Bringing more agricultural land into production for biofuels and food crops will be necessary if we are to both fulfill our collective climate initiative goals and feed an increasing global population. The direct competition between land for food and land for biofuels has resulted in increased interest in identifying 'marginal lands' such that biofuels can be grown on land that does not threaten the food security of poor, rural communities. The term `marginal land' is also used by developing state governments to describe large swaths of land being leased to private or state-affiliated investors in what has been referred to by the international research community as the 'global land grab'. 'Marginal land', however, is defined and operationalized differently across users and anecdotal evidence shows that some lands classified as marginal are actually used by local communities. Empirical studies investigating these contested lands have not incorporated spatial information. The main objective of this thesis is to conduct a multi-scalar, spatially-explicit exploration of the marginal lands narrative. The first chapter investigates the ontology of the marginal land label as it is applied on a global/regional scale using a meta-analysis of four recent studies. The second chapter triangulates national-level geospatial information with information from semi-structured interviews to examine marginal lands allocated to Ethiopia's federal land bank as contested spaces. The third chapter uses a statistical analysis to identify the socio-political and biophysical determinants of banked lands on a subnational scale in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia. Results show that methods using remotely sensed information to identify marginal lands on a global/regional scale are qualitatively and quantitatively divergent and are limited in their usefulness in identifying available land for biofuels. The Ethiopia case study finds that the federal government is banking 'marginal land' for future investment that is more appropriately understood as 'land unused for commercial agriculture' and that they are contested spaces where the federal government stands to incur multiple benefits through their transformation to large-scale agriculture. I also find both biophysical and socio-political factors (i.e. ethnicity, agricultural practices) guide the federal government's decision regarding which land to target in the subnational region of Benishangul-Gumuz.

Magister Philosophiae (Land and Agrarian Studies) - MPhil(LAS) / This thesis examines debates concerning large-scale land acquisitions in Kenya by looking at the case of the Dominion Farms Limited takeover of Yala Swamp. The case study illustrates actual practices of Kenya’s land governance system in terms of how large-scale land acquisitions take shape and their results on the ground. The study explores changes that have taken place at Yala Swamp from 2003 to 2013 and assesses them against the backdrop of recent and emerging land governance regulatory frameworks at national, regional and global levels. The study’s research methodology and data analysis reveal that the new large-scale land acquisition phenomenon has a historical dimension in that it perpetuates a continued legacy of land dispossession of local communities of the unregistered land thereby disrupting their livelihoods. This thesis contributes to a lively intellectual debate and literature on land governance by examining land issues from a governance and political economy perspective. Yala Swamp was chosen as a case study of large-scale land acquisition. The case shows how new land regulatory policies are being shaped and constrained by what is considered beneficial for foreign investment but not necessarily in tandem with local communities’ needs and expectations. This thesis is anchored on the assumption that land governance frameworks’ transformative potential depends on the extent to which they are able to address the structural factors that entrench continued poverty, food insecurity, gender inequality, environmental degradation and land conflicts. The thesis argues that initiatives that facilitate the corporate takeover of land and other resources from the poor in order to give to large-scale investors foreclose the smallholder agricultural space for future expansion. It further argues that an understanding of land reform processes from a governance and political economy perspective offers insight that could not only improve the design of land governance regulatory frameworks, but also provide pathways to support implementation.

No description available.

No description available.

The contemporary phenomenon of the global rush for farmland has generated intense debate from different actors. While the proponents embrace it as a "development opportunity", the critics dub it "land grabbing". Others use a neutral term: "arge-scale land acquisitions". Whatever terminology is used, one fact remains indisputable - since 2007 vast swathes of farmlands in developing countries have been sold or leased out to large-scale commercial farmers. Ethiopia is one of the leading countries in Africa in this regard and, as a matter of state policy, it promotes these investments in peripheral regions that are predominantly inhabited by pastoralists and other indigenous communities. So far, the focus of most of the studies on this phenomenon has been on its economic, food security and environmental aspects. The questions of land rights and political implications have been to a great extent overlooked. The purpose of this thesis is to contribute to this knowledge gap by drawing upon the experience of the Gambella regional state - the epicentre of large-scale land acquisition in Ethiopia. To this end, this thesis argues that large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia is indeed redefining indigenous communities' right to land, territories and natural resources in fundamental ways. By doing so, it also threatens the post-1991 social contract - i.e. ethnic federalism - between the envisaged new Ethiopian state and its diverse communities, particularly the peripheral minorities and indigenous ethnic groups. / Church Development Service (EED) now ¿Brot für Die Welt¿

Au Sénégal, depuis les années 2000, différentes politiques et programmes publics ont été menés sur le plan agricole par le régime d’Abdoulaye WADE (2000-2012) puis de Macky SALL (2012 à nos jours) dans le but, entre autres, de mieux ouvrir ce secteur au libéralisme dont ils se réclament. Cette volonté d’ouverture intervient dans un contexte national caractérisé par l’octroi de l’autonomie de gestion des ressources foncières aux collectivités locales depuis les réformes de 1996 et dans un contexte international marqué par une incitation des institutions financières internationales, la Banque mondiale notamment, à cette libéralisation dans un but affiché de modernisation du secteur agricole et d’accroissement de la production. En s’appuyant sur l’installation de deux entreprises agro-industrielles, Senhuile et West Africa Farms, dans la commune de Ngnith (région de Saint Louis), cette recherche analyse l’exercice de la gestion foncière décentralisée au sein de cette commune. Elle retrace les différentes étapes d’acquisition des terres par ces entreprises et le rôle des parties prenantes (Etat, entreprises agro-industrielles, communauté rurale puis commune de Ngnith, populations). Elle examine également les systèmes de production de ces entreprises ainsi que les impacts et risques multiformes de leur implantation. Les résultats obtenus, principalement par le biais d’entretiens semi-directifs et d’enquêtes sur les différents sites de localisation de ces entreprises, démontrent que la pratique actuelle de la décentralisation dans cette commune ne suffit pas à elle seule pour expliquer l’installation de ces entreprises. L’étude de ces processus révèle essentiellement la forte implication de l’Etat, malgré le transfert de cette compétence, le rôle déterminant d’une partie des populations dans ces processus ainsi que la complexité des stratégies d’acquisition foncière de ces entreprises à Ngnith. / In Senegal since the 2000s, different agricultural policies and public programs have been enacted by the regimes of Abdoulaye Wade (2000-2012) and Macky Sall (2010 to the present) with the goal of, among others, opening up the sector to more liberal policies that they have supported. This desire to liberalize comes during a national context characterized by reforms enacted in 1996 giving an increased autonomy to the local collectivities in their management of land resources. The international context was similarly marked by the international financial institutions, notably the World Bank, advocating similar liberal policies, pushing for the modernization of the sector and an increase in productivity. By examining the installation of two agro-industrial companies (Senhuile and West Africa Farms) in the commune of Ngnith in the Saint Louis region, this study attempts to reveal to what degree this commune exercises its decentralized land management responsibilities in this new context of liberalization. The case studies retrace the different steps in the acquisition of land by these companies and the roles of the different actors involved in this process (the State, agro-industrial companies, rural communities, the commune of Ngnith, local populations, etc.). The study also analyses the different modes of production of these companies as well as the impacts and multiple risks resulting from their establishment. The results obtained, principally through interviews and semi-structured surveys conducted near the different locations of these companies, have generally shown that the current practice of decentralization in this commune cannot alone explain the establishment of these companies. Rather, the analysis reveals a three-fold process: the strong involvement of the State despite transferring the authority to the commune, the decisive role of a part of the local population, and the complexity of land acquisition strategies used by the companies.

Die weltweit steigende Nachfrage nach land-basierten Rohstoffen erhöht stetig den Druck auf Land und Landnutzung, vor allem in ressourcenreichen Frontierregionen. Eine gegenwärtige Erscheinungsform dessen stellen Transnationale Landnahmen dar, die den Landnutzungswandel vorantreiben und die landbasierte Lebensgrundlage insbesondere der ländlichen Bevölkerung in vielen Teilen der Welt massiv bedroht. Ziel dieser Doktorarbeit ist es, ein besseres Verständnis der komplexen Prozesse zu schaffen, die Landnahmen befördern. Erstens untersucht sie die rezente Konjunktur des Bananenanbaus in der Provinz Luang Namtha, Laos, die von Chinesischen Investoren getrieben wird. Zweitens zieht die Arbeit das telecoupling Konzept heran und unterzieht es einer kritischen Diskussion in Bezug auf seinen Mehrwert für die Analyse räumlich entkoppelter sozioökonomischer und ökologischer Wechselwirkungen. Eine mehrmonatige ethnographische Feldforschung und deren qualitative Analyse stellen die Grundlage dieser Arbeit dar. Ausgehend von zwei Bananenplantagen in einer kleinen ländlichen Gemeinde fokussiert die Arbeit die Mechanismen und Prozesse, die die Bananenexpansion befördern. Das telecoupling Konzept dient als Instrument, um zu analysieren, welchen Einfluss die multiplen und ko-konstitutiven Interaktionen auf den Vorstoß des Bananenanbaus haben. Darüber hinaus verdeutlichen die tiefgehenden lokalitätsbezogenen Analysen die verschiedenen Kontexte auf, die dieses Wechselspiel spezifisch lokal verorten und gestalten. Die Fallstudie zeigt auf, wie die räumlich entkoppelten Beziehungen durch ein grenzüberspannendes Netzwerk chinesischer Investoren mit sozialen Verbindungen in die Provinz hinein, sowie auf den (chinesischen) Obstmarkt vermittelt werden. Außerdem stellt die Studie heraus, dass die Strategien der Investoren zur Landgewinnung und der daraus resultierende verheerende Landnutzungswandel einer Entfremdung der Dorfbewohner_innen ‘vom Boden’ gleichkommen. Durch die empirische, methodologische sowie konzeptuelle Auseinandersetzung mit dem telecoupling Konzept verweist die Arbeit letztlich auf den Wert qualitativer Analysen für die schwer greifbaren, ‚immateriellen’ Interaktionen sowie mögliche Feedbackmechanismen, welche Landnutzungswandel in einer globalisierten Welt bestimmen. / The global demand for land resources has increased the pressures on land, especially in resource-rich frontier regions. Transnational land acquisitions constitute one of these pressures that currently shape land use change and threaten land access and land-based livelihoods in rural areas. This thesis contributes to create a better understanding of the complex processes involved in such land acquisitions in two ways. First, it examines a recent boom in banana cultivation in Luang Namtha Province, Lao PDR driven by Chinese investors leasing land from Lao farmers and exporting the bananas to China. Second, it critically engages with the emerging telecoupling framework proposed in Land System Science as an analytical framework for dealing with distal causal interactions. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and using qualitative analyses, the thesis examines two plantations in a small village and traces the actors, mechanisms and processes driving the banana expansion. Using the telecoupling framework as a heuristic device, the study illuminates how multiple and co-constitutive economic, environmental, political and discursive interactions influence the banana expansion. Furthermore, the in-depth place-based analyses reveal how different contextual factors ground and shape these interactions in this particular location. In this case, the distal interactions are mediated through a cross-border network of Chinese investors with social ties in the local area, as well as in the fruit market in China. The study shows that the investors’ strategies to obtain access to the land combined with the resulting destructive land use conversion amount to an alienation of land from the villagers. By engaging empirically, methodologically and conceptually with the telecoupling framework, the thesis advances the discussion on telecoupling by demonstrating the value of qualitative analysis for capturing some of the more elusive and immaterial interactions, as well as potential feedbacks influencing land use change in a globalised world.