Globalization and commodity exports have a long history in affecting land use changes and land rights on the tropical forest frontier. This paper reviews a century of social and environmental discourse around land issues for four commodities grown in the humid tropics—rubber, cocoa, oil palm and bananas. States have exercised sovereign rights over land and forest resources and the outcomes for deforestation and land rights of existing users have been quite varied depending on local institutional contexts and political economy.

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.

Food aid is a critical component of the global food system, particularly when emergency situations arise. For the first time, we evaluate the water footprint of food aid. To do this, we draw on food aid data from theWorld Food Programme and virtual water content estimates from WaterStat. We find that the total water footprint of food aid was 10 km3 in 2005, which represents approximately 0.5% of the water footprint of food trade and 2.0% of the water footprint of land grabbing (i.e., water appropriation associated with large agricultural land deals).

Environmental safety is one of the top policy priorities in some developing countries. This study analyzed the factors influencing waste disposal and recycling by households in South Africa. The data were collected by Statistics South Africa in 2012 during the General Household Survey (GHS). Analysis of the data was carried out with the Bivariate Probit model. The results showed that 56.03% and 31.98% of all the households disposed waste through local authority/private companies and own refuse dump sites, respectively.

The aim of this paper is to give an overview and analyze the contemporary land tenure relations in Russia in view of their influences on economic viability of agricultural production. The paper investigates progress made toward the development of agricultural land market in economies in transition. The research is made with emphasis on Stavropol Krai, agricultural region in the southern part of Russia.

Foreign investment in agriculture and extractive industries is increasing pressures on land and natural resources. This handbook is about how to use law to make foreign investment work for sustainable development. It aims to provide a rigorous yet accessible analysis of the law regulating foreign investment in low and middle-income countries – what this law is, how it works, and how to use it most effectively.

The report of a project exploring human security and land rights in Cambodia. The project used a human security framework to address two questions: (1) What kind of insecurities do people in areas with land disputes have, and who is most insecure? (2) What provides people with security, and how does land policy relate to other sources of security over land? The study involved more than 400 participants in Kampong Chhnang, Ratanakiri, and Phnom Penh. The study shows that insecurity over land is about wider issues of poverty environment and livelihood insecurity.

A fact sheet on the involvement of the GIZ in Cambodia's social land concessions program. Since 2007, the Royal Government of Cambodia has implemented the “Land Allocation for Social and Economic Development” (LASED) program with technical support from GIZ and financial support from the World Bank. In rural areas, many households are landless and often lose their land as a result of economic and social hardship.