Act on It! 4 Key Steps to Prevent Land Grabs
Publisher: ActionAid
Author(s): Alex Wijeratna
Date: 2015
Topics: Governance, Land, Livelihoods
Over the past 15 years, tens of millions of hectares of land have been acquired by large investors in developing countries. The Land Matrix documented 1,037 transnational land deals covering 37,842,371 hectares during this period, while many more deals remain undocumented.1 This global land rush is causing widespread forced evictions and denial of access to key land and natural resources for millions of women, small- scale food producers, pastoralists, gatherers, forest dwellers, fisherfolk, and tribal and indigenous peoples.
Access to and control over land and natural resources is, however, crucial to people’s livelihoods and to ensuring their rights to food, water, work, housing and a healthy environment. Governments and donor institutions have the opportunity and responsibility to ensure that their policies and actions contribute to the recognition and respect of these rights.