Includes a broader view of the global land grab; Southern Africa: under-utilised and opening up for business?; biofuels everywhere, but not enough to eat; extractive industries: mining and forestry; reversals and state capitalism in Zimbabwe; the next Great Trek? South Africans head north; where is the food?; towards a typology; reflecting on these trends: what fresh insights?; conclusions.

This workshop brought together 75 delegates from governments, NGOs and research institutions and universities from all over Africa. Report covers consultation, process, legislation, tenure, titling, race in Southern Africa, donors, the World Bank, corruption, the future.

Land reform is one way in which the ‘new’ South Africa set out to redress the injustices of apartheid and, by redistributing land to black South Africans, to transform the structural basis of racial inequality. During the first decade of democracy, land reform has fallen far short of both public expectations and official targets. This article describes the progress of the programme and its changing nature.

Focuses on the reported social and environmental impacts of large-scale land transactions (LSLAs) in Africa, with a focus on West and Central Africa (WCA). Provides an analysis of 18 case studies that are among the best-documented LSLAs in terms of their impacts covering Cameroon, Ghana, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zambia. Impacts were classified into five groups: tenure, land governance process, economic and livelihood, human and sociocultural, environmental.

How should African politicians respond to the ‘land rush’? Parliamentarians from the member states of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) met in mid-November to debate this question. Includes a collective response to agriculture and food security is needed, what land deals are underway in Central Africa?; investment and production, but for which markets?; impacts of land deals on Africa farmers; can Africa help secure the world’s food supply?; transparency isa precondition for inclusive investments; what should be done?

Series of slides presented at a talk to the Royal African Society covering land tenure in Africa: common features; book outline; West Africa; land commissions, national land policies and land laws; implementation problems; Uganda Land Act 1998; land reform in South Africa 1994-9; tenure reform blocked in South Africa; conclusions; new approaches to land rights management; role of donors; Zimbabwe land invasions – different interpretations; Zimbabwe land chronology.

Includes patterns of land use in land reform; how land use is currently planned; livelihood impacts of land uses in land reform; dynamics in the commercial farming sector; international experiences; towards alternative land uses and livelihoods; conclusions; recommendations.

Offers a critique of Mugabe’s land grab in Zimbabwe and examines the contrast between it and developments elsewhere in Southern and East Africa. Attempts to categorise different situations within this area.

Land tenure reform policy has been affected by many different types of decentralization, but the literature has rarely explicitly addressed the implications of this. The paper provides a review of how the issues of decentralization are linked to land tenure reform in theory and practice. Begins with clarifying some key terms, then looks at contending perspectives on decentralization and how these relate to the UNDP’s pillars of democratic governance.

Includes tenure risk, conflict, and the path to prosperity, 2016 in depth: fear, violence and defence, communities face ever increasing criminalization and violence for practicing their traditional livelihoods and protecting their lands. Breakthroughs to scale: indigenous peoples and communities make major gains in protecting their land rights. Development finance institutions emerge as potential leaders on community land rights. Companies are slow to implement commitments and change business models.

Examines the impact of the recent farm invasions in Zimbabwe. The independence compromises forced on Zimbabwe (and Namibia and South Africa) implied the legitimation of a century and more of past white land grabbing which could only be changed with the consent of the beneficiaries of this past expropriation. But Mugabe has now torn up the old rules of the game and let the genie of redistribution out of the bottle, earning himself much popular support elsewhere in Africa and causing alarm to many governments and a hasty revision of existing plans for land reform.

A report on the Pan African Land Hearing held in Johannesburg on 15 August. Representatives of rural communities affected by land grabs in 9 African countries (Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe) presented testimony to a panel of experts, including the Pan African Parliament, showing how the theme of gender permeated every case.