought to extend the period in which land restitution claims could be  lodged. However, the court found that the Parliament did not sufficiently  consult with key stakeholders including those who had successfully  lodged claims under the previous Act of 1994. 

Landjepik, diefstal van land, gebeurt vaak in Nederland. Een huiseigenaar trekt bewust maar onopgemerkt een strook gemeentegrond bij zijn tuin of verplaatst het hek op het land van zijn buurman. Een boer vergroot bewust zijn akker door een deel van de grond van zijn buurman bij zijn land te ploegen.

Soms bewust en soms onopgemerkt trekt iemand een stuk (gemeente)grond bij zijn tuin, onderhoudt dit jarenlang en behandelt het alsof het van hem is. Landjepik. Na twintig jaar verliest de originele eigenaar zijn eigendom en wordt de ‘dief ’ beloond voor zijn actie. Maar deze wijziging wordt nergens vastgelegd. De notaris kan dit dus niet zien als hij een woning overdraagt. Björn Hoops, promovendus en docent aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, brengt nu in kaart hoe groot dit probleem is.

Large-scale land acquisitions have increased in scale and pace due to changes in commodity markets, agricultural investment strategies, land prices, and a range of other policy and market forces. The areas most affected are the global “commons” – lands that local people traditionally use collectively — including much of the world’s forests, wetlands, and rangelands. In some cases land acquisition occurs with environmental objectives in sight – including the setting aside of land as protected areas for biodiversity conservation.

Mokoro’s practical and action-oriented long-term strategic research project, the Women’s Land Tenure Security Project (WOLTS), is piloting its methodology through a ‘Study on the threats to women’s land tenure security in Mongolia and Tanzania’.

In Senegal, concern about large-scale land acquisitions has been growing since 2000. Senegalese agriculture has long relied on small-scale family holdings and extensive agriculture. But the current population growth rate, combined with rapid urban development and natural resources degradation, have inevitably changed the game.

Green energy is expected to be a significant part of the solution to Africa’s energy problems. But what new problems may arise if progress exacts at a high cost? Lake Turkana Wind Power is the largest private investment ever in Kenya, and Danish and international companies and investors have already sunk millions of euros into the project. But they now await a court decision which will determine whether the land on which the turbines will be built was illegally acquired.

In October 2008, the NGO GRAIN published the Report “SEIZED! The 2008 land grab for food and financial security”. This moment can be referred as the birthday of the recent but fast-growing literature on land grabbing or – with a more politically correct expression – Large Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs).

Tanzania and Mozambique — countries of vast mountain ranges and open stretches of plateaus — now face a growing land problem. As soil degradation, climate change and population growth place enormous strains on the natural resources that sustain millions of people, multinational companies are also gunning for large swaths of land across both countries. Caught between these pressures, many poor, rural communities get displaced or decide to sell their collectively held land.

Tanzania and Mozambique — countries of vast mountain ranges and open stretches of plateaus — now face a growing land problem. As soil degradation, climate change and population growth place enormous strains on the natural resources that sustain millions of people, multinational companies are also gunning for large swaths of land across both countries. Caught between these pressures, many poor, rural communities get displaced or decide to sell their collectively held land.

Since small-scale farmers manage most of the cultivated land worldwide, the ongoing shift in systems of production associated with large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) may dramatically reshape the world's agrarian landscape, significantly impacting rural populations and their livelihoods. The societal, hydrological and environmental implications resulting from the expansion of large-scale agricultural production, through LSLAs, make their ultimate sustainability questionable.