What Is ‘Land Grabbing’

Abstract

This part offers a positive analysis of the research subject, LSLIs, in order to elucidate its most relevant characteristics. We will include descriptive elements that allow us to understand the incentives for economic actors who invest in land. There are two main sub-parts in this section. The first offers an expanded and more comprehensive definition of land grabbing, which was briefly introduced in the last section. It is necessary for us to be able to clearly distinguish between the concepts of LSLI and land grabbing. Although the main focus of the analysis is legal aspects, additional elements must be considered in order to develop a broad understanding of the phenomenon and to elaborate a functional analysis. To this purpose we briefly analyse the historical aspects of land interests in sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis encompasses a comparison, at a macro level, of the land situation before and after sub-Saharan independence. Of course it is not possible to cover all the specific land policy issues of every country in the region; our goal is to give a general overview. Our emphasis is on: (1) policies concerning property rights to land; (2) the design of new competition structures through the creation or restructuring of land markets; and (3) the relevance of land policies in which IOs have played an important role. Based on these aspects we justify the need for new agrarian policies. The section concludes by analysing the bargaining power and level of participation of the local population in the design and performance of agrarian policies, which are seen as essential elements to relieving poverty and promoting development.