Global land acquisition: trends and challenges

European Development Days | Stockholm, 22-24 October 2009

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Event on landgrabbing: 22 October 2009

Global land acquisition: trends and challenges

As land acquisition becomes increasingly borderless, new mechanisms and codes of conduct are required to govern the relationship between investors, governments and local communities.

Recent global trends are prompting a massive increase in global commercial interest in land and natural resources. In the context of liberalised trade and property laws in many countries, this is creating unprecedented pressure on land resources and straining land tenure systems.

Secure land rights are now recognised by most governments as critical components of peace, stability and economic growth. Governments from developing countries must take the lead in land policy and tenure reform, since political interests are at stake and donors should support this process. In many places, titling and registration of land may be much less important than working to strengthen local institutions with responsibility for managing land rights and related disputes. The recent shift towards decentralising government has been valuable in getting land rights management much closer to the field.

This session will discuss the recent research-based knowledge on global land acquisitions, the scale and main affected countries and the factors which are behind these trends.

Towards a code of conduct?

The idea of developing an international code of conduct for land acquisition has been the topic of recent public debate. In June 2009, the United Nations proposed a minimum set of principles and measures based on human rights in the elaboration of large-scale transnational land acquisitions and leases.

These principles and measures are intended to assist both investors and host governments in the negotiation and implementation of large-scale land leases and acquisitions in order to ensure that such investments work for the benefit of the population, including the most vulnerable groups in the host country. The measures are grounded in principles of international human rights law – including the right to food, the right to self-determination of peoples and the right to development – and in international labour legislation.

A multilateral approach could avoid beggar-thy-neighbour policies, with countries competing against each other for foreign direct investment and lowering the requirements imposed on foreign investors in the process. It could also provide increased legal certainty for the investors and shield them from the risk of reputational losses if they comply with the principles.