Land grabbing

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Land grabbing is a term for the (partly illegitimate or illegal) appropriation of land, in particular agricultural land or agriculturally usable areas, often by economically or politically assertive actors. Land grabbing can be carried out by residents or foreigners, by small farmers or large corporations, by government employees or private individuals, investors and financial experts. The German term Landraub also exists for the illegal form .

In the past few years, business transactions in the German-speaking area were criticized as "land grabbing" in which governments or companies in foreign national territories - v. a. in developing or emerging countries - acquired large estates. Even the - legally not objectionable - purchase of large estates in East Germany is referred to as land grabbing in popular articles.

In part, the investments in (agricultural) land are intended to help secure food supplies. Often, however, it is only about the more profitable production of food or other agricultural goods for sale on the world market or about land speculation.

history

One of the most historically significant land appropriations in recent history occurred in the 19th and early 20th centuries in what is now the United States of America . In various phases peasant settlers, but also speculators and industrial buyers on a large scale, acquired millions of hectares of land. The basis was u. a. the Homestead Act of 1862. Since around the beginning of the 1930s, research has been carried out into the extent to which this could have been an at least illegitimate appropriation - in other words , land grabbing .

Illegal land appropriation was recognized as a serious problem in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh in the early 1980s. In 1982 the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act was passed. The illegal appropriation of land, no matter where and by whom, is a criminal offense. The often violent appropriation of land is also a common phenomenon in neighboring Bangladesh , which mostly originates from influential residents.

In the past few decades, land acquisition in developing countries was primarily shaped by private profit motives. Most of the time, the focus was on high-quality agricultural export products (see also Cash Crops ), not on the production of basic foodstuffs. Governments later began to acquire land abroad, this time with the aim of securing the food supply for their own population, especially since the food price crisis in 2007-2008 , or to cultivate renewable raw materials for the production of biofuels . Above all, countries with scarce land and water resources and sufficient capital, such as B. the Gulf States and (until the overthrow) Libya , are now major players in this market. There are also countries with large populations such as China , South Korea and India . Investments are mostly made in developing countries with low production costs and less scarce land and water resources.

In addition to the public debate about the acquisition of large land by states and large companies in Africa, it is occasionally emphasized that land grabbing in Africa is not only carried out by state actors and foreign investors, but has meanwhile become everybody's business .

Foreign land acquisition in developing countries

Examples

In November 2008 it was reported that Libya had acquired 250,000 hectares in Ukraine . In January 2009 it was announced that Qatar had acquired 40,000 hectares in Kenya . According to media reports in January 2010, China is said to have acquired 2.8 million hectares of land in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in order to build the world's largest oil palm plantation , while Ethiopia had already leased 600,000 hectares of land to foreign investors by the end of 2009. In Madagascar, negotiations with Daewoo Logistics Corporation to purchase 1.3 million hectares of land to grow corn and palm oil plantations are believed to have played a role in the political conflict that led to the fall of the government in 2009 .

The international development organization Oxfam estimates that over 220 million hectares of land in developing countries have been bought or leased by foreign investors since 2001. The big problem here is that acquired land very often remains unproductive because legal framework conditions hinder cultivation.

Land grabbing as a factor in forest loss

Forest loss is one of the great problems facing mankind. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, this is caused , among other things, by poverty , land grabbing and strong population growth in the affected regions.

evaluation

The agricultural economist Harald von Witzke believes it is fundamentally right that investments are being made in poor countries, since agricultural productivity must urgently increase and new agricultural land can hardly be developed. Foreign capital enables technology transfer and access to new markets. The disadvantage for the investors is that their contracts could lose their validity due to insecure property rights in the event of a change of power. According to a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Food , Olivier De Schutter , large-scale investments can contribute to realizing the right to food if some institutional conditions are met, such as information, consent and involvement of the local population. The education and health sectors as well as the labor market in the countries concerned can also benefit from the investments. According to Joachim von Braun ( IFPRI ), land acquisition in developing countries has the potential to bring urgently needed investments into agriculture and rural development. On the other hand, there are concerns about the impact on poor people whose access to land is at risk.

Hans-Heinrich Bass (Institute for Transport and Development, Bremen) points out that the land leased by governments is often not a no-man's land, but part of traditional land-use systems for which there are seldom enforceable property rights . Often there is insufficient compensation and less space is available to meet local needs. Water use can also become a problem if the surrounding regions receive less water. According to Jacques Diouf , Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the question arises whether such developments do not lead to some form of neo-colonialism .

According to the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies , initial research suggests that foreign large-scale agricultural investments are both positive, e.g. B. important agricultural investments, as well as negative effects such as lack of access rights to land for the affected region and its population. Therefore, neither an exclusively positive assessment nor a fundamental rejection of foreign agricultural investments makes sense. Rather, the framework conditions on which foreign agricultural investment is based, such as the transparency of procurement practices, are important elements.

See also

reception

Movie

  • Land grab , director, production: Kurt Langbein (Austrian filmmaker, science journalist and TV producer), 95 minutes, cinema documentary

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. deutschlandfunk.de
  2. Deutschlandfunk January 16, 2014: Agriculture. East German farmers fear for their land
  3. Deutschlandfunk January 17, 2014: Landgrabbing. East German agriculture is sold out
  4. Deutschlandfunk August 31, 2018: Land grabbing in East Germany. The fight for the last free hectare
  5. jura.uni-tuebingen.de
  6. A. Sakolski: The Great American Land Bubble: The Amazing Story of land-grabbing, speculation and boom from Colonial Times to the Present Time. Harper & Bros., New York 1932.
  7. Fred W. Kohemeyer: Homestead Centennial Symposium. Lincoln, Nebraska 11-14. June 1962. A Report of the Proceedings. Agricultural History 36 (4): 122-136 (especially p. 124: Report on a paper by Paul Wallace Gates)
  8. ^ Official text of the Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act of Andhra Pradesh of 1982
  9. M. Q. Zaman: Social structure and process in Char Land settlement in the Brahmaputra-Jamuna floodplain . In: Man, New Series . tape 26 , no. 4 . Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, London December 1991, p. 673-690 , JSTOR : 2803775 (English).
  10. a b c d e f Joachim von Braun and Ruth Meinzen-Dick: "Land Grabbing" by Foreign Investors in Developing Countries: Risks and Opportunities. (PDF; 432 kB) In: IFPRI Policy Brief April 13 , 2009, p. 1 , accessed on April 15, 2011 (English).
  11. ^ Sara Berry: Debating the land question in Africa. In: Comparative Studies in Society and History. 2002, JSTOR 3879518 .
  12. Joan Baxter: Like gold, only better. Big dividends on Africa's soils. In: Le Monde diplomatique. January 15, 2010, accessed on April 14, 2011 (from the English by Niels Kadritzke).
  13. Oxfam: Land and Power: The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land. Retrieved July 16, 2015 .
  14. Welthungerhilfe: Why land grabbing is harmful. Retrieved May 19, 2020 .
  15. ^ Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. 2012. Millennium Developmental Goals - Goal 7. Ensure environmental sustainability - national forrest assesements
  16. Judith Lembke: Investors love the land. in: FAZ.net, July 18, 2011.
  17. Large-scale land acquisitions and leases: a set of core principles and measures to address human rights challenge. (PDF; 276 kB) UNHR, June 11, 2009, accessed on May 10, 2011 .
  18. ^ Hans-Heinrich Bass: International investors for Africa's agriculture - solution for food security? (PDF; 375 kB) In: Kurier am Sonntag. Retrieved October 16, 2011 .
  19. Roy Laishley: Is Africa's land up for grabs? Foreign acquisitions: some opportunities, but many see threats. In: African Renewal Online. United Nations , accessed on May 1, 2011 (from Africa Renewal, October 2009, p. 4).
  20. Jann Lay, Kerstin Nolte: New "Land Grab" in Africa? ( Memento from July 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 478 kB) Focus 1/2011 Editor: GIGA - German Institute of Global and Area Studies - Leibniz Institute for Global and Regional Studies, Hamburg, pp. 1–2, 7th
  21. landraub.com
  22. Badische-zeitung.de , October 6, 2015, Gabriele Schoder: Der Ausverkauf der Erde