An in-depth global review of land resource resource grabbing is both timely and essential reading. The great thing about this Routledge Handbook is that it is not locked away behind a prohibitively expensive paywall.   This open access handbook edited by  Andreas Neef, Chanrith Ngin, Tsegaye Moreda and Sharlene Mollett provides a cutting-edge and comprehensive analysis of the many forces driving global land and resource grabbing.

The Routledge Handbook of Global Land and Resource Grabbing provides fresh methodological, theoretical and empirical insights. It presents and discusses resource grabbing research in a holistic manner by addressing how the rush for land and other natural resources, including water, forests and minerals, is intertwined with agriculture, mining, tourism, energy, biodiversity conservation, climate change, carbon markets and conflict.

The handbook is truly global and interdisciplinary, with case studies from the Global South and Global North, and chapter contributions from practitioners, activists and academics, with emerging and Indigenous authors featuring strongly across the chapters.

The handbook will be essential reading for students and scholars interested in land and resource grabbing, agrarian studies, development studies, critical human geography, global studies and natural resource governance.

How the book is structured

The book is divided into nine parts.

Part 1 examines the historical trajectories of land and resource grabbing

Part 2 focuses on the enabling mechanisms and the governance of land and resource grabbing

Part 3 explores large scale land acquisitions for food, feed and biofuels

Part 4 reviews the taking of land for conservation, eco-tourism, renewable energy and carbon markets

Part 5 provides insights into land grabbing by extractive industries: fossil fuels, minerals and metals

Part 6 exposes 'bluegrabbing' and the global rush for freshwater and marine resources

Part 7 examines land grabbing for large infrastructure projects

Part 8 looks at urban land grabs and special economic zones

Part 9 explores resistance, restitution and available remedies to counter land and resource grabs

What the reviewers had to say

“Assembling a rich and diverse set of scholarly contributions, the handbook reviews what we know about land grabbing and identifies fresh lines of inquiry. It is an excellent resource for scholars and activists.”
Tania Murray Li, Professor of Anthropology, University of Toronto

“An indispensable read, this handbook demonstrates that land and resource grabbing is much more than a sudden fever of corporate investment. It is a fundamental trait of con-temporary capitalism.”
Jacobo Grajales, Professor of Political Science, Université de Lille, author of ‘Agrarian Capitalism, War and Peace in Colombia. Beyond Dispossession’

“The geographic scope – from the Arctic to sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Aotearoa New Zealand and a multitude of places in between – and the hugely diverse range of sectors, settings and actors mark this as the most comprehensive and nuanced examination of the global land grab phenomena to date. The volume expands the temporal and sectoral boundaries of this ‘grabbing’ from colonial resource frontiers, into the ocean (‘blue- grabbing’) and urban environments and across arenas that include renewable energy, tourism and conservation (‘green-grabs’). Along with the important conceptual work here – from the emotional geographies of green grabs to the construction of governance processes that facilitate ‘grabbing’ – the volume represents a significant step-change in academic attention towards and understanding of land and resource grabs.”
Glenn Banks, Professor of Geography, School of People, Environment and Planning, Massey University, Aotearoa

“While much has been written on the so-called global land grab since the mid-2000s, there has to date been no authoritative resource on the issue. This volume admirable fills that gap, providing a comprehensive account that is both global in scope and replete with local case studies; that is historically informed and yet entirely contemporary in its coverage; and that is richly conceptualized and yet always grounded in real world examples. This will be a go-to resource for many years to come, not only for students and researchers but also for activists, policy makers and practitioners in the field of land and natural resource governance.” Philip Hirsch, Emeritus Professor of Human Geography, University of Sydney

“This impressive and clearly-written volume provides remarkably wide-ranging coverage of the objects, places, protagonists, narratives, technologies, causes, and institutions of 21st century land and resource grabbing. It illuminates the present while emphasizing the long histories of dispossession and resistance that shape, and are continued in, contemporary struggles. Recommended for beginners and experts alike.”
Derek Hall, Associate Professor, Political Science and Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfried Laurier University