Contains country context, study of land investment, benefits and impacts. Finds wide discrepancies between public positions and laws and what is happening on the ground, an absence of environmental controls, widespread displacement from farmland without compensation, little local benefit, many land deals involve small-scale investors with limited agricultural experience.
Examines 3 case studies of proposed biofuel developments in Mozambique and Sierra Leone in terms of social displacement. More mitigation measures could provide livelihood restitution and avoid negative food security impacts.
Includes situation prior to acquisition, contract negotiations, employment, environmental impacts, crop production, ancillary services, responsibilities of key actors – the international community, national governments, local governments, communities and civil society, domestic and international investors.
Current land grabbing in Africa very worrying and carries strong echoes of era of Cecil Rhodes. Land deals being done in secret, myth of much vacant land, willing consent of many African leaders. Biofuels moving from miracle cure to a problem. Some positive experiences in Tanzania. Need for imaginative thinking and action.
Includes a broader view of the global land grab; Southern Africa: under-utilised and opening up for business?; biofuels everywhere, but not enough to eat; extractive industries: mining and forestry; reversals and state capitalism in Zimbabwe; the next Great Trek? South Africans head north; where is the food?; towards a typology; reflecting on these trends: what fresh insights?; conclusions.
Includes overview of phases of land deals and their gender implications, further evidence using recent case studies from Indonesia and Mozambique, promising initiatives and recommendations, identification of knowledge gaps.
An analysis of the gendered impacts of commercial pressures on land, based on a review of the literature and ILC’s country case studies, including Ethiopia, Zambia, Rwanda and Benin.
Includes how much land is being acquired, and by whom?; over the heads of local people: who are the parties to the deal?; the economic disequilibrium of the contract: what resources, in exchange for what?; what safeguards for local people and the environment?; discussion.
Covers world agriculture, a changing context; scale and geography of the phenomenon, key players; the nature of the land deals, process and terms; implications for local land access; conclusion and recommendations.
