Today's food and financial crises have, in tandem, triggered a new global land grab. On the one hand, "food insecure" governments that rely on imports to feed their people are snatching up vast areas of farmland abroad for their own offshore food production. On the other hand, food corporations and private investors, hungry for profits in the midst of the deepening financial crises, see investment in foreign farmland as an important new source of revenue... If left unchecked, this global land grab could spell the end of small-scale farming, and rural livelihoods, in numerous places around the world.GRAIN, 2008

A massive global land grab is taking place as foreign investors seek control of developing country's "resources" (particularly in Africa), on a scale and speed not seen since colonial times. Foreign agricultural investment due to rising food prices, false solutions to climate change such as biofuels and now carbon offsetting and biochar are all driving this push for control over Africa's territories. Escalating deforestation and land evictions are having devastating impacts on communities, ecosystems and the climate.

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respectAldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac

Research by Gaia and the African Biodiversity Network shows that the majority of Africa's land (65%) is communally owned. Investors and governments claim that these collectively held territories are "marginal" or "idle", because indigenous communities, small-scale farmers, pastoralists, forests, grassland and other critical ecosystems are not producing for the international market.

Just as in colonial times, the commodification of land means that communities' ways of life are destroyed in the name of commercial interests. This abuse of these communities, their land and their rights is further exacerbating poverty, by driving people off the land into hopeless urban hardship. The environmental destruction, from turning complex biocultural landscapes into monocultural deserts for industrial products for commodity markets is further undermining climate resilience across the continent. The planet needs its bio-cultural diversity to enhance options for responding to climate change.

Land grabbing is driven by industrial agriculture, speculation and now mining. Investors are increasingly grabbing "real" assets from Nature to create new derivatives-based commodity markets in order to recoup their losses and spread risk since the 2008 economic crash.

Today's farmland grabs are moving fast. Contracts are getting signed, bulldozers are hitting the ground, land is being aggressively fenced off and local people are getting kicked off their territories with devastating consequences. While precise details are hard to come by, it is clear that at least 50 million hectares of good agricultural land - enough to feed 50 million families in India - have been transferred from farmers to corporations in the last few years alone, and each day more investors join the rush. GRAIN & Via Campesina, April 2011

Our Work

We believe that local and indigenous communities have a right to their ancestral lands and diverse ways of life. Commercial interests have no right to reduce these complex living sytems into deserts in order to generate profit. Gaia and our partners are working with communities to strengthen their resilience and capacity to resist political and economic forces undermining their existence. We also support communities to challenge land grabs through advocacy, research, reports, and linking them to global movements. We help partners to put the national and international spotlight on communities threatened by land grabs, and bring their voice to the public and policy arenas to be heard.