Articles Thématiques

Bastiaensen, J., & Merlet, P. (2012). Struggles over property rights in the context of large-scale transnational land acquisitions. Using legal pluralism to re-politicize the debate. Illustrated with case studies from Madagascar and Ghana (No. 2012.02). Universiteit Antwerpen, Institute of Development Policy and Management (IOB). 01-10-2015

A key issue in the context of increasing large-scale land acquisitions in developing countries is how poor populations can prevent their land rights being encroached upon by more powerful actors. To date, the majority of policy recommendations have been directed towards the legal recognition and formalization of land rights in order to safeguard local and […]


Obidzinski, K., Takahashi, I., Dermawan, A., Komarudin, H., & Andrianto, A. (2013). Can large scale land acquisition for agro-development in Indonesia be managed sustainably?. Land Use Policy, 30(1), 952-965. 01-10-2015

This paper explores the impacts of large scale land acquisition for agro-development by analyzing the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) in Indonesia. It also examines the potential for MIFEE to meet sustainability requirements under RSPO, ISPO, and FSC. The plantation development plans are characterized by a lack of reliable official data and limited […]


Obidzinski, K., Takahashi, I., Dermawan, A., Komarudin, H., & Andrianto, A. (2013). Can large scale land acquisition for agro-development in Indonesia be managed sustainably?. Land Use Policy, 30(1), 952-965. 01-10-2015

and questions have invigorated agrarian studies and economic history, with particular emphases on its control, since Marx. Words such as ‘exclusion’, ‘alienation’, ‘expropriation’, ‘dispossession’, and ‘violence’ describe processes that animate land histories and those of resources, property rights, and territories created, extracted, produced, or protected on land. Primitive and on-going forms of accumulation, frontiers, enclosures, […]


Cotula, L. (2012). The international political economy of the global land rush: A critical appraisal of trends, scale, geography and drivers. Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4), 649-680. 29-09-2015

Over the past few years, agribusiness, investment funds and government agencies have been acquiring long-term rights over large areas of farmland in lower income countries. It is widely thought that private sector expectations of higher agricultural commodity prices and government concerns about longer-term food and energy security underpin much recent land acquisition for agricultural investments. […]