Abstract
As a result of rising global food and energy insecurity, investors are increasingly seeking new opportunities in tropical developing countries endowed with comparatively cheap and abundant land resources. Predominantly targeting the agriculture and forestry sectors, these investments could make valuable contributions to the economies of developing countries. However, with most investors opting for plantation-oriented business models, in the context of weak governance regimes within many host countries, many fear that these investments may instead exacerbate socio-economic vulnerabilities and processes of environmental degradation. Therefore, there is a need to explore alternative upstream business models that are more inclusive of the poor and are more aligned with emergent green growth objectives. This systematic map aims to contribute to this debate by cataloging empirical studies conducted on the sustainability of different upstream business models in the agriculture and forestry sector (e.g. involving the cultivation of raw materials). The mapping will offer an overview of the type and quantity of research conducted to date, remaining knowledge gaps, and areas warranting a systematic review. Searches will be conducted of both academic and grey literature by employing search strings that have been iteratively tested for comprehensiveness. Studies retrieved in the searches will be screened using pre-defined inclusion criteria and coded across a broad range of study characteristics. Inclusion criteria include, for example, type of business model employed, social, economic, and environmental impacts, and study design (e.g. generation of new empirical evidence). The outputs will be a database of included search results and a systematic map offering descriptive statistics and narrative assessment of the state of the evidence base in this topic.
Highlights
As a result of rising global food and energy insecurity, investors are increasingly seeking new opportunities in tropical developing countries endowed with comparatively cheap and abundant land resources
As a result of inadequate statutory protection of customary tenure systems, traditional livelihood activities could be displaced without adequate redress, which in turn could adversely impact on the food and income insecurity of vulnerable societal groups [12,13,14]
Methods used in the development of the systematic map are adapted from the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) systematic review guidelines [24], other systematic map protocols [26,27,28], and the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) systematic mapping guidance [25,29,30]
Summary
The inclusion of these limiters may lead to the exclusion of relevant literature – for example, since some abstracts and keywords neglect to specify their geographic scope – no such cases could be identified through the testing of search strings. This has significantly widened the scope of the search and may lead to the inclusion of large numbers of irrelevant results, it will enhance the probability that most relevant articles are included. Relevant intervention/exposure: Studies will focus on one or more business models for investment in the agricultural, biofuel, and forestry sector in tropical developing countries This will typically include, but may not be limited to, outgrower schemes, tenant farming schemes, nucleus-plasma schemes, farmer-owned businesses, joint ventures, management contracts, and plantations. Publication type e.g. peer-reviewed journal article, non peer-reviewed journal article, conference paper, working paper, thesis, book, book chapter
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