GLOBAL LAND GRAB

Studies Suggest Weak Land Rights Worldwide Promote Land Rush; In Africa, Lands of Estimated 480 Million Viewed as “Un-owned”

For more information, please contact:

Coimbra Sirica, Burness Communications +1 301-943-3287 | csirica@burnesscommunications.com
Jenna DiPaolo, Rights and Resources Initiative +1 202-412-0331| jdipaolo@rightsandresources.org

LONDON (1 February 2012)—New studies released in London today suggest that the frenzied sell-off of forests and other prime lands to buyers hungry for the developing world’s natural resources risk sparking widespread civil unrest—unless national leaders and investors recognize the customary rights of millions of poor people who have lived on and worked these lands for centuries.

“Controversial land acquisitions were a key factor triggering the civil wars in Sudan, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and there is every reason to be concerned that conditions are ripe for new conflicts to occur in many other places,” said Jeffrey Hatcher, director of global programs for the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), which sponsored an expert panel today at the Royal Society on the trends shaping rural lands and rights worldwide....


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Quote: Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left.
---> Aldo Leopold


In pictures: Land leasing or land grabbing? ---------

Source: GLOBAL LAND GRAB
Author: Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI)

Link: Court Halts Sale of New Zealand Farm to Chinese
Link: Global land grab could trigger conflict, report says
Link: Oct 2011: Leading NGOs lobby for guidelines to protect 'land grab' victims
Link: TURNING POINT: What future for forest peoples and resources in the emerging world order?
Link: Weak land rights in Africa fuel potential for conflicts -experts


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