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Day 3: Challenges to Progress • Theme: Governing Across Scales

Large scale land acquisitions (LSLA) and sustainable rural development in the global South

Peter Messerli and Thomas Breu, Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland; Anette Reenberg, Global Land Project (GLP) and University of Copenhagen, Denmark; Michael Taylor, International Land Coalition (ILC), Italy; Andreas Heinimann, Global Land Project (GLP), Lao PDR; Christophe Gironde, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland

Session content:
Rural areas of developing countries are currently undergoing rapid transformation processes characterized by new economic and political driving forces. They increasingly emerge from decisions taken beyond the local level by distant actors operating at the national to the international level. Large scale land acquisitions and land leases by foreign investors represent an important driver of such changes. They have significantly gained importance in the last years in relation to the food-, fuel-, and financial crisis. A heated debate between international development partners, investors, NGOs and civil society organization has emerged whether such land deals represent a long awaited development opportunity for increased investments into land and agriculture or whether they represent an essential risk to vulnerable and often food-insecure peasants depending on their land resources for subsistence. Despite the importance and relevance of this debate, evidence to support decision-making and design innovative solutions for LSLAs is still lacking and often contradictory. Addressing scientists particularly also from concerned countries in the global South, representatives of multi-and bilateral development organisations, NGOs and advocacy groups, this session intends to provide answers to the following questions:

• What do we know about large scale land acquisitions today at a global scale, its drivers and impacts, and what knowledge do we lack?
• What are interactions between large scale land acquisitions and other global pressures on land such as climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, food production, and access to water?
• What are innovative pathways and solutions to harness large scale land acquisitions for sustainable rural development?