The Land Matrix is an online public database that permits all users to contribute to and improve data on land deals, and for this data to be visualised. The visualisations offer both overviews of the data and complete access to the public database down to the level of an individual deal.

The Land Matrix facilitates the collection and representation of data; encourages citizens, researchers, governments, and companies to provide data and improve the quality of and access to data; and provides a regular and accessible analysis of trends.

You can explore data through multiple entry points, ranging from summaries that provide insight concerning the contents of the database, to direct access to the data for more in-depth exploration and analysis.

ILC (International Land Coalition) is global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations working together to promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building.

CIRAD (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement) is a French research centre working with developing countries to tackle international agricultural and development issues.

CDE (Centre for Development and Environment) is the University of Bern’s centre for sustainable development research. It was founded with the aim of fostering sustainable development-oriented research across various institutes and departments of the University of Bern.

The Land Matrix Project is financed by the internal resources of the partner organisations. It is also supported by Oxfam, SDC, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, BMZ and European Commission. Supporters are not responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained on this website.

What type of land deals are monitored?

The Land Matrix includes deals that are made for agricultural production (for food or agrofuel production), timber extraction, carbon trading, mineral extraction, conservation, and tourism. Deals included fulfil the following criteria:

• Entail a transfer of rights to use, control or own land through sale, lease or concession;
• Have been concluded since 2000, when the annualised value of the FAO real food price index was at its lowest level;
• Cover an area of 200 hectares or more;
• Entail the conversion of land from local community use or important ecosystem service provision to commercial production;

Procedures for building the database

Records are derived from a variety of sources that include information contributed through the Land Matrix website, media reports, reports by international and local organisations and NGOS and field-based research projects, company websites and government records. Sources are partly accessed through two active Internet portals dealing with land transactions: www.commercialpressureonland.org and www.farmlandgrab.org. Company websites and government records are also used where these are available.

Data is collated and entered into the relevant fields of the Land Matrix database. Each record is assigned a reliability code (See table below). Information is sought for over 30 fields for each deal, but for legal reasons only 8 fields are published at this stage. Where possible, data is distributed to partners in host countries for cross-checking. This may be achieved through personal interviews, direct personal knowledge of the transaction, or access to research that has not yet been published.

By using the crowdsourcing function of this website, any user is able to submit details on a deal. This information is cross-checked by the partnership before it is included in the database. Changes may therefore not be reflected immediately. Comments made on existing deals remain on the website, unless the deal is removed from the database

The following terminology is used on this website:

Land acquisition: refers to land that is acquired by purchase, lease or concession for commercially-oriented use.

Land deal: in this website, a deal is referred to as a land acquisition that meets the criteria defined under Methodology for Data collection. Deals for contract farming and failed deals are listed separately, and do not contribute to the aggregate data, as they do not meet these criteria.

Investor: refers to the individual, company or state agency that acquires land, including investment funds or for commercial production. This is not a comment on whether the ‘investor’ actually invests in the land or holds all or part of it for speculative purposes.

Target country: the country in which land is acquired for investment/acquisition.

Investor country: the country from which the investor originates, which is the same as the target country if it is a domestic investor. Investors may be private actors, governments or government-backed private actors. Where they are private actors, governments may not influence their operations nor do they necessarily benefit from them.

Contract farming: pre-agreed supply agreements between farmers and buyers for the supply of agricultural produce. Contract farming arrangements vary widely depending on countries, crops and companies, but generally do not involve acquisition by the external investor of the land under production. Deals involving contract farming are not included in the aggregate figures of the Land Matrix.

Failed deal: a deal which has been announced as under negotiation, but which has subsequently been announced as cancelled or the size of transaction has been revised. Although negotiations may continue, the deal remains classified as a failed deal until such time as there may be an alternative outcome. Failed deals give an indication of the extent of interest in land acquisition, but are not included in the aggregate figures of the Land Matrix.

Please note that while every effort is made to ensure accuracy, The land Deals Matrix partnership and the Land portal do not warrant that all the information on this website is complete or accurate. We invite comments on the accuracy of data displayed. The information is inherently subject to change without notice and may become dated.

Only records and fields that have been subjected to the error-checking process as described under methodology are publicly available on this website. The error-checking process has confirmed that data in the Land Matrix are correct according to the sources given for each record. Whilst the Partnership endeavours to ensure that all errors have been corrected, some may still remain due to human error, source error or changing circumstances. We welcome and encourage the submission of any information that can help improve the accuracy of our records. If you notice inaccuracies, dead website reference links or have more information, please contact us using the links provided.

For Terms and conditions of use, please refer to the Land Portal http://landportal.info/page/terms-and-conditions-use. Data is made available for users under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

How reliable is the data?

Land deals are notoriously un-transparent. In many countries, established procedures for decision-making on land deals do not exist, and negotiations and decisions do not take place in the public realm. Furthermore, various government agencies and levels of government are usually responsible for approving numerous kinds of land deals. Even official data sources in the same country can therefore vary, and none may actually reflect reality on the ground. Decisions are often changed, and this may or may not be communicated publically.

The scope for error in tracking land deals is high. While a rigorous procedure is followed in the collection and checking of data in the Land Matrix, errors are inevitable. The Land Matrix is not intended to be an error-free database. It is rather a tool that facilitates an on-going discussion on land deals that, through crowdsourcing and continued research, will contribute to the continual improvement of the dataset.