Large-scale land acquisitions in Madagascar: What rules govern them on the ground?

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In Madagascar, beyond the well publicized abandonment of Daewoo's huge agricultural project, large-scale land appropriations continue. Still, in contrast to other southern countries, a pro-smallholder land reform is ongoing, challenging the state-ownership of a large part of the country's land and legally recognizing local land rights. Set within the framework of the theory of access, this paper analyses how investors access land and what the regulations are. Investors both engage in formal procedures and establish informal land agreements. These two routes however ensure neither the identification nor the respect of the local landholders' rights. In order to capture the material and symbolic resources offered by the agribusiness project, central, regional and local governments generally grant an active support to investors but deliberately or not infringe upon land laws. At the same time, all the different levels of the state apparatus (central, regional and local government) find themselves competing over land control. This competition reactivates political stakes, sets aside the defence of local land rights and, in some cases, hinders investors' land access. As a consequence, some local landholders resort to violence to defend their rights, while without social recognition, the access to land for investors is far from guaranteed. The issue is not only to legally recognize local land rights, but also to really take into account their various interests and above all, local landholders' power over land control.