Kiel, Germany

Global Economic Symposium

The Global Economic Symposium, to be held 4-6 October in Kiel, Germany, will have a special session on land grabbing called "Dealing with the Race for Agricultural Land"

Kiev

VII Large Farm Management Conference

The main purpose of the event is to facilitate the exchange of ideas among leading European experts regarding the potential of global agriculture development, supply chain optimization strategies and public policy improvements.

Kyoto

Legal and development implications of international land acquisitions

The purpose of this conference is to look at large-scale international land acquisitions from a ‘law and development’ perspective and determine the various legal frameworks at international, national and local level that enable or constrain such processes.

Live webinar

Foreign investment in African farmland: Opportunities and risks

Senior analyst at Deutsche Bank Research Dr. Claire Schaffnit-Chatterjee looks at the opportunities and risks related to African farmland acquisitions in this August 28 webinar at 11:00 am San Francisco time.

There is no charge to register for this one-hour webinar, but space is limited. To reserve your seat, please visit, www.i2live.net.

London

Euromoney Food & Finance Conference

"What could the financial sector be doing to increase global food security? This is the question which drives the Euromoney Food & Finance Conference. We have brought together a group of sovereign agencies who have been mandated and funded to develop food security for their nations – they need innovative financial structures, cross-border investment advice, risk quantification, risk transfer, price and market modelling and much much more." Panel IV is on landgrabbing.

Global AgInvesting Europe 2012

GAI Europe 2012 (London, 3-5 Dec) will build off of the recent success of our flagship event, in New York, which in April 2012 attracted over 700 attendees who represented over:
- $3.5 trillion in aggregated institutional assets managed by attending institutional investors
- 25 million acres under cultivation by attending companies
- $12.5 billion of farmland assets managed by attending fund managers
GAI Europe 2012 will help end investors understand different strategies and different risk/reward exposures that are being pursued by fund managers within the ag space. They will hear from fund managers about the challenges and opportunities presented by different geographies and operating strategies across illiquid investment vehicles (farmland, infrastructure and ag private equity), as well as liquid investment alternatives such as agricultural-focused hedge funds, public equities and commodities.

Landowners or laborers? A panel on the rural development choices facing leaders of developing countries

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is co-hosting with Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), a panel discussion and the launch of its annual review of the current status of forest and land rights in developing countries. In 2012, a key choice facing developing countries was revealed ever more starkly. Would they choose a development path built on inclusiveness and respect for the rights of their citizens, or would they opt instead for extractive exploitation of their people's land and natural resources? The report identifies this and other key choices and challenges that emerged in 2012 for forest rights and tenure globally, faced now by leaders of developing countries in 2013 and beyond. Panelists include:
Li Ping - Senior Attorney, Landesa, China
Alfred Brownell - Executive Director, Green Advocates, Liberia
Samuel Nguiffo - Director, Center for Environment and Development, Cameroon
Maung Maung Than - Project Coordinator/Consultant (Capacity Building Program for Community Forestry in Myanmar), RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests
Joji Carino - Coordinator of the IIFB Working Group on Indicators, Tebtebba, Philippines
Saskia Ozinga - Campaign Coordinator, Climate Change, Export Credit Agencies and Forest Peoples, FERN
Jeffrey Hatcher - Director, Global Programs, Rights and Resources Initiative
The agenda for this event will be available soon. Please contact Madiha Qureshi at [email protected] with questions.

The global theft of land: Human rights, dispossession, and destruction

Date and time: Wednesday 6 February 2013, 6.30-8pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

Speakers: Megan MacInnes, Fred Pearce, Dr Subir Sinha
Chair: Professor Chetan Bhatt

The forcible expropriation of land from people by states and Megan MacInnescorporations – ‘land grabbing’ – is occurring on a phenomenal scale and affects every continent and most countries of the ‘South’. Land grabs and the forced displacement of populations, including through state and corporate violence, have been justified through economic development, human development, the extraction of natural resources, the use of land for economic growth, among many other factors. Yet deforestation and land Subir Sinhagrabs in Indonesia, slum clearances and land grabs throughout India, environmental destruction and population displacements in the Amazon and in various countries of southern America, and massive land grabs, including through natural resource mining across the African continent, have created misery and havoc on a large scale for many populations. In some places, land grabs have gone hand in hand with environmental destruction, conflict and war, forced labour, child labour, illegal expropriation of natural resources, widespread poverty and serious violations and abuses of human rights.

This event explores land grabbing as a global phenomenon that some writers have described as a new form of ‘primitive accumulation’ and ‘accumulation by dispossession’. The origins of land grabbing and its consequences for human rights, including indirect causes related to environmental destruction and climate change, are discussed.

Africa pensions & sovereign funds investment forum

The 2nd Annual Africa Pensions and Sovereign Funds Investment Forum is scheduled for the 2nd – 4th of September 2013 at the Langham Hotel in London.

The annual Africa Pensions and Sovereign Funds Investment Forum will host African and international investment funds seeking to access growth opportunities driven by the continents extractive natural resources, rapidly expanding consumer class, arable land and farm resources, and remarkably improved governance across African states.

With over 95% returning participants; this investment series is the most comprehensive Africa focused investment funds and asset managers forum bringing together over 200 senior decision-makers; and a speaking faculty of more than 70 thought leaders meticulously selected from around the globe. The forum explores contemporary issues impacting investment funds and managers in Africa and other frontier markets. It is designed to bring together an exclusive network of foremost pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, development finance institutions and asset managers focused on the intersection of macro-economic developments, capital markets, traditional and alternative investments in African markets.

Global AgInvesting Europe 2014

Event focuses on education about agriculture as an asset class, responsible investment opportunities worldwide, and industry networking.