THE GLOBAL LAND RUSH

What’s real and what are the myths? Rushing for solutions

Tags: Worldwide , Knowledge Platform
Additional tags: Launch , Increasing occurrence of land acquisitions , Seminar , Development

Introduction
Reports about land acquisitions in developing countries – often labeled as land grabbing – are on the
rise. The number of land-related conflicts seems to be growing, leading to concerns about increasing
land inequality in societies were many people depend on access to land for their livelihoods. On 24
March, 2011, International Development Studies (IDS) of Utrecht University, in collaboration with
LANDac1 and the Society for International Development (SID), organised a seminar about the global
land rush, referring to the increasing occurrence of land acquisitions by both domestic and
international investors. This document gives a summary of the presentations and discussions during
the seminar.2

Opening the seminar, Guus van Westen (Utrecht University) explains that IDS organized a first
conference on this topic in 2009. Back then, reliable information about land acquisitions and their
impact was still very scattered. Today there is much more information about the actual
developments on the ground, and more research is underway, so new knowledge is pouring in. We
now know that land acquisitions are real. And we know that they are driven by factors such as the
rising food prices, increasing demand for biofuels and attempts of certain countries to secure their
food supplies. At the same time it has become clear that a large portion of the announced land
acquisitions have (so far) not materialized. This seminar is meant to share some of the empirical data
that is available about land acquisitions and their implications for local people (based on LANDacsponsored
research), to identify the remaining knowledge gaps, and to translate this into options for
policy and practice.
During the seminar’s first session, chaired by Josine Stremmelaar (HIVOS), several researchers will
provide an overview of developments on the ground and the remaining knowledge gaps, based on
findings from Russia, Senegal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, DRC and Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and
Niger. In the second part of the seminar, chaired by Annelies Zoomers (Utrecht University),
researchers get a chance to present studies that are planned for the coming years. Finally, at the end
of the seminar, there will be a panel discussion on the implications of current developments for
policy and practice, followed by the launch of a special issue of the journal Development, entitled
Global land grabs.
What’s the rush?
Oane Visser (Radboud University) presents the case of land acquisitions in Russia. Discussions about
land grabbing usually concern Africa, and sometimes Latin America and Asia, but what is happening
with the vast land masses in the former Soviet Union? The area of the former Soviet Union is
characterized by the enormous size of the farms – a legacy of the Soviet policies and the ‘big is
1 The IS Academy on Land Governance for Equitable and Sustainable Development (LANDac) is a partnership between IDS
Utrecht and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Studies Centre, Disaster Studies of Wageningen University,
Royal Tropical Institute, Agriterra, HIVOS and Triodos Facet.
2 Report by Koen Kusters, WiW – Global Research and Reporting.
2
efficient’ discourse. The region is further characterized by the relative abundance of land (0.9 ha per
person) which is even increasing, as the rural population is declining. For foreign investors interested
in purchasing large tracts of land, this is an attractive situation.
Both domestic and foreign investors are active in the former Soviet Union, but the chains of
investments are not always clear. Who are the brokers? What are the motivations of investors, and
how do they change over time? Much uncertainty remains regarding the socio-economic dynamics.
According to Oane Visser the benefits for local people are highly doubtful. To illustrate the
questionable ways of land acquisition in Russia, he refers to Slolkovo, which is a main innovation
centre, just outside of Moscow. To make place for this high-tech center, financed by one of Russia’s
oil oligarchs, a large number of peasants was simply forced off their lands. In the case of Slolkovo
this resulted in significant resistance by local inhabitants. For Visser, such cases raise important
questions for research, for example: What are the triggers for local resistance? What are the forms
of protest? And, when is protest effective?