Suchergebnisse

Natural resources are likely to become, over the 21st century, the focus of an intensified competition among different uses, competition triggered by the rapidly increasing demand for water, energy, food and minerals related to population growth and urbanisation, and by changing lifestyles and diets. The availability of any kind of resource has a strict dependence on land. This dependence is very high for agriculture and water, and very significant for energy and minerals. Land ownership and use adds layers of complexity in the nexus relating water, energy and food, which are the key pillars of human well-being and societal development globally. In global this context, it seems to be important to increase understanding of the converging global dynamics that have spurred a global rush for agricultural land in Africa, Latin America and parts of South-east Asia, which has intensified after the food price crises in 2007-2008, after many years of little investments in the agricultural sector. This trend is generally referred to as land grabbing and is characterised by purchases or long-term leases (which typically run for 50 to 99 years) of farming land by either private or public investors. In the first part of the thesis, I have reviewed the literature, explaining the drivers and the trends of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs). It is easy to see that the majority of such investments are targeting Africa continent. This because at the first sight the continent presents the most available land in the world ready to be cultivated. "Available", "degraded" and "underutilized", have became epithets in common usage among proponents of large-scale land acquisitions, rendering landscapes as commodities ready for the taking. Foreign and local investments offer crucial opportunities to recipients in terms of access to capital, technology and innovation, foreign market access and infrastructure development. However there are development risk associated with insecure property rights and land concentration. Hence, concern for the recent capital flows is linked to the likelihood that it may shift the path of agricultural development away from smallholder strategies, with the possible negative implications extensively discussed in the development and agricultural economics literature. In the following part, using a beta regression, I have investigated the determinants of land acquisitions for large-scale agriculture. Results confirm the central role of agro-ecological potential as a pull factor, and also that such investments in Africa are targeting forested areas. During the 1980 – 2000 period, more than half of the new agricultural land across the tropics came at the expense of intact forests, and another 28% came from non intact forests, raising concerns about environmental services and biodiversity globally. Intensive farming, which continues to increase, has resulted in loss of natural habitats and species living in them. Forest and mixed-use woodlands are often targeted by government for agriculture expansion in order to avoid the displacement of crop land. In the third part of my thesis, I have analysed the link between inequality access to land and growth, given that the large size of foreign and domestic capital flows in conjunction with state landlordism in Africa may result in a development path that is geared towards large farms and land concentration. The average size of a farm in Africa is 2.2 ha, namely a very small size if compared to investments in land that are at least 200 ha large. In order to analyse the above link I have used a meta regression technique to review the land inequality literature. A large literature on inequality and growth has firmly established a strong role of land inequality as determinant of income inequality, and the negative impact of land inequality on long term growth; long term analysis also clearly shows that inequality in asset ownership once established is very difficult to reverse. The policy implications are that smallholder or outgrower strategies should be encouraged also in a context of large-scale deals, the degree of legal protection of land rights is crucial, elements of land related corporate social responsibility could usefully integrate public regulation in the domain of protection of user's rights. In the last part, I have done a preliminary assessment of loss of carbon following the conversation of land use from forest to crop land. Converting a forest to crop-land, for example, for biofuels production can result in much more global warming pollution than the amount that can be reduced by the biofuels grown on that land. Thus, I have assumed that 30 per cent of such investments are happening on forest land, unfortunately the inaccuracy of localization data do not allow an assessment more precise.

This book examines large-scale land acquisitions, or

The study of land systems aims to disentangle and understand the range of interactions between humans and the land they use. It takes, among others, environmental, biophysical, economic, political, technological, and social perspectives to comprehend how coupled human-environmental systems work, who decides over them, and how they could or should be transformed. Land systems take a central position in human livelihoods and environmental issues, and are a crucial parameter in many Sustainable Development Goals. This thesis starts from the premise that land systems are increasingly changing in ways that are poorly understood from a conventional land system science perspective. Conventional land system science rests on assumptions of mostly gradual processes, driven by a somewhat narrow range of actors, such as family farmers or local land administrations. However, large-scale land acquisitions, arguably the most dramatic land system changes of the 21st century, are definitively non-gradual, operate at scales that are orders of magnitude larger than typical smallholder dynamics, and are instigated by an international group of actors with a very different set of priorities than traditional actors. Pejoratively known as land grabs, large-scale land acquisitions globally cover an area over double the size of Germany, yet as a process, they have not been introduced in land system change models. This lacuna is significant, not only because large-scale land acquisitions cover large areas, but also because they profoundly change the relation that humans have with land as a resource. For example, the conversion of swidden landscapes to rubber monocultures in Southeast Asia causes a significant loss of agro-environmental diversity, but also a complete overhaul of livelihoods, culture, tradition, diets, and more. Furthermore, the constellation of decision-making concerning land is changed, and therefore, the possibilities for sustainable transitions are different. Upon closer inspection, large-scale land acquisitions are merely the most visible manifestation of a more general trend of new actors, changing land systems at new scales. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a trend is being signaled of an emergence of medium-scale farms replacing smallholders, and, as a consequence, commercial agriculture replacing semi-subsistence agriculture. With limited empirical data, it is unclear whether this is an organically appearing structural transformation or an elite capture of land with similar characteristics as large-scale land acquisitions, nor is it clear what the potential consequences are for livelihoods or the environment. Even when farm scales are not perceivably shifting, decision-making concerning land is: value chain actors usurp some of the agency concerning land management from smallholders or state actors, for example by using contract farming. Land system science wishes to understand why land systems have the characteristics they have and change the way they change. To do so, new actors and new scales of changes can no longer be disregarded as mere aberrations. This leads to the overall objective of this thesis, which is to develop concepts and methods to integrate new actors and scales of agriculture into land system science. In pursuing this objective, four research questions are posed. RQ1: What are the land system characteristics related to new agricultural actors? RQ2: How can new agricultural actors, and associated scales of land system change, be integrated in land system models? RQ3: What are the objectives of new actors in agriculture and how do these objectives align or misalign with environmental or rural development objectives? RQ4: How do new actors and arrangements in agriculture provide opportunities for environmental management and rural development? I address these questions in six chapters. A summary of these chapters is given in the thesis.

Agricultural large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) is a process that is currently not captured by land change models. We present a novel land change modeling approach that includes processes governing LSLAs and simulates their interactions with other land systems. LSLAs differ from other land change processes in two ways: (1) their changes affect hundreds to thousands of contiguous hectares at a time, far surpassing other land change processes, e.g., smallholder agriculture, and (2) as policymakers value LSLA as desirable or undesirable, their agency significantly affects LSLA occurrence. To represent these characteristics in a land change model, we allocate LSLAs as multi-cell patches to represent them at scale while preserving detail in the representation of other dynamics. Moreover, LSLA land systems are characterized to respond to an explicit political demand for LSLA effects, in addition to a demand for various agricultural commodities. The model is applied to simulate land change in Laos until 2030, using three contrasting scenarios: (1) a target to quadruple the area of LSLA, (2) a moratorium for new LSLA, and (3) no target for LSLA. Scenarios yield drastically different land change trajectories despite having similar demands for agricultural commodities. A high level of LSLA impedes smallholders' engagement with rubber or cash crops, while a moratorium on LSLA results in increased smallholder involvement in cash cropping and rubber production. This model goes beyond existing land change models by capturing the heterogeneity of scales of land change processes and the competition between different land users instigated by LSLA.

It is based on a paper presented to the 1st Conference of Australian and New Zealand Economists in Melbourne, May 1970.

Due to current crises, large-scale land acquisition is becoming a topic of growing concern. Public data from the 'Land Matrix Global Observatory' project demonstrates that since 2000, 1,622 large-scale land transactions in low- and middle-income countries were reported, covering an area of nearly 69 million hectares. The majority of these land deals, also referred to as 'land grabs', took place between 2008 and 2010, peaking in 2009. It is widely assumed that emerging economies, in search for alternative ways to secure future food and fuel supply are the major drivers behind the global land rush. New evidence however reveals that local and national governments and elites are largely initiating and facilitating these land deals, mainly driven by Western investors in order to meet (renewable) energy and commodity demands in the nearby future. Large-scale land acquisition often goes hand in hand with issues of displacement, weak governance structures, corruption, conflicts, and environmental damages. Several international organizations have taken the initiative in developing global land policies on large-scale land acquisition in an attempt to govern the global land grab. The effectiveness of these so-called 'soft law' instruments is however increasingly being questioned. This paper therefore offers a comparative analysis on the effectiveness of global land policies on large-scale land acquisition, as developed by the European Union, the World Bank Group and consortium, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the African Union, embedded in a theoretical framework of effectiveness, soft law, and interrelations with transparency, accountability and legitimacy. Currently the FAO-CFS Voluntary Guidelines and the AU Framework & Guidelines are being implemented. The research is therefore focusing on the effectiveness of these two land policy frameworks. Evidence so far reveals that in practice global land policies on large-scale land acquisition can be problematic due to: 1) their 'voluntary character', 2) land deals are often initiated and facilitated by nationals (elites) and/or national governments, 3) (increasing) vulnerability of 'customary land rights', mainly due weak governance structures and shortcomings in the implementation of land reform policies, and 4) 'emptiness of consultations', hereby referring to the ineffectiveness of the Free, Prior and Informed Consent principles.

Since 2009 a partnership between CDE at the University of Bern, CIRAD, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, GIZ and ILC, has been systematically collating and verifying information on large-scale land acquisitions. This Land Matrix records transactions that entail a transfer of rights to use, control or own land through sale, lease or concession that are 200 ha or larger; and that have been concluded since the year 2000. The database is now the largest of its kind, and in 2012 will become publicly accessible. The data comes from a variety of sources that include media reports, reports by international organizations and NGOs as well as academic research including field-based research projects. These different reports are being sourced through the two most active Internet portals that deal with land transactions, www.commercialpressuresonland.org of the Land Portal operated by the International Land Coalition (ILC) and www.farmlandgrab.org operated by the NGO GRAIN. The database distinguishes four levels of data reliability. More specifically, a reliability ranking between 0 and 3 was introduced. - Reliability rank 0: Land transactions only reported by the press or other sources (typically from the internet) that have not undergone any process of verification. These transactions will be referred to as "only reported". - Reliability rank 1: Transactions reported by sources that are judged reliable, in particular transactions reported in research papers based on empirical evidence through field research, information on company websites (information on the main columns, such as: size, produce, year), as well as government records. - Reliability rank 2: Land transactions that have been checked by the Land Matrix Partnership through questionnaires submitted to organizations working in the host country - Reliability Rank 3: Deals where contractual agreements have been made publicly available. As the database matures, cases will be upgraded in terms of their reliability. To ease the presentation of the results, all cases with reliability ranking 1, 2 or 3, have been classified as 'reliable' (in opposition to 'only reported').

Abstract
ContextExamining land cover's influences on roadkills at single predetermined scales is more common than evaluating multiple scales, but examining land cover at the appropriate scale may be necessary for efficient design of mitigation measures, and that appropriate scale may be difficult to discern a priori. In addition, the taxonomic rank at which data is analysed may influence results and subsequent conclusions concerning mitigation.
AimsThe objective of the present study was to assess the influence of variation in spatial scales of land cover explanatory variables and taxonomic rank of response variables in models of wildlife–vehicle collisions (WVCs). Research questions include: (1) do the scales of land cover measurement that produce the highest quality models differ among species; (2) do the factors that influence roadkill events differ within species at different scales of measurement and among species overall; and (3) does the taxonomic rank at which data is analysed influence the selection of explanatory variables?
MethodsFour frequent WVC species representing diverse taxonomic classes, i.e. two mammals (Cerdocyon thous and Hydrochaeris hydrochaeris), one reptile (Caiman yacare) and one bird (Caracara plancus), were examined. WVCs were buffered, land cover classes from classified satellite imagery at three buffer radii were extracted, and logistic regression model selection was used.
Key resultsThe scale of land cover variables selected for the highest quality models (and the selected variables themselves) may vary among wild fauna. The same explanatory variables and formulae are not always included in the candidate models in all compared scales for a given species. Explanatory variables may differ among taxonomically similar species, e.g. mammals, and pooling species at higher taxonomic ranks can result in models that do not correspond with species-level models of all pooled species.
ConclusionsThe most accurate analyses of WVCs will likely be found when species are analysed individually and multiple scales of predictor variable collection are evaluated.
ImplicationsMitigating the effects of roadways on wildlife population declines for both common and rare species is resource intensive. Resources spent optimising models for spatially targeting management actions may reduce the amount of resources used and increase the effectiveness of these actions.