Resources global
InfoPoint conference: Land Rights for Sustainable Development - The Role of Data
Having secure land tenure, ensuring people's confidence in accessing, controlling and utilizing their land, is crucial for promoting sustainable land management practices. It also plays a key role in building resilience against the impacts of climate change, including extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and increased desertification due to higher …
CFS 51 side event: Just transition or green grabbing? Land-intensive climate action and protecting the sustainable food systems of IPLCs
Large-scale commercial agriculture continues to replace agricultural practices of indigenous peoples (IPs), pastoralists, and smallholder farmers worldwide. At the same time, large-scale land deals for wind parks and solar farms take place in the context of global climate action. In addition, millions of hectares of land are required to meet …
Building together a Global Land Agenda high level event
If we want to achieve the SDGs, beat inequality, hunger and confront the climate crisis, the world needs to do more to secure land tenure and enhance access to land. If we want to achieve systemic change, we need to do it urgently and we need to do it more …
The carbon cost of agricultural production in the global land rush
Authors: Chuan Liao, Kerstin Nolte, Daniel G. Brown, Jann Lay, Arun Agrawal
Published: 2023
Source: Elsevier
This paper, co-authored by the Land Matrix's Prof Jann Lay from GIGA, makes use of a global dataset on large-scale land transactions (LSLTs) for agricultural production to estimate potential carbon emissions based on different …
Little progress in practice: Assessing transparency, inclusiveness and sustainability in large-scale land acquisitions in Africa
While acknowledging the progress made in terms of investment guidelines and land policy reforms at national and global levels over the last 10 years, the Land Matrix Initiative reveals staggeringly low compliance with these in Africa – an indication of the lack of change in investment and land governance practice. …
Land Matrix Analytical Report III: Taking stock of the global land rush
More than 10 years since the surge in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in developing countries which followed the spike in agricultural commodity prices in the late 2000s, the Land Matrix Initiative has taken stock of the “global land rush” and its socio-economic and environmental impacts in this, our third analytical …
Perfiles de País: Paraguay
Aunque Paraguay cuenta con una alta biodiversidad en sus seis ecorregiones, en las últimas cinco décadas el país perdió casi el 90% de la cobertura boscosa original de su territorio, debido a la expansión de las actividades agrícolas y ganaderas, en particular en la región del Chaco. Esta expansión generó …
Country profile: Paraguay
Although Paraguay boasts high biodiversity in all its six eco-regions, in the last five decades, it has lost almost 90% of its original forest cover due to the expansion of agricultural and livestock activities, particularly in the Chaco region. This expansion has also generated multiple conflicts over land tenure between …
Transparency for whom? Grounding land investment transparency in the needs of local actors
Author: Sam Szoke-Burke
Published: 2021
Source: Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment
Transparency is often seen as a means of improving governance and accountability of investment, but its potential to do so is hindered by vague definitions and failures to focus on the needs of key local actors. In a new …
Large-scale land acquisitions, agricultural trade, and zoonotic diseases: Overlooked links
Authors: Markus Giger, Sandra Eckert and Jann Lay
Published: 2021
Source: One Earth
A new commentary in One Earth highlights the link between large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs), deforestation, and emerging zoonotic diseases. Analysing Land Matrix data from 2,485 domestic and international large-scale agricultural deals, the authors found that 87% of …
Energy implications of the 21st century agrarian transition
Authors: Lorenzo Rosa, Maria Cristina Rulli, Saleem Ali et al.
Published: 2021
Source: Nature Communications
Large-scale land acquisitions for commercial agriculture and cash crops have been rising at an alarming rate worldwide. This research, using Land Matrix datasets, considers the hidden energy consumption and carbon impact of this "great agrarian …
Perfiles de País: Uruguay
Uruguay tiene más de 144 000 000 de hectáreas de tierra agrícola, que representan el 82% del territorio nacional, un porcentaje muy alto si se considera que el promedio de América Latina no supera el 40%2. En Uruguay, el proceso de apropiación y concentración de tierras es un fenómeno que …
Country profile: Uruguay
Uruguay has more than 144 million hectares of agricultural land, representing 82% of the national territory, a very high percentage compared to the Latin American average of less than 40%. Appropriation and concentration of land in Uruguay is a process that dates back to colonial times, and it has greatly …
Perfiles de País: Brasil
Brasil es el país más grande de toda América Latina y el quinto país más grande del mundo. Lamentablemente, el país también ocupa el segundo lugar a nivel mundial en términos de pérdida de bosques en las últimas dos décadas. Esta deforestación se asocia principalmente con la ganadería y la …
Perfiles de País: Argentina
Argentina, como el resto de América Latina y el Caribe (LAC), sufrió un intenso proceso de deforestación y pérdida de cobertura natural en las últimas décadas. Esto es importante a nivel regional y global, siendo Argentina el octavo país más grande del mundo, con una superficie de más de 2,7 …
Carbon emissions from the global land rush and potential mitigation
Authors: Chuan Liao, Kerstin Nolte, Jonathan A. Sullivan, Daniel G. Brown, Jann Lay, Christof Althoff and Arun Agrawal
Published: 2021
Source: Nature Food
Large-scale land transactions can promote agricultural intensification, but may be accompanied by negative socioeconomic and environmental consequences. Estimated carbon emissions from converting transacted lands to large-scale farms, …
Country profile: Argentina
As with the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Argentina has experienced an intense process of deforestation and loss of natural vegetation in the last few decades. As the eighth-largest country in the world, with a total mainland area of more than 2.7 million km squared, this not …
Country profile: Brazil
Brazil is the largest country in both South America and Latin America and is the world’s fifth-largest country by area. Sadly, however, the country ranks second-highest globally in terms of forest loss in the last two decades, mostly associated with cattle ranching and agriculture, as seen in the Amazon basin, …
Impacts of large-scale land acquisitions on common-pool resources: Evidence from the Land Matrix
Authors: Giger, Markus; Nolte Ward Anseeuw, Kerstin; Breu, Thomas Michael; Chamberlain, Wytske O.; Messerli, Peter; Oberlack, Christoph; Haller, Tobias
Published: 2019
We are pleased to announce that members of our very own Land Matrix team have authored a chapter in the newly released book The Commons in a Glocal World: …
Land Matrix Analytical Report I: Transnational land deals for agriculture in the Global South
Authors: Ward Anseeuw, Mathieu Boche, Thomas Breu, Markus Giger, Jann Lay, Peter Messerli and Kerstin Nolte
Published: 2012
This report draws on the Land Matrix database to analyse and better understand the phenomenon of large-scale agricultural land deals. It first provides a global overview and emphasises the indisputable reality of …
Land Matrix Analytical Report II: International Land Deals for Agriculture - Fresh insights from the Land Matrix
Authors: Kerstin Nolte, Wytske Chamberlain, Markus Giger
Published: 2016
This report aims to contribute to the body of knowledge available on land acquisitions in low- and middle-income countries by presenting an up-to-date analysis of the data contained in the Land Matrix database and providing complementary evidence based on case studies. …