International investment treaties are an important part of the legal frameworks governing foreign investment. This report measures the extent to which they apply to agribusiness investments initiated as part of the recent wave of large-scale land deals in low and middle-income countries. It finds that 70% of ‘land grab’ deals worldwide are protected by at least one investment treaty. Public action to terminate, renegotiate or regulate land deals could expose states to the risk of treaty-based arbitration claims.

Section I provides an overview of large-scale land deals. It assesses the trend at a global level and examines structural obstacles faced by efforts to regulate such deals. Section II focuses on corruption as a major obstacle to improving the protection of local communities and indigenous peoples whose livelihood, identities, and traditional ways of life depend on the use of local lands and natural resources. This phenomenon is largely understudied because corruption, by its very nature, is hidden and therefore poorly documented.

The investigation of soya production in Central Mozambique presented here suggests small-scale farming can produce similar profits to large-scale operations and better social outcomes. Concentrating only on large-scale investments can mean forgoing opportunities for rural development and poverty reduction. With the right support, poorer households can develop market-oriented farming that contributes to local value chains at many levels.

Discusses agricultural investments in Mali. Analyses national trends in investment flows and patterns; assesses the adequacy of the legal and institutional framework regulating land and investment; and examines two examples of more inclusive investments. Findings provide ground for concern as to the preparedness of national frameworks to ensure that investment pursues sustainable development goals. Also provide insights on the potential and challenges of making more inclusive investment models work in practice.

Includes rising land acquisition in developing countries; threats and opportunities from large-scale land acquisitions; making a virtue of necessity: toward win-win policies; 5 tables of media reports on overseas land investments to secure food supplies, 2006-09.

Recent years have seen a new wave of large-scale acquisitions of farmland for plantation agriculture in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Less tangible changes are also taking place. In a globalised world, land governance is increasingly shaped by international law, developments in which law are shifting the balance between competing land claims and between private interests and public authority. International developments are also creating new spaces for contestation and accountability.

A practical guide to help governments negotiate contracts to reduce the harmful effects of large-scale land investments. Proposes model contract clauses that can fill gaps in domestic law and contribute to promoting more sustainable foreign agricultural investment. Based on more than 3 year investigation of 80 agricultural investment contracts. A proactive response to the land grab phenomenon that has plagued many countries in Africa and South East Asia in recent decades.

Report brings together the multiple legal strands that weave together and form the context of farmland investments and water rights. Farmland investments are about much more than simple commercial land transactions; they have great impacts on the amount of water available for local communities and other states. Demonstrates that water is a precious resource facing growing pressures from climate change, population growth and urbanization. The water abstracted to maintain production of large-scale commercial farming further exacerbates these strains and must be given due consideration.

Comprises notes from an informal meeting in Pretoria addressing the impasse on land reform in Southern Africa. The main focus is on overcoming problems and constraints, including on redistribution, tenure reform, the land rights of women, HIV/AIDS and donor support. Has sections on the viability of small-scale farms, post-transfer support, mobilising support for land reform, and proposed follow up. There are two main appendices; one on the status of land reform in each of the countries in the region, the other a matrix of current land issues in each country.

Over the last two decades, 200 million people across the world have been lifted out of hunger. But as climate change brings more frequent and severe weather shocks such as droughts and floods, and makes rainfall patterns less predictable, these gains are under threat, especially among Africa’s smallholder farmers. Agriculture is Africa’s biggest employer. But mean temperatures are expected to rise faster in the continent than the global average, decreasing crop yields and deepening poverty.

Includes current trends � levels of activity, crops and markets, sources of investment, contract transparency, geographical distribution; focus of existing discourse; land and security; weaving land into conflict narratives; risks; conclusion. Argues that access to accurate information about the extent and nature of large-scale foreign investment in Ethiopian and Sudanese land is extremely limited, so broader narratives of ‘land grabbing’ are a potentially misleading oversimplification.

Pastoral and agro-pastoral areas in eastern Africa and elsewhere have long been regarded as peripheries in economic terms and in terms of social and cultural accomplishments. Although biased perceptions of the ‘unproductive’ uses of pastoralism have become outdated, government policies still do little to formally recognise or integrate pastoral lands as critical parts of rural livelihood systems and economic development models.