Society for International Development | March 2011
The dilemma of land grabs and the implications for sustainability.
Development
Volume 54, Issue 1 (March 2011)
The first issue of Development 54 starts the one year debate on sustainability by looking at the dilemma of the current global land grabs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It engages academics and researchers of the Land Research Action Network and of the University of Utrecht in a hot debate on land speculation today.
The journal issue tackles land, commodity and food speculation. It explores the implications for an equitable and sustainable development and looks at how to ensure that any benefits from foreign land development are passed on to local people.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial: No More Black Fridays
Illustrates how graphic unsustainability of consumerism and global land grabs as two sides of the same coin
Wendy Harcourt
Introduction: Global Land Grabs: Investments, risks and dangerous legacies
Argues that global land grabs are a continuation of the unjust development with devastating effects on small land holders
Land Research Action Network
Introduction: Rushing for Land: Equitable and sustainable development in Africa, Asia and Latin America
Documents the wide range of different drivers of the global land grab, showing that the process is much more extensive and faster than usually reported in the media
Annelies Zoomers
Thematic Section: Land Speculation, Commodity and Food Speculation
Food Sovereignty and Alternative Paradigms to Confront Land Grabbing and the Food and Climate Crises
Calls for a paradigm shift towards food sovereignty based on genuine agrarian reform
Peter Rosset
Rice Land Grabs Undermine Food Sovereignty in Africa
Exposes the double dealing of governments and business in Africa over rice land grabs
Grain
Development 54: 31-34; doi:10.1057/dev.2010.98
Gender and ‘Land Grabbing’ in Sub-Saharan Africa: Women's land rights and customary land tenure
Looks at the gender impacts of global land grabs in Africa
Jessica Chu
Contexts and Procedures for Farmland Acquisitions in Africa: What outcomes for local people?
Examines the problem of inadequate compensation for local people in Africa
Lorenzo Cotula and Sonja Vermeulen
La Via Campesina: Peasant-led agrarian reform and food sovereignty
Summarizes the findings of the Agrarian Reform Commission of La Via Campesina
Faustino Torrez
Dialogue: Land Grabs: Implications for equitable and sustainable development
Land in China: Struggle and reform
Describes the land grabs of the current agrarian reforms in China
A C M (Guus) van Westen
Special Economic Zones as New Forms of Corporate Land Grab: Experiences from India
Looks at the impact of land grabs for industrial parks at the expense of agricultural land
Chigurupati Ramachandraiah and Ramasamy Srinivasan
Land Alienation and Sustainability Issues in the Peri-urban Interface of South-West Nigeria
Discusses how to prevent land grabs in Nigeria
Waheed Kadiri and Basirat Oyalowo
Climate Crises: Defending the land
Argues that rural policy to support biodiversity, local knowledge of land and energy saving practices will help prevent climate crisis
Shalmali Guttal and Sofia Monsalve
Local/Global Encounters: Global Land ‘Negotiations’
Fuelling Conflicts: Overcoming asymmetry between global interests in Vietnam and Indonesia
Shows how large scale investments are not leading to poverty reduction are sources of conflict
Paul Burgers, Rizki Pandu Permana and Tran Nam Tu
Residential Tourism Causing Land Privatization and Alienation: New pressures on Costa Rica's coasts
Analyzes the struggles over land in Costa Rica
Femke van Noorloos
Whose Lands? Whose Resources?
Describes the impact of land grab deals in Cambodia and Laos
Shalmali Guttal
Monocropping for Agrofuels: The case of Brazil
Reveals the negative impact of agrofuels on the biodiversity of the Amazon and Cerrado
Maria Luisa MendonÇa
‘Through their Eyes’ – The photo exhibition
Presents images of women's economic activity throughout the CIS and EE region
Karat
Governance, Land and Development
Reviews three important studies with major impact on people, governance and land
Compiled by Giulia Frova and Wendy Harcourt
Books and Reports on Land
Gives annotated descriptions of latest books on land and sustainable human development
Compiled by Laura Fano Morrissey
Window on the World
Window on the World
Features key civil society and social movement networks working on Land
Compiled by Laura Fano Morrissey
Who's Who
Who's Who
Lists contacts and short bionotes of all the contributors
Reclaiming Land and Livelihoods in Colombia: A photo essay
Depicts in pictures the impact of land grabs on peoples’ lives in Colombia
Laura Fano Morrissey