Foreign land purchases for agriculture: what impact on sustainable development?

United Nation Sustainable Development Innovation Brief | January 2010

Issue Nº 8

Private investors and governments have recently stepped up foreign investment in farmland in the form of purchases or long-term lease of large tracks of arable land, notably in Africa. This brief examines the implications of this trend for sustainable development.

This Brief was written by Howard Mann, Senior International Law Advisor for the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) and Carin Smaller, Advisor to the International Institute for Sustainable Development.