This issue brief highlights the roots of land grabbing experienced in the aggrieved communities in seven countries. It also features the importance of advanced smallholder agriculture and local food industry, broadened land rights movement, and strengthened land governance in promoting the rights of the farmers.

This publication compiles land grab cases documented by LWA partners in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Philippines. The cases highlight how farmers, women, and indigenous peoples have been displaced from their lands; and how ecosystems have been destroyed, food security undermined and livelihoods lost. This publication also features the recommended principles of responsible agricultural investment (rai) governing land investments in the Philippines recognizing the importance of farming and fishing communities in the country. 

Implication of Increasing Land Value on Land Tenure Security: Experiences from Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust, Uganda

Implication of Increasing Land Value on Land Tenure Security: Experiences from Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust, Uganda

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court ("ICC" or the "Court"), Fatou Bensouda, today, published a detailed policy document which provides guidance on how the Office of the Prosecutor exercises its discretion in the selection and prioritisation of cases.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: In the last decade it has become widely accepted that insecurity of land tenure has a unique impact on women, particularly in the global South where, more often than not, women are the primary caregivers in a household. In Cambodia, where land conflict continues to be one of the most prevalent human rights issues in the country, this assertion deserves particular consideration.

This article examines changing contexts and emerging processes related to “land grabbing”. In particular, it uses the case of Laos to analyze the driving forces behind land takings, how such drivers are implied in land policies, and how affected people respond depending on their socio-economic assets and political connections.

ABSTRACTED FROM OPENING PARAGRAPHS: Land confiscation is one of the leading causes of protest and unrest in Burma, having led to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of people in recent years. It also undermines Burma’s fragile peace processes. The 2008 constitution and subsequent laws are used to legitimize arbitrary land confiscation, deny access to justice, and perpetuate an environment of impunity.

ABSTRACTED FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Half a decade into the global land rush, land-intensive investment throughout Southeast Asia continues to confront social and environmental issues such as land conflict and improperly regulated forest conversion. This study uses publicly available financial and spatial data to examine the geography of land-intensive investment in Southeast Asia, and to identify the limits imposed by problems with data availability.

FIRST PARAGRAPH: The historical weight of the political culture of development in Burma – now more commonly referred to as Myanmar – must not be discounted during the democracy-neoliberal reform era. National development discourse and practice in Myanmar has combined elements from monarchical patronage and military authoritarianism after decades of ruling military dictatorships where the military-state ‘knows best’ for its people.

In 2008, three sugar companies were awarded nearly 20,000 hectares of Economic Land Concessions (ELCs) in Oddar Meanchey province. The new research finds that associated land grabbing totaling more than 17,000 hectares has affected more than 2,000 families. Of these, 214 families were forcibly evicted. Meanwhile, at least 3,000 hectares of the misappropriated land has been used for logging rather than sugar plantations, according to the report, ‘Cambodia: The Bitter Taste of Sugar’, commissioned by ActionAid and Oxfam GB.

Successful development experiences have demonstrated the greater efficiency achieved with a growth strategy based on small and medium-scale farmers (SMFs). This study is sought to identify potential agribusiness models for enhancing inclusive growth through NGOs partnerships with SMFs in Myanmar. The paper illustrates that agricultural sector in Myanmar is characterised by already high land inequality and landlessness, and low productivity of most SMFs.