Impacts of large-scale land acquisitions on common-pool resources

2019 ◽  
pp. 257-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Giger ◽  
Kerstin Nolte ◽  
Ward Anseeuw ◽  
Thomas Breu ◽  
Wytske Chamberlain ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Pool Resources ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
Large Scale Land

scholarly journals Not Affected the Same Way: Gendered Outcomes for Commons and Resilience Grabbing by Large-Scale Forest Investors in Tanzania

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 122
Author(s):  
Désirée Gmür
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Common Pool Resources ◽  
Value Chain Analysis ◽  
Development Discourse ◽  
Common Pool ◽  
The People ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Government ◽  
Large Scale Land

The topic of large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) has attracted wide interest in the literature and the media. However, there is little work on the gendered institutional changes and gendered impacts on common pool resources (CPR) due to LSLA. The aim of this paper is to address these impacts. This is done by discussing data from participatory research (using the methods of participatory observation, semi-structured and narrative interviews, biographies, focus group discussions, value chain analysis, and household questionnaires) on a forestry plantation operated by the British investor, the New Forests Company (NFC) in the Kilolo district, in the Iringa region. The institutional arrangements regarding different land-related common pool resources from pre-colonial times until the arrival of this investment will be shown. Furthermore, how these arrangements have changed over time and since the LSLA is presented. Then, the effects on men’s and women’s access to CPR and, thus, the impacts on their capacities to perform their reproductive work and resilience will be addressed. Furthermore, the paper focuses on how different stakeholders in the land deal (the investor, the government, different local people) make use of these different institutions to push through their own interests regarding the land. Finally, the paper looks at collective compensation payments (such as monetary compensation and jobs) and forms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes, and how they are perceived emically. It is argued that the LSLA in this case clearly grabs land and land-related common pool resources that were previously held in common. Women, such as daughters, sisters, and wives, had specific access and property rights to these. Thus, the paper concludes that this grabbing lowers women’s resilience and deprives them of important resources for their livelihoods, and for food and cash production at critical times. CSR programmes and compensation rarely reach women and are, for them, an anti-politics machine, hiding the grabbing processes, and impacting the poorest of the poor, while the company uses a development discourse to legitimise its activities. In fact, the people perceive the investment as trapping them in underdevelopment.

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

Land ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Large-scale land acquisitions in Madagascar: What rules govern them on the ground?

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Perrine Burnod ◽  
Rivo Andrianirina Ratsialonana ◽  
André Teyssier
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
Large Scale Land

scholarly journals The Determinants of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A Case Study

Agriculture ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Mazzocchi ◽  
Michele Salvan ◽  
Luigi Orsi ◽  
Guido Sali
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Land Policy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Land Acquisitions ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Large Scale Land ◽  
Investment Process ◽  
Agricultural Investments ◽  
Formal Recognition

The determinants of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are, in most cases, outside the traditional sales–buying land market, as they are often rented lands for long periods of time or exploitation licenses. Sub-Saharan Africa is among the most affected regions by this phenomenon for reasons related to its land policy, and includes 37% of the total LSLAs cases. The paper develops an econometric model based on a logarithmic OLS regression to identify the determinants of LSLAs in sub-Saharan Africa. As suggested by the literature, this analysis poses the total agricultural area acquired by country as dependent variable. Results show that investors prefer a country offering a sufficiently free trade economic context with a good level of agricultural productivity, thus allowing an easy investment process. Moreover, a country with a formal recognition of land rights is preferred, to have guarantees on their investment. The availability of water is also one of the main LSLAs drivers, as a natural limit of agricultural investments.

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