SWE-2012-143: Unintended implications of climate change policies - Large scale land acquisitions

General

Unintended implications of climate change policies - Large scale land acquisitions. Large scale land acquisitions (LLA) are rapidly becoming a controversial political issue, often allegedly driven by anticipations of climate change and/or as unintended effects of climate change policies. The current understanding of both drivers and implications are insufficient and there is an urgent to need to understand if LLA is detrimental or beneficial to local communities affected by land deals. The project will make use of new comprehensive datasets on global LLA in order to unravel the emerging patterns and to explore the drivers. We will also make an in-depth study of one of the prime targets of LLA, Ethiopia. Here we will analyse the role of relevant stakeholders (investors as well as public and private actors at the national and local level) and the implications for local communities affected by LLA, particularly the gender implications of changing access to land.