Land Concessions Research Articles

Exploring local people's views on the livelihood impacts of privately versus community managed conservation strategies in the Ruvuma landscape of North Mozambique-South Tanzania

It is broadly acknowledged that natural resources conservation strategies affect the livelihoods of local communities. Moreover, evidence suggests that these livelihood impacts, in turn, can influence conservation achievements. Yet, what constitutes a conservation strategy that communities perceive as acceptable and thus they would be willing to commit to over time remains poorly understood. This study explores the perceptions of communities regarding the effects of two different conservation strategies in the Ruvuma landscape: governmental land concessions and licenses to private tourist operators in North Mozambique, versus community-managed protected areas supported by NGOs in South Tanzania. The study engages communities in a series of semi-structured discussions about natural resource use, impact of the conservation strategies on their livelihoods, pressures on natural resources, and ways to address such pressures and reach an acceptable conservation strategy, from a community perspective. Our findings suggest that communities perceive as non-affordable current opportunity and damage costs in subsistence agriculture. A strategy integrating improved agricultural production, common use of the forest managed by communities, and joint ventures between communities and private companies for getting more benefits from trophy hunting are identified as acceptable.

Agricultural Investments and Farmer-Fulani Pastoralist Conflict in West African Drylands: A Northern Ghanaian Case Study

In the Global South, there is a push to drive agricultural modernisation processes through private sector investments. In West African drylands, land concessions are required for such agri-businesses are often negotiated through customary authorities, and inject large amounts of money into localised rural systems with low cash bases. The article argues that such transactions serve to increase area under crop cultivation on an inter-seasonal basis, as financial spill-overs allow for farmers to purchase larger quantities of agricultural inputs and prepare larger tracts of land. Simultaneously, such direct and indirect cash flows also result in larger local herd sizes and an increase in the number of locally-owned cattle, as cash is exchanged for cattle, largely regarded as an interest-accruing, savings buffer. Larger herd sizes, in turn, attract Fulani pastoralists in search of employment as contracted herders for local cattle owners. Taking Integrated Water and Agricultural Development (IWAD), a private sector, large-scale irrigation initiative in northern Ghana as a case study, the article argues that there is an inevitability of the pathway, which leads from large-scale land acquisitions in West-African drylands, to an increase in conflict (and/or the risk thereof) between sedentary and Fulani pastoralists.

Land concessions and rural youth in Southern Laos

This contribution explores the perspectives of Laotian rural youngsters in the context of a major agrarian transformation, in which large monoculture plantations have permeated both the physical landscape and the daily lives of people. The study uses concepts from agrarian and youth studies to help us understand the lived experiences of being (or ceasing to be) a young farmer in rapidly changing agrarian structures. Based on ethnographic research in the province of Champasak, the study analyses how young people’s aspirations of a ‘better life’, either verbally expressed or enacted through other media, play a role in the way they understand and cope with outcomes of livelihood change vis-à-vis more powerful actors, including their parental households. Although young people’s aspirations reflect a desire for a rural modern life, which may include smallholder farming, there is a material impossibility to acquire or inherit farmland. In addition, subjective meanings around the idea of ‘being young’ unveil a push for salaried work (off-farm), which more rapidly fulfils the need for autonomy and peer identification. Land concessions for rubber and coffee plantations, which predominantly target young labour in the studied sites, have become a source of such salaried work, but not without major constraints and exploitative situations for the majority.

‘We are not afraid to die’: gender dynamics of agrarian change in Ratanakiri province, Cambodia

Dramatic changes have subverted the socially, culturally and resource-rich systems of indigenous communities living in Ratanakiri province. These changes include the incursion of market-based economy and commodification of land, the alienation of land and natural resources by way of economic land concessions (ELCs) and the inflow of large number of migrants from other regions and countries. Their cumulative impact has affected indigenous communities’ agrarian practices, their livelihoods and their system of beliefs and way of life, with important repercussions on social differentiation and gender relations. Based on fieldwork carried out in Ratanakiri province, this contribution analyses how emerging capitalist relations are shaping shifting gender relations and creating hierarchies of power that risk marginalising indigenous women and girls and eroding spaces of recognition, autonomy and agency they once had.

Land Concessions and Rural Livelihoods in Mozambique: The Gap Between Anticipated and Real Benefits of a Chinese Investment in the Limpopo Valley

In rural Mozambique, as in other African countries, large-scale land acquisitions are on the rise. This process is usually portrayed by host governments and investors as comprising win–win deals that can simultaneously boost agricultural productivity and combat poverty. This article focuses on one such investment, a large-scale Chinese land acquisition in the lower Limpopo valley, where attempts to modernise agriculture have occurred since colonial times. Based on an analysis of primary quantitative and qualitative data, this study explores livelihoods in the targeted area and local experiences and views regarding land loss and its implications. Our findings reveal a top-down process enabled by disregard for sound legislation, whereby land dispossession was followed by ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ opportunities that were unsuited to the most land-dependent livelihoods, particularly those of single-headed households. As the modernisation of the region is once again attempted through the promotion of large-scale agriculture, important historical continuities prevail. This study adds critical evidence to the discussion on the local development potential of land deals in Mozambique and other areas marked by similar democratic deficits.

Operationalizing a land systems classification for Laos

Land cover data is widely used for the design and monitoring of land use policies despite the incapability of this type of data to represent multiple land uses and land management activities within the same landscape. In this study, we operationalized the concept of land systems for the case of the Lao PDR (Laos). Distinct land systems like shifting cultivation and plantations (land concessions) cannot be fully captured by land cover inventories alone, in spite of their relevance for land use policies. Using a decision tree and a matrix approach, we integrated several datasets for the period 2010/11, including land cover, an agricultural census and a land concession inventory. We selected thresholds for distinguishing land systems based on an expert survey. The resulting 17 land systems cover the whole territory of Laos and represent landscapes of 2×2km pixel size. The largest area is occupied by smallholder agriculture land systems intertwined with forests. Only 27% of the territory are agriculturally undisturbed, dense forest systems. The assessment can serve as a basis to identify areas that could change shortly and locates the full range of land systems, from land concessions to smallholder systems, in one, integrated spatial assessment. The land system representation can help policy makers to link land systems to the diversity of different stakeholders and their backgrounds and support discussions about ecologic and socio-economic consequences of different land uses within a landscape.

New frontiers of land and water commodification: socio‐environmental controversies of large‐scale land acquisitions

AbstractA growing number of regions in the developing world are targeted by transnational investors who are acquiring large amounts of land and natural resources. Driven by the increasing global demand for agricultural products, such investments are often considered an opportunity for economic development in the target country. However, there are concerns about the social and environmental impacts on local communities. In this brief review, we discuss some key socio‐environmental controversies surrounding large‐scale land acquisitions (LSLAs). LSLAs often target common property systems and lead to privatization and commodification of land through long‐term land concessions. There is a debate between supporters of foreign land investments as a means to attract modern agricultural technology that would decrease the yield gap in underperforming agricultural land and those who question such a development model because it is seldom coupled with policy instruments that would ensure that the benefits improve food security in local populations. Large‐scale land investments displace a variety of systems of production ranging from small‐scale farming to (arguably) “unused” land such as forests and savannas on which local communities often depend. Moreover, LSLAs entail an appropriation of water resources that may negatively impact local farmers or downstream human and natural systems. In most cases, investors keep the land fallow but, when they put it under productive use, they typically change land cover and land use to start intensified commercial farming, often for nonfood crops. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Trajectories of large-scale land acquisition dynamics in Angola: Diversity, histories, and implications for the political economy of development in Africa

Numerous large scale land acquisitions have occurred in Angola since partial political and economic liberalization in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and further increased after 2002 and the end of armed conflict. They have occurred in conjunction with the emergence of a range of large state-coordinated agricultural projects, often by foreign contractors, for domestic food, and involving plans for backwards and forwards linkages to agro-processing and manufacturing initiatives. Altogether such land allocations and projects involve several billion dollars and several million hectares. These activities appear to often also involve high-level officials and/or wealthy Angolans and are often interpreted as neo-patrimonialism, state-sanctioned private accumulation, and instances of continuity in extractive institutions. Yet examining specific agrarian transformations illustrates how land and rural poverty in Angola are much more complex than a zero-sum game of elite accumulation of private land concessions. Key are Angola’s geo-historical trajectories of colonialism, war, socialism and liberalization, which the article examines in two concessions in Malanje Province We address the relationships between international enterprises and domestic elites, and the relevance of land dynamics within a long-term political economy perspective on capitalist industrialization and structural transformation in Angola and Africa.

From Force to Legitimation: Rethinking Land Grabs in Cambodia

ABSTRACTThis article moves beyond a focus on the brute force involved in high‐profile land grabs to examine the way legitimation, regulation and coercion intersect in Cambodia's property regime. It builds on the ‘powers of exclusion’ framework developed by Hall, Hirsch and Li to argue that increased connections within civil society in Cambodia and engagement with Western commodity markets have motivated state and private concessionaires to use different means of land exclusion, with less outright force and a greater focus on repressive regulation and legitimation. These exclusionary powers work through informal political connections, secrecy and obfuscation, which the authors term the ‘power of informality’. This argument is substantiated with two case studies that illustrate a move away from the dominant narrative of forceful expulsion of land users in Economic Land Concessions (ELC) towards approaches that provide in‐kind compensation and carve out land for smallholders: a recent land titling campaign in ELC areas, and the first oil palm ELC to gain responsible investment certification. While the authors remain cautious of the implications of this shift, given the persistence of the power of informality, these cases illustrate the potential for new forms of state–society relations: a shift from fear of authorities to a demand for greater accountability and responsiveness.

KEWENANGAN PT. PELABUHAN INDONESIA II (PERSERO) CABANG PANJANG DALAM PENGELOLAAN LAHAN KEPELABUHANAN (Study Pemisahan Regulator dan Operator Pelabuhan)

The authority PT. Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Persero) Cabang Panjang in land management Ports after enactment Law Number 17 of 2008 on Shipping have experienced changes. Where the scope of portland management includes the formulation of Port Master Plan, the provision of portland, port monitoring land use, and exploitation of the portland. The results showed that the scope of authority land management port is a portland concession. it relates to the status of PT. Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Persero) Cabang Panjang as a Badan Usaha Pelabuhan(BUP) which has the function of a role as a port operator. As for the formulation of the Port Master Plan, the provision of portland, port monitoring land use under the authority of the Port Authority which has the function of a role as a regulator. In a land concession pass port, PT. Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Persero) Cabang Panjang is not included in the Port Enterprises whose business activities can run only after getting the concession of the port authority. Because granting concessions only to Port Business Entities are new. In addition, in article 344 paragraphs (2) of Law Number 17 of 2008 on Shipping provides legal certainty on the legal status of SOEs Ports presence in the business activities of port services. Keywords: Authority, the Port Authority, PT. Pelabuhan Indonesia II (Persero) Cabang Panjang

Resistance and Contingent Contestations to Large-Scale Land Concessions in Southern Laos and Northeastern Cambodia

Over the last decade, there have been considerable concerns raised regarding the social and environmental impacts of large-scale land concessions for plantation development in various parts of the world, especially in the tropics, including in Laos and Cambodia. However, there is still much to learn about the various connections and interactions associated with reactions to what are often referred to as “land grabs”, and the ways they are associated or not associated with broader social movements and networks opposed to land grabbing. There is also the need to develop language for discussing these circumstances, something I aim to contribute to in this article. Here, I present four different cases of types of resistance, or what I refer to as contingent contestations, to land concessions in southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia (two from each country), focusing on the perspectives and associated strategies of smallholder farmers, but without ignoring broader issues. I consider the roles of locals in these contestations, through emphasizing the importance of histories, identities/ethnicities, politics, and geography in determining the types of responses to these land deals that emerge, and the strategies that are adopted for contesting these developments.

Study on Socioeconomic Impacts of Private Forest Plantations on Local Livelihood in Pyu Township, Taungoo District, Bago Region, Myanmar

Forest Department of Myanmar has called for private investment in plantation forestry by granting forest land concession right since 2006-07. On the other hand, rural peoples of the country, representing about 70% of total population, rely on forest resources and forest land for their livelihood. This paper explores the socio-economic impacts of private forest plantations on rural communities in Pyu Township, Taungoo district, Bago Region, Myanmar. According to our results private forest plantations have the potential to positively impact on local people’s wealth and well-being, if enough emphasis is paid attention to minimize the negative impacts. The household survey data of 213 observations from two villages were analyzed using binary and multinomial logistic regression analyses. The study reveals that forest plantations make threat the basis of traditional rural livelihoods by reducing the availability of natural resources. However, investments gave also supported the diversification of livelihood strategies in the communities by providing formal employment and by increasing business and trading activities. As a rapid growth of populations and traditional agricultural practices have led to the overexploitation of natural resources, non-natural resource-based livelihood strategies increase the resilience of a household. Most respondents give the facts on plantations to have either no overall impact or a positive impact on the well-being of their household. According to our results, socio-economic household characteristics only marginally point out respondents’ perceptions of the impacts of forest plantations but perceptions differ significantly between individual villages.

Are the Odds of Justice “Stacked” Against Them? Challenges and Opportunities for Securing Land Claims by Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar

ABSTRACTIn 2012, the Government of Myanmar passed the Farmland Law and the Vacant, Fallow, Virgin Land Law, with an aim to increase investment in land through the formalization of a land market. Land titling is often considered “the natural end point of land rights formalization.”11 Hall et al. 2011, 35. A major obstacle to achieving this in Myanmar is its legacy of multiple regimes which has created “stacked laws.”22 Roquas 2002, 11. This term refers to a situation in which a country has multiple layers of laws that exist simultaneously, leading to conflicts and contradictions in the legal system. This ambiguity is often manipulated by those who have more access to political and economic resources, particularly those who received large land concessions under the 1988–2010 military regime. In this context, this paper attempts to answer the question: In Myanmar, how do smallholder farmers engage with a stacked legal framework, which is ambiguous and unfairly applied, to defend themselves against land dispossession? The analysis seeks to contribute to the literature on the contest over land control and access through an analysis of how a stacked legal framework can be used to further disenfranchise farmers by elites, or on the contrary, by farmers to gradually reclaim this control through strategic political maneuvering.

Ketidakadilan Sosial Oleh Keberadaan Perusahaan Pertambangan Bouksit.

This study aims to examine the forms of social injustice by the presence of mining companies and local residents in the Tayan Hilir, Sanggau. This study used a qualitative approach accomplished through a descriptive method, and which was then analyzed using qualitative analysis to describe the form of social injustice for society by the presence of mining companies. Results of the study explained that point on begins the social injustice originated from government policies that tend to favor the mining entrepreneurs. With the capital and support of the state, these persons are in superior position to act half “forceful” against the society’s land concessions. On the other hand, society who does not possess the knowledge and power become the injured party. It is based on the reality that occurs when land concessions in Embaloh and Semerah Hamlet (Dusun) which were not in accordance with the contractual agreement. Relocation offered by the company was far off and there are no public facilities.

“They have gone back to their country”: French landscapes and Inuit encounters in 18th century southern Labrador

Although French and Basque fishing and whaling crews had been coming to southern Labrador since the early sixteenth century, colonization in a more permanent form would not begin until the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Emerging as an outgrowth of similar colonial efforts along Quebec’s Lower North Shore, colonization of Labrador was driven by Canadian interests and administered by colonial officials in Québec. However, the simple possession of Labrador landscapes was not equivalent to their successful exploitation. Detailed study of one land grant in Red Bay-St. Modet demonstrates how tenuous the possession of lands in Labrador could be, whether challenges came from French rivals or from Inuit raids. This article uses historical, cartographic, and archaeological evidence to discuss how the French established, contested, and used Labrador land concessions, and explores how Inuit reacted to the increasing encroachments of the French.

Disputas de tierras y aguas en la planicie de inundación del lago Tonlé Sap de Camboya

El presente trabajo aborda la movilización de una comunidad y el conflicto suscitado en torno de los embalses de irrigación en la planicie de inundación del lago Tonlé Sap, en un subdistrito de la provincia de Kampong Thom de Camboya.

Can the river speak? Epistemological confrontation in the rise and fall of the land grab in Gambella, Ethiopia

In this paper, I focus on the role of knowledge production in the rise and fall of the Indian multinational agribusiness firm Karuturi’s efforts to become a leading global supplier of food through the initiation of large-scale industrial agricultural production in the Gambella province of Ethiopia. In particular, I interrogate a modernist epistemological framework which privileges the “developmental” knowledge of the Ethiopian state and the “productive” knowledge of Indian capital as central to the urgent task of mastering nature and bringing dormant virgin lands to life, while at the same time it necessarily discounts, through processes of racialization, displaced indigenous peoples and nonhuman life forms as beings incapable of efficient and productive economic activity. My argument in this paper is that while modernist knowledge production and mobilization has been critical to Karuturi’s construction of the Gambella land concession as a staging ground for its launch into global prominence in agro-food provisioning, it has also proved fatal to the project, as the epistemological inability to incorporate indigenous knowledge that accounts for “extra-human” agency left the company dramatically unaware of the particular socio-ecological dynamics of the Baro River ecosystem on whose floodplain the land concession was located.

Deforestation by land grabbers

Leases of land concessions in Cambodia have accelerated in the last ten years. An analysis using high-resolution maps and official documents shows that deforestation rates in the land concessions are higher than in other areas.

‘Better-practice’ Concessions? Some Lessons from Cambodia’s Leopard Skin Landscape

In the context of the global land rush, policy debates are split on the question of state land concessions: are smallholder-centric ‘inclusive’ investment models the only real form of responsible agricultural investment, or are ‘responsible’ concessions possible when it comes to the protection of local land access? To help move this debate forwards, this paper examines two case studies in Cambodia – an oil palm plantation recently certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and a teak plantation certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) – which we refer to as ‘better-practice’ concessions. These cases reflect efforts to operationalise the Cambodian government’s ‘Leopard-Skin’ policy, which stipulates that concessions be developed around smallholders rather than directly on top of them. We argue that regularisation is not inherently objectionable, but carries risks when carried out on a concession-by-concession basis, because it distances vulnerable land users from the potentially protective effects of the law and defers to localised, and often unequal, relations of authority. The paper thus highlights the challenges that investors and communities are likely to face even when concession developers seek to respect existing local land claims, and suggests that models based on empowered communities with more secure forms of tenure are likely to work better for all parties involved.

Revealing the hidden effects of land grabbing through better understanding of farmers’ strategies in dealing with land loss

This article examines changing contexts and emerging processes related to “land grabbing.” In particular, it uses the case of Laos to analyze the driving forces behind land takings, how such drivers are implied in land policies, and how affected people respond depending on their socio-economic assets and political connections. We argue that understanding the multiple strategies farmers use to deal with actual land loss and the risk of losing land is crucial to understanding the hidden effects of land grabbing and its potential consequences for agricultural development and the overall process of agrarian transformation. From a policy perspective, understanding the hidden effects of land grabbing is critical to assess costs and benefits of land concessions, in Laos and elsewhere, especially in relation to current approaches to turn land into capital as a policy strategy to promote economic growth and reduce poverty.