ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This report highlights important dimensions of food security in rural Lao PDR, including: the different gender roles in agriculture; reliance on community-level social cohesion as both a coping mechanism and means of livelihood; and the ongoing challenge of shifting rural livelihoods from a subsistence basis towards market-orientation. The findings of this report give a snapshot of rural livelihoods and practice.

This article reviews recent research on contemporary transformations of global land governance. It shows how changes in global governance have facilitated and responded to radical revalorizations of land, together driving the intensified competition and struggles over land observed in many other contributions to this special issue. The rules in place to govern land use are shifting from ‘territorial’ toward ‘flow-centered’ arrangements, the latter referring to governance that targets particular flows of resources or goods, such as certification of agricultural or wood products.

Last year Angola earned 48 billion US dollars from petroleum. Yet the country that was once Africa’s largest agricultural producer is reduced to importing food. Now the government and private investors want to develop the agricultural sector, in the hope that Angola could become a new Brazil. But will there still be room for small-scale farmers?

There are 1.4 billion poor people living on less than US$1.25 a day. One billion of them live in rural areas where agriculture is their main source of livelihood. The ‘green revolution’ in agriculture that swept large parts of the developing world during the 1960s and 1970s dramatically increased agricultural productivity and reduced poverty. Many of the productivity gains accrued to smallholder farmers, supported through research and extension services.

Climate warming and human actions both have negative impacts on the land cover of Mongolia, and are accelerating land degradation. Anthropogenic factors which intensify the land degradation process include mining, road erosion, overgrazing, agriculture soil erosion, and soil pollution, which all have direct impacts on the environment. In 2009–2010, eroded mining land in Mongolia increased by 3,984.46 ha., with an expansion in surrounding road erosion. By rough estimation, transportation eroded 1.5 million ha. of land.

The article examines the European share in large-scale land acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa. The paper aims to identify correlation between biofuels policy and large-scale land acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa and the consequences of this phenomenon. It first identifies the backgrounds that caused the increased interest in biofuel production and, consequently, African land acquisition in recent years. Then, it examines growth in the number of land transactions that take place on the continent. Finally, the paper investigates the share of European capital in land transactions.

In the last two decades, the best agricultural lands in Bolivia have been put into commercial production by large-scale producers closely linked to foreign investors, particularly Brazilians. Foreigners now control more than one million hectares of prime agricultural and ranching lands in Bolivia, primarily in the eastern lowland department of Santa Cruz, an important agroexport region dominated by transnational corporations and what has been termed “trans-Latina” corporations or TLCs.

The aim of this paper is to provide an Asian perspective on land investments with particular reference to the European position in terms of land acquisition. At first, the paper recalls the relevance that land holds as a distinct factor of production and consumption. Then, it investigates the different ways employed to define the recent phenomenon of land-grabbing in the increasing literature review. In order to contribute to the discussion on the issue, the second part of the paper is devoted to the examination of the Asian case.

 One of the most wellknown biofuel investments was that of Bioshape, which acquired approximately 34,000 ha in Kilwa District for the cultivation of jatropha.

This guide aims to explain common topics that are addressed in natural resource contracts and to provide suggestions for improving contracts that are vague or unfavorable to host countries and to the protection of land rights. It covers a number of topics relevant to contracts:

● Environmental and social issues

● Fiscal provisions

● Transparency

● Dispute resolution

This resource is part of the CCSI’s Directory of Community Guidance on Agreements Relating to Agriculture or Forestry Investment.

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?.

This platform provides an introduction to the concepts surrounding community monitoring, based on the "Contracting Roadmap" developed by the World Bank Institute. It is appropriate for civil society organisations who are exploring whether they can monitor procurements, butit also applies to any entity interested in contract and project monitoring. It explains the different types of monitoring and different approaches, how to access data and general rules in what to do with it afterwards in the analysis.