Water, Energy and Food Security Towards Expo 2015: The Challenge of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions

Nov 5, 2014 | Venice International Unievrsity
Venice

The need to ensure the sustainability of food and energy provision for a rising population is the main theme addressed by the forthcoming Expo to be held in Milan in 2015. The increasing pace and dynamics of land acquisitions and the implicit appropriation of water resources poses major challenges to water, food and energy security. In this context, the proposed workshops aim to explore the main drivers and implications of land transactions around the world, with a particular focus on developing countries. Europe, and Italy particular, plays a major role as an investor in foreign land, which has been raising major concerns about the claimed sustainability of EU energy and food policies and targets. 

The purpose of the seminar series is to discuss the identified issues by attracting contributions from leading international scientists active in this field of enquiry.The duration of each seminar is 3 hours.

Participation to the workshop is free of charge.

However, for organisational purposes, participation will be subject to registration. Please visit here for more information.

Relevant Sessions:

November 5, 2014: “The water dimension of global land acquisitions"

Every investment made on agricultural land is determined by water resources and this in turn determines a change in the use and allocation of resources. This topic will be the main focus of the remarks of Prof. Ward Anseeuw from the University of Pretoria and of Prof. Maria Cristina Rulli from the Polytechnic University of Milan.

Maria Cristina Rulli (Politecnico di Milano) “Water appropriation in large-scale land acquisitions”

Ward Anseeuw (University of Pretoria), “Challenges in accounting for global investments in farming land"

November 26, 2014: “Conflicts and land acquisitions”

The European and international conflicts emerged from land acquisition is a subject to e addressed in the remarks of Prof. Laurea Fregolent, IUAV University of Venice and in the comments of Matilde Carabellese, from Università Orientale di Napoli that will focus particularly on the Argentinean case.

Laura Fregolent (University IUAV of Venice) “Conflicts, landscape and renewable energies”

Matilde Carabellese (University of Naples) “Land grab: the case of soya and Argentina”

Filiberto Altobelli (Istituto Nazionale di Economia Agraria) “Food security and Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment: international debate and policy initiatives” 

January 14th, 2015: “Land and water resources: balancing the needs for food and energy”

Which are the main consequences of land acquisitions in terms of food and energy security in the countries those deals take place? The goal of the seminar is to explore the connection water-land-food and energy through the interventions of Prof. Holger Hoff form the Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Emma Li Johansson, PhD student at Lund Unviersity and of Prof. Mario Giampietro, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona.

Mario Giampietro (University Autonoma Barcellona) “The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: A Multi-scale Bioeconomic Perspective”

Holger Hoff (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) “Large-scale land acquisitions and the water-food-energy nexus”

Emma Li Johansson (University of Lund) “Virtual water exports from land acquisitions in Africa”