Land Concentration and Land Grabbing Processes—Evidence from Slovakia

In Slovakia, the large-scale acquisition of agricultural land in combination with land concentration represents a legitimate threat that can lead to land grabbing. Based on the research, two interrelated areas of protection need to be effectively regulated to limit land grabbing: the protection of access to land and the protection of agricultural land. Due to the absence of relevant data analysis regarding this issue, the main aim of the study was to analyse the emergence of land concentration in Slovakia based on historical and cultural factors and to evaluate the current legislative and institutional framework of both aspects of land protection with a possible impact on the successively graduating threat of land grabbing. In particular, analytical methods were used, presenting the data from secondary literature sources, a questionnaire survey, and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Slovakia. The research shows that although the state has adopted the necessary legal framework for the protection of property rights to agricultural land, it is not possible to enforce it, as the institutional framework for its implementation is absent. It is also the state’s malfunctioning land protection regulatory mechanism and the absence of indirect action instruments that may be key indicators leading to the processes of industrial agriculture. Therefore, the adoption of legislation limiting agricultural land acquisition is important, but the processes of land grabbing presume the state’s complex provision of a regulatory mechanism and adoption of strategic measures aimed at sustainable land quality and food security.

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What Drives Landowners to Resist Selling Their Land? Insights from Ethical Capitalism and Landowners’ Perceptions

Land ◽

10.3390/land10030312 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (3) ◽

pp. 312

Author(s):

Ruxandra Malina Petrescu-Mag ◽

Hamid Rastegari Kopaei ◽

Dacinia Crina Petrescu

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Critical Reflection ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Urban Land ◽

Land Conversion ◽

Land Grabbing ◽

Ethical Perspective ◽

Land Acquisitions ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

Land Transactions

Foreign land grabbing is acknowledged as a phenomenon that generates disempowerment and dispossession of local farmers, human rights violations. Previous studies have revealed the lack of ethical benchmarks in foreign large-scale land transactions that raise moral concerns. It is evident that when resources are scarce and people depend on them, the balance between values and interests transforms itself into a dilemma. Within this context, the aims of the paper were to bring to the fore critical reflection on a more ethical perspective of large-scale land acquisitions and to extend the scant information on what factors determine landowners not to sell their land to foreigners to limit land grabbing. This context justifies the need for a critical reflection on a more ethical perspective of large-scale land acquisitions. Therefore, two objectives were set. The first one is to document the role of ethics in large-scale land transactions. Based on the land grabbing literature, authors selected a set of eight land grabbing narratives, most often interrelated and overlapping, that pose ethical considerations. The second objective is to reveal how well a set of variables can predict the “Resistance to sell” the land to foreigners even when an attractive price is offered. As ethics is a social construct, the analysis captured the stakeholders’ perspective on land grabbing. Therefore, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of 332 Romanian landowners from twelve randomly selected counties to reveal their perceptions. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to observe how well a set of seven variables could predict landowners’ “Resistance to sell” their land to foreign buyers. The use of PLS-SEM was justified by the existence of single items and the need to examine many structural model relations. Results showed that the variables with the strongest contribution to the prediction of the dependent variable are the “Probability to join an association for farmers rights defense”, the “Importance of the land price offered by the potential foreign buyer”, and the “Perceived effect of agricultural land conversion to urban land”. Raising awareness on the importance of buyer attributes, increasing people’s perception of the negative effect of agricultural land conversion to urban land, or strengthening the state’s image as a necessary actor to limit land grabbing will increase landowners’ resistance to sell their land to foreigners. Finally, it can be inferred that, within this frame of discussion, ethics should be valued as a means to create economically viable and morally justifiable solutions for foreign large-scale land transactions.

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Indian Companies Engaged in Agricultural “Land Grabbing” in Africa: The Need for Indo-african Solidarity Linkages

Human Geography ◽

10.1177/194277861100400305 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 4 (3) ◽

pp. 72-87

Author(s):

Rick Rowden

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Arable Land ◽

Small Farmers ◽

Land Grabbing ◽

Host Countries ◽

Indian Government ◽

Environmental Consequences ◽

High Level ◽

Lease Contracts

Indian agricultural companies have been involved in the recent trend in large-scale overseas acquisitions of farmland, criticized as “land grabbing”. India has joined China, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and South Korea among other nations heavily investing in large-scale agricultural projects in Africa and elsewhere. Several factors are driving India's effort to “outsource its food production,” including the Government's growing strategic concerns about ensuring long-term food security and concerns about falling ground water tables. Eager developing country governments have also courted Indian agricultural investors, offering special incentives, including offers to lease massive tracts of arable land on very generous terms at much cheaper rates than land and water in India. The Indian Government has supported this trend through high-level trade diplomacy, foreign aid, and subsidized credit for its agricultural companies investing overseas. Critics call the trend “land grabbing” and claim there have been negative impacts on local peoples, who are often displaced in the process. The public disclosure of lease contracts between the Ethiopian Government and five Indian investors sheds light on the negative ethical, political, human rights and environmental consequences for local people in host countries. New and ongoing advocacy strategies are discussed, including the idea to establish international advocacy linkages between Indian activists fighting for small farmers rights and addressing “land grabbing” actions within India, and small farmers in Africa and elsewhere facing similar problems. One idea is for such linkages to inform Indian citizens who can take action to address the problem of land-grabbing by Indian companies operating overseas. International land rights advocates see a common struggle in which land deals must involve transparent and participatory relations between governments, companies and local democratic communities.

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Narratives of Waste

10.7591/cornell/9781501753732.003.0006 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104-123

Author(s):

Sai Balakrishnan

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Urban Economy ◽

Lower Class ◽

Land Acquisition ◽

Land Expropriation ◽

Land Quality ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

Caste Groups ◽

Economic Zones

This chapter analyzes the contradictory regional class and caste politics of large-scale land investments in Maharashtra, India, focusing on the conversion of peri-urban agricultural land into urban real estate. The chapter uses the case of the Khed special economic zones (SEZ) to explore these contradictions and unexpected twists in Maharashtra's land commodification tale. Whereas dominant agrarian castes long-invested in commodity agricultural production and with the deepest ties to urban capital vociferously protested land acquisition for the formation of a special economic zone, Adivasi “tribals” along with Dalit groups historically dependent on “waste” lands embraced forced land acquisition. It shows how historic narratives of waste that twin expectations about poor land quality to presumptions of wasteland occupants' social backwardness were leveraged by lower-class and -caste groups to portray land expropriation as a means of pursuing a place in the urban economy. Ultimately, the chapter highlights how fictions of waste that previously excluded the most socially subordinated groups from crop capitalism became an instrument of urban inclusion.

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THE TEMPORARY USE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND - SPECIFIC INSTRUMENT IN AGRICULTURAL EVENTS

Trakia Journal of Sciences ◽

10.15547/tjs.2019.s.01.35 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (Suppl.1) ◽

pp. 210-214

Author(s):

G. Velkovska

Keyword(s):

Swot Analysis ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Legal Framework ◽

Legal Issue ◽

Original Form ◽

Land Protection ◽

Public Property ◽

The Subject ◽

The Law

Under the terms of Article 56 (1) of the Rules for the Application of the Law on the Conservation of Agricultural Land [www.lex.bg] in the construction of sites - public property of the state or municipalities, it is possible to use land for a certain period outside the site (track) of the site. In such cases, land that is needed temporarily in the construction of underground and aerial linear objects is needed and is necessary for geological and other research. The text of Art. 57, par. 1, 3 and 4 of the aforementioned Rules regulates the relations between the investor of the site and the owner of the land - for the use of the land a contract is signed between the investor of the site and the owner of the land. The contract is concluded in the presence of an established site (track, terrain) for the site with a decision of the commission under Art. 17, para. 1 Agricultural Land Protection Act [www.lex.bg]. The agreement between the parties sets out the terms and conditions for the use of the land, the amount of the rent, the damages and lost profits, the manner of their payment and the corresponding penalties. The contract can not be concluded for more than 10 years. What are the obligations of the investor? The investor of each site, according to the norm of art. 58 of the Regulation for the application of the law on the preservation of agricultural lands, shall be obliged to return the used temporary land after expiration of the term of the contract in the original form or in a form suitable for agricultural use. The land shall be brought into this type by the investor on the site at his expense within the term of the contract. When the use of the land necessitates the construction of buildings and / or facilities of a permanent character, the investor of the site is obliged, within the term of the contract, to propose a change of the purpose of the necessary land after acquisition of ownership or right to build . In connection with the above, the subject of the article is precisely the basic legal details of the agricultural legislation of the Republic of Bulgaria dealing with the conditions and the process of granting and temporary use of agricultural land in conducting spatial events on it. The subject of an analysis based on the current legal issue is some of its imperfections, affecting to some extent the negative impact on the effective use of this instrument and worsening the expected results. The methodology of the SWOT analysis will be used for the analysis needs. The purpose of the study is to examine and analyze the legal matter of the field of agricultural land use, to summarize and formulate some directions of improvement of the legal framework that it needs in order to fully fulfill its role as a specific and necessary instrument in agro-development activities.

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Industrial zones and their benefits for society

Soil and Water Research ◽

10.17221/59/2020-swr ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 15 (No. 4) ◽

pp. 258-272

Author(s):

Jaroslava Janků ◽

Kristina Heřmanová ◽

Josef Kozák ◽

Jan Jehlička ◽

Mansoor Maitah ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Agricultural Land ◽

Significant Loss ◽

Soil Protection ◽

Rapid Decline ◽

Industrial Zone ◽

Land Quality ◽

The Czech Republic ◽

Land Protection ◽

Industrial Zones ◽

The Eu

Currently, we can see a rapid decline of agricultural land with new uses, especially for construction purposes. This negative trend is evident across Europe, the Czech Republic has the fastest loss of land in the EU. One reason for the significant loss of agricultural land is building industrial zones, which utilises of greenfield areas, and their occupying new areas of agricultural land, often the most the most fertile. The analysis deals with the occupied area (the area of a particular industrial zone), the percentage utilisation of that industrial zone, the number of employees in the industrial zone, and the land quality expressed by means of the agricultural land protection class. The results of the analysis show the low usability of industrial zones, the large occupation of the agricultural land, and the low benefits to the Czech state and Czech citizens. The results also show the poor land use policy in relation to the soil protection. This work is followed by the project Sustainable management of natural resources with an emphasis on non-production and production ability of the soil, the results of which will be included in legislation and be binding for spatial planning.

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Partnerships Generate Co-Benefits in Agricultural Stream Restoration (Canterbury, New Zealand)

Case Studies in the Environment ◽

10.1525/cse.2020.1229632 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Catherine M. Febria ◽

Maggie Bayfield ◽

Kathryn E. Collins ◽

Hayley S. Devlin ◽

Brandon C. Goeller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

New Zealand ◽

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Indigenous Rights ◽

Freshwater Ecosystem ◽

Reduced Pressure ◽

Ecosystem Integrity ◽

Riparian Management ◽

Scale Change ◽

Large Scale Change

In Aotearoa New Zealand, agricultural land-use intensification and decline in freshwater ecosystem integrity pose complex challenges for science and society. Despite riparian management programmes across the country, there is frustration over a lack in widespread uptake, upfront financial costs, possible loss in income, obstructive legislation and delays in ecological recovery. Thus, social, economic and institutional barriers exist when implementing and assessing agricultural freshwater restoration. Partnerships are essential to overcome such barriers by identifying and promoting co-benefits that result in amplifying individual efforts among stakeholder groups into coordinated, large-scale change. Here, we describe how initial progress by a sole farming family at the Silverstream in the Canterbury region, South Island, New Zealand, was used as a catalyst for change by the Canterbury Waterway Rehabilitation Experiment, a university-led restoration research project. Partners included farmers, researchers, government, industry, treaty partners (Indigenous rights-holders) and practitioners. Local capacity and capability was strengthened with practitioner groups, schools and the wider community. With partnerships in place, co-benefits included lowered costs involved with large-scale actions (e.g., earth moving), reduced pressure on individual farmers to undertake large-scale change (e.g., increased participation and engagement), while also legitimising the social contracts for farmers, scientists, government and industry to engage in farming and freshwater management. We describe contributions and benefits generated from the project and describe iterative actions that together built trust, leveraged and aligned opportunities. These actions were scaled from a single farm to multiple catchments nationally.

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Phosphorus Leaching Under Cut Grassland

Water Science & Technology ◽

10.2166/wst.1999.0530 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 39 (12) ◽

pp. 63-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

B. L. Turner ◽

P. M. Haygarth

Keyword(s):

Surface Waters ◽

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Algal Growth ◽

Soil Types ◽

P Fractions ◽

Inorganic P ◽

Potential Source ◽

Significant Mechanism ◽

Total P

Phosphorus (P) transfer from agricultural land to surface waters can contribute to eutrophication, excess algal growth and associated water quality problems. Grasslands have a high potential for P transfer, as they receive P inputs as mineral fertiliser and concentrates cycled through livestock manures. The transfer of P can occur through surface and subsurface pathways, although the capacity of most soils to fix inorganic P has meant that subsurface P transfer by leaching mechanisms has often been perceived as negligible. We investigated this using large-scale monolith lysimeters (135 cm deep, 80 cm diameter) to monitor leachate P under four grassland soil types. Leachate was collected during the 1997–98 drainage year and analysed for a range of P fractions. Mean concentrations of total P routinely exceeded 100 μg l−1 from all soil types and, therefore, exceeded P concentrations above which eutrophication and algal growth can occur. The majority of the leachate P was in algal-available Mo-reactive (inorganic) forms, although a large proportion occurred in unreactive (organic) forms. We suggest that subsurface transfer by leaching can represent a significant mechanism for agricultural P transfer from some soils and must be given greater consideration as a potential source of diffuse P pollution to surface waters.

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“Community Interests” and the Role of International Law in the Creation of a Global Market for Agricultural Land

10.1093/oso/9780198825210.003.0015 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jochen von Bernstorff

Keyword(s):

International Law ◽

Large Scale ◽

Agricultural Land ◽

Food Sovereignty ◽

Global Market ◽

Negative Consequences ◽

Cultural Rights ◽

Land Grab ◽

Large Scale Land ◽

The One

The chapter explores the notion of “community interests” with regard to the global “land-grab” phenomenon. Over the last decade, a dramatic increase of foreign investment in agricultural land could be observed. Bilateral investment treaties protect around 75 per cent of these large-scale land acquisitions, many of which came with associated social problems, such as displaced local populations and negative consequences for food security in Third World countries receiving these large-scale foreign investments. Hence, two potentially conflicting areas of international law are relevant in this context: Economic, social, and cultural rights and the principles of permanent sovereignty over natural resources and “food sovereignty” challenging large-scale investments on the one hand, and specific norms of international economic law stabilizing them on the other. The contribution discusses the usefulness of the concept of “community interests” in cases where the two colliding sets of norms are both considered to protect such interests.

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Forest Land Quality Evaluation and the Protection Zoning of Subtropical Humid Evergreen Broadleaf Forest Region Based on the PSO-TOPSIS Model and the Local Indicator of Spatial Association: A Case Study of Hefeng County, Hubei Province, China

Forests ◽

10.3390/f12030325 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (3) ◽

pp. 325

Author(s):

Li Wang ◽

Yong Zhou ◽

Qing Li ◽

Qian Zuo ◽

Haoran Gao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Spatial Distribution ◽

Quality Evaluation ◽

Spatial Association ◽

Forest Land ◽

Mountain Regions ◽

Land Quality ◽

Land Protection ◽

Protection Zones ◽

Forest Region ◽

Topsis Model

Forest land is the carrier for growing forests. It is of great significance to evaluate the forest land quality scientifically and delineate forestland protection zones reasonably for realizing better forest land management, promoting ecological civilization construction, and coping with global climate change. In this study, taking Hefeng County, Hubei Province, a subtropical humid evergreen broad-leaved forest region in China, as the study area, 14 indicators were selected from four dimensions—climatic conditions, terrain, soil conditions, and socioeconomics—to construct a forest land quality evaluation index system. Based on the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) model, we introduced the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm to design the evaluation model to evaluate the forest land quality and analyze the distribution of forest land quality in Hefeng. Further, we used the Local Indicator of Spatial Association (LISA) to explore the spatial distribution of forest land quality and delineate the forest land protection zones. The results showed the following: (1) the overall quality of forest land was high, with some variability between regions. The range of Forest Land Quality Index (FLQI) in Hefeng was 0.4091–0.8601, with a mean value of 0.6337. The forest land quality grades were mainly first and second grade, with the higher-grade forest land mainly distributed in the central and southeastern low mountain regions of Zouma, Wuli, and Yanzi. The lower-grade forest land was mainly distributed in the northwestern middle and high mountain regions of Zhongying, Taiping, and Rongmei. (2) The global spatial autocorrelation index of forest land quality in Hefeng County was 0.7562, indicating that the forest land quality in the county had a strong spatial similarity. The spatial distribution of similarity types high-high (HH) and low-low (LL) was more clustered, while the spatial distribution of dissimilarity types high-low (HL) and low-high (LH) was generally dispersed. (3) Based on the LISA of forest land quality, forest land protection zones were divided into three types: key protection zones (KPZs), active protection zones (APZs), and general protection zones (GPZs). The forest land protection zoning basically coincided with the forest land quality. Combining the characteristics of self-correlated types in different forestland protection zones, corresponding management and protection measures were proposed. This showed that the PSO-TOPSIS model can be effectively used for forest land quality evaluation. At the same time, the spatial attributes of forest land were incorporated into the development of forest land protection zoning scheme, which expands the method of forest land protection zoning, and can provide a scientific basis and methodological reference for the reasonable formulation of forest land use planning in Hefeng County, while also serving as a reference for similar regions and countries.

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Mapping ‘wild zones’ of globalisation: on private actors and the rule of law

International Journal of Law in Context ◽

10.1017/s1744552321000045 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (1) ◽

pp. 107-113

Author(s):

Chantal Mak

Keyword(s):

Global Economy ◽

Large Scale ◽

Legal Framework ◽

International Investments ◽

Goods And Services ◽

Decision Making Processes ◽

Private Corporations ◽

Comprehensive Framework ◽

Private Actors ◽

The Impact

While private corporations have become increasingly influential in the global economy, a comprehensive legal framework for their activities is missing. Although international and regional legal instruments may govern some aspects of, for instance, international investments and the supply of goods and services, there is no overarching structure for assessing the impact of large-scale private projects. In the absence of such a comprehensive framework, specific rules of private law allow profit-seeking companies to expand their activities on an economic basis, mostly without having to heed social concerns (Pistor, 2019). This is particularly problematic insofar as multinational companies have obtained power to set the rules for their engagement with states, organisations and individuals, for instance in the form of transnational investment contracts. Given the fragmented nature of the legal sphere in which such contracts are elaborated and performed, those who face the harmful consequences of such investments may not be able to participate in decision-making processes. The contracts remain in ‘wild zones’ of globalisation (Fraser, 2014, p. 150), where powerful private companies rule.

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