Land Grab Situation Out of Control

Is it a stampede, a gold rush, a swindle or massive exploitation? The plain fact is that no one knows what is going on with the land grab situation around the world.

Land grab transparency is a necessity. And Canada should be included as well. 

The World Bank issued a report in September, but according to grain.org, the WB got the basis of their information from Grain's own affiliate, farmlandgrab.org and then spent months sending researcers out in the field to examine the information gleaned from the pages of farmlandgrab.org.


"The veil of secrecy that often surrounds these land deals must be lifted so poor people don't ultimately pay the heavy price of losing their land," World Bank Managing Director, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, declared upon releasing the study. 

But Grain.org doesn't give the World Bank too much credit on that one:

It's true. And she could have started by making available to the public all of the contracts and investor-state agreements that the Bank's study team was able to access in the course of this research.

And over all, Grain.org calls the World Bank report "Smoke and Mirrors".


Among other recent land grab factoids: New Zealand recently scuttled (at least tempoarily) a Chinese takeover of its largest Dairy farm after a huge public outcry. New Zealand is planning to tighten controls on foreign land purchases.

But New Zealand is hardly among the most vulnerable countries. Many poor or developing countries, whether run by tin-pot dictators or just plain and simply desperate for cash, are easily persuaded to part with land in exchange for cash.

A "World Agriculture Investment Conference" held in London in September offered the following seminar topics and themes, among others:

* Identify the best agriculture opportunities from across the globe: Region by region case studies showing you the premium agriculture investment opportunities in Eastern Europe, Asia, South America, North America, Africa and Australasia
* Take advantage of agriculture investment strategies: Expert tips on the different ways you can get exposure to agriculture markets and the pros and cons of each investment strategy
* How your peers evaluate agriculture investment opportunities: Discover what a key investment group considers to be the ideal agriculture investment opportunity for a solid portfolio
* The practical side of agriculture investments: Proven techniques for selecting the right operator to manage your agriculture investment and how best to overcome cultural barriers
* Implications of regional policy, law and regulation: Discuss and debate local policy issues and the technicalities of differing legal structures and tax mechanisms to improve your investment decision making

There is also an increase in investment funds and pension funds getting in on farmland investments in the U.S.

With global population on the rise and tens of millions more hungry people today than there were just a few years ago, it is very tempting to buy into the notion of corporate ownership and management being more productive perhaps in a sense. But this comes at what cost? Displaced peasants and farmers, huge tracts of fertile land funneled into corporate holdings and planted with cocao, coffee, genetically modified rice or corn, ethanol crops... ...it might as well be jello trees.

Land Grab World Cup - 2010 - "Location Location Location"

Everyone is getting pretty excited about the World Cup eh? Despite some of the less than flattering press, the World Cup of Soccer, promises to be a bit of a coming of age party for South Africa. The nation of Nelson hosting the world. Cool.

What many people are not so aware of, is what is really going on in Africa these days. Other than an impression that consists of anarchy and pirates in Somalia, AIDS throughout, and maybe a bit of diamond trading, we just don't hear all that much about Africa.

Africa nowadays is all about three words: location location location. Or, expressed in one word, L - A - N - D.

The rush is on. The latest scam to make the news, Friday's story from the Financial Times about an alleged Merseyside-based swindle in which perps schemed to pay $2.5 M to Liberian officials in connection with land rights that they hoped would earn them over $2 B when the jungle was rented out for its carbon credit value. Apparently, included in the sweetheart deal - a clause that would have obliged Liberia to cover any shortfalls in the eventual revenue - LOL.

In short, the African real estate market is on fire as this burnt jungle scene in Sierre Leone attests:

   
Although the Liberia scheme involved a supposed jungle-saving premise, the vast majority of the land grabs are designated for industrial farms, whether for food, oil or other cash crops.

Like the infamous and eventually scrapped South Korean Daewoo plan to "buy Madagascar"... (actually a 99-year lease was attempted on a quarter of Madagascar's arable land).

There have been reports for a while of rich Middle Eastern oil kingdoms diversifying into land which would provide a source of food into the future. However according to a story in UPI, the land grab has intensified of late:

* China has leased almost 7 million acres in the Democratic Republic of Congo to grow palm oil
* one investment fund has reportedly leased as much as 2.5 million acres from a "warlord" in Sudan
* an estimated 125 million acres (double the size of Great Britain) has been acquired or is in negotiation throughout Africa
* Ethiopia alone has approved 815 foreign-financed agricultural projects since '07

Obviously, as this land is turned over into industrial farming, the resulting ecological and social consequences will be devastating.

As this phenomenon appears to be occurring throughout Africa, in so many different countries of unsure stability and governance, whose people speak in hundreds of languages, it is unclear even to what extent all of the deals could ever even be verified or quantified.

The only solution I could suggest, at least in terms of quantifying and tracking the problem, would be to establish a Land Grad Registry. You never know, someone might latch onto the idea and run with it...


Hope so...