Lorenzo Cotula - The Great African Land Grab?: Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System

African Arguments

Written by experts with an unrivalled knowledge of the continent, African Arguments is a series of concise, engaging books that address the key issues currently facing Africa. Topical and thought-provoking, accessible but in-depth, they provide essential reading for anyone interested in getting to the heart of both why contemporary Africa is the way it is and how it is changing.

African Arguments Online

African Arguments Online is a website managed by the Royal African Society, which hosts debates on the African Arguments series and other topical issues that affect Africa: http://africanarguments.org

Series editors

ALEX DE WAAL, executive director, World Peace Foundation

RICHARD DOWDEN, executive director, Royal African Society

ALCINDA HONWANA, Open University

Editorial board

EMMANUEL AKYEAMPONG, Harvard University

TIM ALLEN, London School of Economics and Political Science

AKWE AMOSU, Open Society Institute

BREYTEN BREYTENBACH, Gore Institute

PETER DA COSTA, journalist and development specialist

WILLIAM GUMEDE, journalist and author

ABDUL MOHAMMED, InterAfrica Group

ROBERT MOLTENO, editor and publisher

Titles already published

Alex de Waal, AIDS and Power: Why There is No Political Crisis Yet

Tim Allen, Trial Justice: The Lords Resistance Army, Sudan and the International Criminal Court

Raymond W. Copson, The United States in Africa: Bush Policy and Beyond

Chris Alden, China in Africa

Tom Porteous, Britain in Africa

Julie Flint and Alex de Waal, Darfur: A New History of a Long War , revised and updated edition

Jonathan Glennie, The Trouble with Aid: Why Less Could Mean More for Africa

Peter Uvin, Life after Violence: A Peoples Story of Burundi

Bronwen Manby, Struggles for Citizenship in Africa

Camilla Toulmin, Climate Change in Africa

Orla Ryan, Chocolate Nations: Living and Dying for Cocoa in West Africa

Theodore Trefon, Congo Masquerade: The Political Culture of Aid Inefficiency and Reform Failure

Lonce Ndikumana and James Boyce, Africas Odious Debts: How Foreign Loans and Capital Flight Bled a Continent

Mary Harper, Getting Somalia Wrong? Faith, War and Hope in a Shattered State

Gernot Klantschnig and Neil Carrier, Africa and the War on Drugs: Narcotics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Alcinda Honwana, Youth and Revolution in Tunisia

Marc Epprecht, Sexuality and Social Justice in Africa: Rethinking Homophobia and Forging Resistance

Forthcoming

Michael Deibert, The Democratic Republic of Congo: Between Hope and Despair

Gerard McCann, India and Africa Old Friends, New Game

Adam Branch and Zachariah Mampilly, Popular Protest in Africa

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International African Institute promotes scholarly understanding of Africa, notably its changing societies, cultures and languages. Founded in 1926 and based in London, it supports a range of seminars and publications including the journal Africa .

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Royal African Society is Britains prime Africa organization. Now more than a hundred years old, its in-depth, long-term knowledge of the continent and its peoples makes the Society the first stop for anyone wishing to know more about the continent. RAS fosters a better understanding of Africa in the UK and throughout the world its history, politics, culture, problems and potential. RAS disseminates this knowledge and insight and celebrates the diversity and depth of African culture.

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World Peace Foundation , founded in 1910, is located at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. The Foundations mission is to promote innovative research and teaching, believing that these are critical to the challenges of making peace around the world, and should go hand in hand with advocacy and practical engagement with the toughest issues. Its central theme is reinventing peace for the twenty-first century.

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About the author

Lorenzo Cotula is a senior researcher and team leader at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), where he works on land and on natural resource investment in lower-income countries. Lorenzo undertakes research, capacity building, policy advocacy and advisory work at field, national and international levels. Before joining IIED in 2002, he worked on assignments with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and with two Italian NGOs. Lorenzo holds a law degree from the University La Sapienza of Rome, an MSc in development studies from the London School of Economics, a PhD in law from the University of Edinburgh, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Business from the University of Cambridge.

LORENZO COTULA

The great African land grab?

Agricultural investments and the global food system

Zed Books
LONDON | NEW YORK

The great African land grab? Agricultural investments and the global food system was rst published in 2013 by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London N1 9JF, UK and Room 400, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA

This ebook edition was first published in 2013

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Copyright Lorenzo Cotula 2013

The right of Lorenzo Cotula to be identied as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

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ISBN 978 1 78032 312 1

Contents

Acknowledgements

This book builds on insights that I have gained over the years through my work at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), a policy research institute based in the United Kingdom. This work includes research and policy advocacy on large-scale land acquisitions and agricultural investments in Africa. In particular, it includes the Legal Tools for Citizen Empowerment initiative, an effort to strengthen local rights vis--vis large-scale natural resource investments in lower-income countries. These activities involve extensive travelling, and collaboration with colleagues at IIED and with partners in Africa and elsewhere. So my first heartfelt thank-you goes to IIED and the partners around it for giving me the opportunity to learn about issues that I am passionate about.

IIEDs work on the global land rush has been supported through multiple collaborations with development agencies, particularly the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, Oxfam and the International Development Research Centre. It has also been supported by the United Kingdom governments Department for International Development and by a consortium of European donors that has included, at different times, Danida (Danish International Development Agency), DGIS (Directorate-General for Development Cooperation, the Netherlands), Irish Aid, Norad (Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation), SDC (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation) and Sida (Swedish International Development Agency). In addition, IIEDs work on land tenure receives support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, particularly a grant to secure local land rights in parts of West Africa where small-scale agriculture is intensifying. I would like to thank these donors and partners for their support, though I should also make it clear that the views expressed in this book are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions involved.