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 influenced the current structure of land ownership. In recent decades, the participation of financial capital in the land market has intensified the concentration process, favoured its foreignisation, and led to situations of outright land grabbing. Of note, however, unlike in other regions of Latin America and the world, land grabbing processes in Uruguay have generally not been associated with forced displacement or exclusion of the former owners of the land.

This country profile presents a detailed description of LSLAs in Uruguay based on data extracted from the Land Matrix website using regional filters. In certain cases, deals meeting different criteria to the global database were included, in particular those with a domestic scope. Deals for agricultural, forestry, and many other intended purposes were included, but those for gas, oil, and mining operations were excluded. It is important to note, therefore, that applying different filters on the Uruguay country page may generate a different data set to the one used for this country profile.