The land grabbing issue has produced a plethora of debates ranging from ethical conduct of land grabbing agents, specifically concerning displacement, to evidence for and against positive externalities such as technological spill-overs and construction of infrastructure. An underexplored topic is the valuation of agricultural land and the compensatory payments made to land users, distinct from land owners, for the loss of their source of food security.

Since the onset of the phenomenon of large scale land acquisition for agri-business in Sierra Leone, after the first whistle was blown by Green Scenery, many studies have been conducted by various researchers, some to meet requirements for degree thesis, others for policy and development purposes. There is the fear in a school of thought opposed to large scale land acquisition that there is danger in corporate entities ascribing huge portions of land to themselves in the guise of investment and annihilating the actual land owners.

In fulfillment of his manifesto promise to the people of Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun district  and in consonance with the new direction government's determination to tend to the needs and aspirations of its people generally and to promote foreign direct investment, in a peaceful just and inclusive society, His Excellency the president ,Retired Bragadier Dr. Julius Maada Bio, commissioned a mediation committee, headed by no less a person, than the Honourable Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh,   on the recurrent land dispute in Malen Chiefdom Pujehun district.

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.

Rapidly urbanizing Indian cities need mechanisms to ensure that land is acquired, planned, and serviced with adequate infrastructure and social amenities, to prevent the occurrence of haphazard urban expansion and under-provisioned inner-city areas.

Such mechanisms should help government agencies recover their costs through land value capture, a method by which agencies recover part of the increase in the value of private property after it is serviced by new public infrastructure.

This manual illustrates a monitoring scheme for monitoring large-scale agricultural investments. It aims at providing orientation for establishing a monitoring scheme and implementing monitoring activities in the framework of LSAI with the collaboration of the authorities responsible for leasing out land to agricultural investors and supervising related activities. While focused on Ethiopia, it will be a useful resource for other countries too.

Large-scale agricultural investments (LSAI) in Ethiopia are expected to provide input for the processing industry and to bring foreign currency as well as technology transfer to the country, while the local communities will benefit from employment and infrastructure improvements related to these investments. But the results of investment projects have been rather limited so far. In the past, the land identification (and verification) process for LSAI, due to various reasons, was not implemented with the required accuracy, which often resulted in environmental and social problems.

Indonesia comprises more mangroves than any other country, but also exhibits some of the highest mangrove loss rates worldwide. Most of these mangrove losses are caused by aquaculture development. Monetary valuation of the numerous ecosystem services of mangroves may contribute to their conservation.