Efter finanskrisen 2007–2008 blev jordbruksmark attraktiv som en investeringsmöjlighet, vilket innebar att många utländska företag, stater eller privata investerare förvärvade storskaliga områden av odlingsbar mark. Detta fenomen, som kallas för land grabbing, är särskilt förekommande i utvecklingsländer och det globala syd. Trots påståenden om att sådana investeringar kan bidra till utveckling och möjligheter i fattiga länder, visar forskning att det i själva verket har motsatt effekt. Syftet med detta arbete är att genomföra en litteraturstudie för att undersöka konsekvenser av land grabbing i Etiopien. En kvalitativ forskningsstrategi som består av litteraturstudie har använts. Med hjälp av aspekter inom teorier om försörjning såsom naturkapital, fysiskt kapital, mänskligt kapital, finansiellt kapital och socialt kapital samt tematisk analys har litteraturen analyserats. Resultatet visar att storskaliga land grabbing i Etiopien har en direkt påverkan på den lokala befolkningens försörjningsmöjligheter som undermineras genom förluster av mark samt tillgång till mark och viktiga naturresurser. Studien visar även att de utländska markinvesteringarnas hantering och produktion av bland annat kaffe, biobränsle, gruvdrift vidare har en negativ påverkan på miljön, biologisk mångfald och det lokala ekosystemet. Detta har resulterat i en matosäkerhet och socioekonomisk utsatthet bland befolkningen. Studien visar också att lokalbefolkningen inte inkluderas i beslutsfattande som rör deras mark och att de oftast inte får tillräcklig kompensation/ersättning för förlust av mark eller andra tillgångar, vilket tyder på brott mot mänskliga rättigheter. / After the financial crisis of 2007–2008, agricultural land became an attractive investment opportunity, which meant that many foreign companies, states, or private investors acquired large-scale land areas. This phenomenon, called land grabbing, is particularly prevalent in developing countries and the global south. Despite claims that such investment can contribute to development and opportunity in poorer countries, research shows it has the opposite effect. The purpose of this work is to conduct a literature study to investigate the consequences of land grabbing in Ethiopia. A qualitative research strategy consisting of a literature study has been used. The data was analyzed by using aspects of the livelihood approach such as natural capital, physical capital, human capital, financial capital, and social capital as well as a thematic analysis. The results show that large-scale land grabbing in Ethiopia has a direct impact on the livelihood of the local population, which is undermined through losses of land and access to land and important natural resources. The study also shows that the foreign land investments' management and production of, among other things, coffee, biofuel, and mining also harm the environment, biological diversity, and the local ecosystem. This has resulted in food insecurity and socioeconomic vulnerability among the population. Furthermore, the study also shows that local people are not included in decision-making concerning their land and they often do not receive sufficient compensation for the loss of land or other assets, which indicates violations of human rights.

No description available.

This thesis concerns the struggles related to a hydrosocial conflict prompted by the plan for hydropower development in the river Vjosa, Albania. Despite the controversial nature of hydropower, the quest for renewable energy has increased the interest in hydropower development globally. Renewables require a large amount of water, and the benefits are often reallocated to powerful players, which has caused concerns over water grabbing, power, justice, and rights. This study aims to examine the linked levels of contestation in the conflict over the hydrosocial territory of Vjosa, through legal and non-legal mechanisms. Further, the thesis uncovers underlying values and assumptions regarding the river and hydropower. For this purpose, the theoretical framework of political ecology and Echelons of rights are used. The echelons of rights are used to analyze the material, while political ecology is used as a lens for the overarching framework. The Political ecology lens on justice and territorialization contribute to enhanced understandings of the importance of social movements in contesting injustices and mismanagement of the environment. By interviewing social movements and domestic energy companies, as well as analyzing the environmental impact assessment, the results indicate that the understanding of the river and hydropower both differ and coincide, and how legal instruments do not only suppress people but can be used as a tool by social movements.

This study has the aim to analyze what impacts land grabbing in Rift Valley, Kenya, has on rural poor, as it is perceived from a gendered perspective. Land acquisitions, or land grabbing, is a growing global phenomenon, where companies and states (foreign and domestic) are claiming land for investments, to secure the growing demand for food and biofuels, with neg-ative impacts on the rural population. Most exposed are the rural poor women. The gender issue is however not analyzed in a proper way in the debate, which is why study is important.In Rift Valley, Kenya the situation is slightly different with domestic actors standing behind the grabs. The consequences are nonetheless felt by the rural poor population, especially by the women. Through field studies and interviews with women exposed to the phenomenon I have found that even though legislation exists to provide human rights, these are often violat-ed on the ground. Women’s experiences are examined and together with other first- and sec-ondary sources these are analyzed with the theoretical lens of post-colonial feminism and the capabilities approach, leading to the conclusion that women are more vulnerable for land grabs but are capable actors fighting to make their lives better.

The intertwined challenges of food insecurity, deforestation, and biodiversity loss remain perennial challenges in Ethiopia, despite increasing policy interventions. This thesis investigates smallholding farmers’ tree- and forest-based livelihoods and management practices, in the context of national development and conservation policies, and examines how these local management practices and policies transform the agriculture–forest mosaic landscapes of southwestern Ethiopia. The thesis is guided by a political ecology perspective, and focuses on an analytical framework of ecosystem services (ESs) and disservices (EDs). It uses a mixed research design with data from participatory field mapping, a tree ‘inventory’, interviews, focus group discussions, population censuses, and analysis of satellite images and aerial photos. The thesis presents four papers. Paper I investigates how smallholding farmers in an agriculture–forest mosaic landscape manage trees and forests in relation to a few selected ESs and EDs that they consider particularly beneficial or problematic. The farmers’ management practices were geared towards mitigating tree- and forest-related EDs such as wild mammal crop raiders, while at the same time augmenting ESs such as shaded coffee production, resulting in a restructuring of the agriculture–forest mosaic. Paper II builds further on the EDs introduced in paper I, to assess the effects of crop raids by forest-dwelling wild mammals on farmers’ livelihoods. The EDs of wild mammals and human–wildlife conflict are shown to constitute a problem that goes well beyond a narrow focus on yield loss. The paper illustrates the broader impacts of crop-raiding wild mammals on local agricultural and livelihood development (e.g. the effects on food security and children’s schooling), and how state forest and wildlife control and related conservation policy undermined farmers’ coping strategies. Paper III examines local forest-based livelihood sources and how smallholders’ access to forests is reduced by state transfer of forestland to private companies for coffee investment. This paper highlights how relatively small land areas appropriated for investment in relatively densely inhabited areas can harm the livelihoods of many farmers, and also negatively affect forest conservation. Paper IV investigates the patterns and drivers of forest cover change from 1958 to 2010. Between 1973 and 2010, 25% of the total forest was lost, and forest cover changes varied both spatially and temporally. State development and conservation policies spanning various political economies (feudal, socialist, and ‘free market-oriented’) directly or indirectly affected local ecosystem use, ecosystem management practices, and migration processes. These factors (policies, local practices, and migration) have thus together shaped the spatial patterns of forest cover change in the last 50 years. The thesis concludes that national development and conservation policies and the associated power relations and inequality have often undermined local livelihood security and forest conservation efforts. It also highlights how a conceptualization of a local ecosystem as a provider of both ESs and EDs can generate an understanding of local practices and decisions that shape development and conservation trajectories in mosaic landscapes. The thesis draws attention to the need to make development and conservation policies relevant and adaptable to local conditions as a means to promote local livelihood and food security, forest and biodiversity conservation, and ESs generated by agricultural mosaic landscapes. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2: In press. Paper 3: Submitted. Paper 4: Manuscript.</p>

A questão agrária em Minas Gerais é permeada por conflitos e por uma estrutura fundiária concentradora, cujas raízes encontra-se no processo de formação da propriedade privada da terra. Buscando compreender essa questão, a partir de uma leitura geográfica, analisei processos de divisão e demarcação de terras particulares, que tramitaram na antiga Comarca de Grão Mogol, no Norte de Minas Gerais. Esses processos tiveram amparo jurídico no Decreto Nº 720 de 05 de setembro de 1890 promulgado durante o Governo Provisório e insere-se no conjunto de medidas legais que permearam a transferência do controle das terras devolutas para os Estados. A divisão e demarcação de terras foi uma estratégia geopolítica utilizada pelas elites fundiárias locais e regionais para se apropriarem das terras públicas devolutas. Nas décadas de 1920 e 1930, quando tramitaram os processos de divisão e demarcação de terras no Norte de Minas Gerais, teve início a grilagem judicial que transformou grileiros em proprietários de terras. Esse processo desigual de apropriação privada das terras públicas envolveu a extração da renda fundiária, em diferentes contextos, que se somaram ao longo do avanço do modo de produção capitalista sobre as terras soltas, terras livres, de uso comum nos gerais. A partir da década de 1960, em decorrência de mais uma aliança entre o Estado e os rentistas (elites locais e empresas de plantio de madeira para produção de carvão para as siderúrgicas), através da SUDENE e RURALMINAS, na fração do território estudada, por meio de contratos de arrendamentos foram entregues mais de 500 mil hectares de terras devolutas a empresas, que desmataram o Cerrado e a Caatinga e invadiram as terras de morada, trabalho e reprodução da vida das famílias camponesas geraizeiras. O pacto rentista, segue em curso, com a territorialização dos monopólios das empresas monoculturas de árvores e de exploração mineral. Como consequência desse processo desigual e contraditório, iniciado com a adjudicação de terras na década de 1930, desdobrou-se a retaliação fundiária, conceito que utilizo para explicar dois movimentos: de um lado, realiza-se o confinamento das famílias geraizeiras em porções recortadas de terras alheias às suas práticas costumeiras de uso, submetendo camponeses ao trabalho nas carvoarias ou no plantio de eucalipto e até a expulsão de suas terras de morada. De outro lado, as lutas geraizeiras pela conquista e retomada de suas terras de uso tradicional, ao qual se somam as lutas territoriais indígena e quilombola. Esta tese também tem o propósito de evidenciar o embate dialético colocado entre o direito e o rentismo, a partir da análise da disputa também judicial pela autodemarcação do Território Tradicional Geraizeiro do Vale das Cancelas, abrangendo terras nos municípios de Grão Mogol, Josenópolis, Riacho dos Machados e Padre Carvalho, atualmente distribuídos na jurisdição das Comarcas de Grão Mogol, Porteirinha e Salinas, cujas terras têm sido alvo da prática da grilagem judicial e do processo de retaliação fundiária, iniciado com as ações de divisão e demarcação de fazendas, dentre as quais, algumas sequer existiram, mas que tiveram sua origem documental judicialmente legitimadas. / The agrarian issue in the state of Minas Gerais is permeated by conflicts and by a concentrated land structure, whose roots lie in the process of formation of private land property. Seeking to comprehend this issue, based on a geographic reading, i analyze procedures of division and demarcation in private lands, which were processed in the former Grão Mogol County, a northern city of Minas Gerais. These procedures were legally protect by the Decree nº 720 of September 5th, 1890 promulgated during the Provisional Government and is part of the legal measures that permeated the transfer of control of the vacant lands of Brazilian states. Land division and demarcation was a geopolitical strategy used by local and regional land elites to appropriate the vacant public lands. In the decades of 1920 and 1930, when processes of division and demarcation of lands in the North of Minas Gerais were processed, judicial land grabbing began, transforming grabbers in landowners. This unequal procedures of private appropriation of public lands involved the extraction of land income, on loose lands, free lands commonly used in general. Since the 1960s, as a result of a further alliance between the state and the renties (local elites and the timber companies for the production of coal for steel mills), through SUDENE (Superintendence of the Development of Brazilian Northeast) and RURALMINAS (Rural Institution of Minas Gerais), in the fraction of the territory studied, for in the middle of lease agreements, more than 500,000 hectares of vacant lands (terras devolutas) were delivered to companies that deforested the Cerrado and the Caatinga, and invaded the homestead, work and reproduction of the life of the Geraizeira peasant families. The rentier pact continues, with the territorialisation of the monopolies of companies of monoculture of trees and mineral exploration. As a consequence of this unequal and contradictory process, begun with the adjudication of lands in the 1930s, land retaliation was deployed, a concept that i use to explain two movements: on one hand, the families of Geraizeiras are confined in cut-out portions of Lands alien to their customary practices of use, subjecting peasants to work in charcoal or eucalyptus plantations, and even the expulsion of their land. On the other hand, the Geraizeiras struggles for the conquest and resumption of their lands of traditional use, to which are added the territorial struggles indigenous and quilombola. This thesis also has the purpose of evidencing the dialectical conflict between rights and rentism, from the analysis of the judicial dispute for the autodemarcation of the Tradicional Geraizeiro Territory of Vale das Cancelas, covering lands in the municipalities of Grão Mogol, Josenópolis, Riacho dos Machados and Padre Carvalho, currently distributed in the jurisdiction of the Counties of Grão Mogol, Porteirinha and Salinas, whose lands have been subject to the practice of judicial land grabbing and the process of land retaliation, initiated with the actions of division and demarcation of farms, among the which, some even existed, but had their documentary origin judicially legitimized.

<p>During 2008 we experienced an expansion of large scale investments in foreign farmland. This increasing trend has become a political hot-spot, but there is not much research available within the field. Due to a lack of research it remains a vital task to outline the potential effects of this trend. Drawing on existing ideas from some of the main actors within the field, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The World Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the latest G8 summit on agriculture, four main purposes are set out for this paper. First, to outline some of the underlying mechanisms behind the trend is considered crucial for the understanding of the nature of these investments. Second, this paper reviews how these actors’ deals with this trend in relation to one of the core objects in the field of Political Science, namely national sovereignty. Furthermore, this paper examines how existing ideas may affect the global vision of reaching a sustainable development and the global commitment to reduce poverty. Using key concepts of sovereignty, globalization theory, development theory and the green theory as a basis for comparison, this study reaches some interesting findings. Some of the key findings are;</p><p>- The actors, in the scope of this study, have a common understanding of the trend. Joint commitments and actions can therefore be expected from the international community.</p><p>- National sovereignty is not considerd when discussing the regulation of the trend. Furthermore, sovereignty is not equally distributed between rich and poor countries.</p><p>- Based on current ideas about development we will very unlikely be able to reduce poverty and at the same time reach the vision on a sustainable society. The two concepts are currently not compatible.</p>

During 2008 we experienced an expansion of large scale investments in foreign farmland. This increasing trend has become a political hot-spot, but there is not much research available within the field. Due to a lack of research it remains a vital task to outline the potential effects of this trend. Drawing on existing ideas from some of the main actors within the field, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), The World Bank, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the latest G8 summit on agriculture, four main purposes are set out for this paper. First, to outline some of the underlying mechanisms behind the trend is considered crucial for the understanding of the nature of these investments. Second, this paper reviews how these actors’ deals with this trend in relation to one of the core objects in the field of Political Science, namely national sovereignty. Furthermore, this paper examines how existing ideas may affect the global vision of reaching a sustainable development and the global commitment to reduce poverty. Using key concepts of sovereignty, globalization theory, development theory and the green theory as a basis for comparison, this study reaches some interesting findings. Some of the key findings are; - The actors, in the scope of this study, have a common understanding of the trend. Joint commitments and actions can therefore be expected from the international community. - National sovereignty is not considerd when discussing the regulation of the trend. Furthermore, sovereignty is not equally distributed between rich and poor countries. - Based on current ideas about development we will very unlikely be able to reduce poverty and at the same time reach the vision on a sustainable society. The two concepts are currently not compatible.

No description available.

The rush for land has escalated the last decade, with Sub-Saharan Africa as the most targeted region. Governments, local elites and foreign corporations are increasingly taking control over large areas of agricultural lands with the aim of creating higher financial returns and achieve food security. This phenomenon, known as land grabbing, has received a lot of attention worldwide, not least from non-governmental organizations and scholars stressing the negative impacts on rural farmers and families. Yet, several international organizations as well as many African governments keep advocating the positive effects that land grabbing can have on poverty reduction and economic growth. The dominating capitalist and neoliberal view on development, focusing largely on the economic part, undermines the social and environmental impacts that these investments bring. The purpose of this comparative study is therefore to examine, analyze and compare these impacts in Ghana and Ethiopia, two countries heavily affected by land grabbing. This is done through the lens of political ecology, where concepts such as environmental justice, accumulation by dispossession and sustainable rural livelihoods will be of particular significance. Based on a systematic literature review, the results show that land grabbing projects, said to aim at stimulating economic and social development, have resulted in dispossessions, injustices and environmental conflicts wherein indigenous communities have been deeply affected. Their traditional livelihoods, based mainly on cultivation, fishing, gathering and hunting, have been threatened by several impacts from the land grabs. These include loss of land, declined access to resources, damaged ecosystems, deforestation and lack of alternative ways to maintain food security.