Africa's Land Rush

Africa's Land Rush PDF Author: Ruth Hall
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1847011306
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Interrogates the narratives of land grabbing and agricultural investment through detailed local studies that illuminate how these are experienced on the ground and the implications for Africa's land and agricultural economy.

Property and Political Order in Africa

Property and Political Order in Africa PDF Author: Catherine Boone
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107040698
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
In sub-Saharan Africa, property relationships around land and access to natural resources vary across localities, districts, and farming regions. These differences produce patterned variations in relationships between individuals, communities, and the state. This book captures these patterns in an analysis of structure and variation in rural land tenure regimes. In most farming areas, state authority is deeply embedded in land regimes, drawing farmers, ethnic insiders and outsiders, lineages, villages, and communities into direct and indirect relationships with political authorities at different levels of the state apparatus. The analysis shows how property institutions - institutions that define political authority and hierarchy around land - shape dynamics of great interest to scholars of politics, including the dynamics of land-related competition and conflict, territorial conflict, patron-client relations, electoral cleavage and mobilization, ethnic politics, rural rebellion, and the localization and "nationalization" of political competition.

Land and Sustainable Development in Africa

Land and Sustainable Development in Africa PDF Author: Kojo Sebastian Amanor
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1848132611
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 241

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Book Description
This book links contemporary debates on land reform with wider discourses on sustainable development within Africa. Featuring chapters and in-depth case studies on South Africa and Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya, Botswana and West Africa, it traces the development of ideas about sustainable development and addresses a new agenda based on social justice. The authors critically examine contemporary neoliberal market-led reforms and the legacy of colonialism on the land question. They argue that debates on sustainable development should be placed in the context of structural interests, access and equity, rather than technical management of land and resources. Additionally, they show that these structural factors cannot be transformed by institutional reform based on notions of elective democracy, community participation, and market-reform, but require a far more radical programme to redress the injustices of the colonial system that continue today. The book advocates a commitment to building sustainable livelihoods for farmers, calling for a redistribution of land and natural resources to challenge existing economic relations and frameworks for development.

Securing Africa's Land for Shared Prosperity

Securing Africa's Land for Shared Prosperity PDF Author: Frank F. K. Byamugisha
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821398105
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
This is the first book on land administration and reform in Sub-Saharan Africa, and is highly relevant to all developing countries around the world. It provides simple practical steps to turn the hugely controversial subject of "land grabs� into a development opportunity by improving land governance to reduce the risks of dispossessing poor landholders while ensuring mutually beneficial investors’ deals. The book shows how Sub Saharan Africa can leverage its abundant and highly valuable natural resources to eradicate poverty by improving land governance through a ten point program to scale up policy reforms and investments at a cost of USD 4.5 billion. The book points out formidable challenges to implementation including high vulnerability to land grabbing and expropriation with poor compensation as about 90 percent of rural lands in Sub Saharan Africa are undocumented, but also timely opportunities since high commodity prices and investor interest in large scale agriculture have increased land values and returns to investing in land administration. It argues that success in implementation will require participation of many players including Pan-African organizations, Sub Saharan Africa governments, the private sector, civil society and development partners; but that ultimate success will depend on the political will of Sub Saharan Africa governments to move forward with comprehensive policy reforms and on concerted support by the international development community. Its rigorous analysis of land governance issues, yet down-to-earth solutions, are a reflection of Byamugisha's more than 20 years of global experience in land reform and administration especially in Asia and Africa. This volume will be of great interest to and relevant for a wide audience interested in African development, global studies in land, and natural resource management.

The Great African Land Grab?

The Great African Land Grab? PDF Author: Lorenzo Cotula
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1780323123
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
Over the past few years, large-scale land acquisitions in Africa have stoked controversy, making headlines in media reports across the world. Land that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest is now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares. Private-sector expectations of higher world food and commodity prices and government concerns about longer-term national food and energy security have both made land a more attractive asset. Dubbed ‘land grabs’ in the media, large-scale land acquisitions have become one of the most talked about and contentious topics amongst those studying, working in or writing about Africa. Some commentators have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities. Others have countered by pointing to negative social impacts, including loss of local land rights, threats to local food security and the risk that large-scale investments may marginalize family farming. Lorenzo Cotula, a leading expert in the field, casts a critical eye over the most reliable evidence on this hotly contested topic, examining the implications of land deals in Africa both for its people and for world agriculture and food security.

Land Reform in South Africa

Land Reform in South Africa PDF Author: Brent McCusker
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442207183
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This thoughtful book explores the history and ongoing dilemmas of land use and land reform in South Africa. Including both theoretical and applied examples of the evolution of South Africa’s current geography of land use, the authors provide a succinct overview of land reform and evaluate the range of policies conceived over time to redress the country’s stark racial land imbalance. Drawing on compelling case studies from across South Africa, they illustrate not only the progress of land reform, but also how reforms fit within the larger historical context of racialized land use. This is the first book of its kind to fully apply geographical theory to the case of South African land reform. Rather than rely on one-dimensional technicist explanations to discuss the shortcomings of the country’s land reform program, this rich study places it in the context of bitter battles between groups seeking to exploit land policies for their own benefit.

Gender, Land and Livelihoods in East Africa

Gender, Land and Livelihoods in East Africa PDF Author: Ritu Verma
Publisher: IDRC
ISBN: 0889369291
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Gender, Land, and Livelihoods in East Africa: Through farmers eyes

Biofuels, Land Grabbing and Food Security in Africa

Biofuels, Land Grabbing and Food Security in Africa PDF Author: Prosper B. Matondi
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138814
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
The issue of biofuels has already been much debated, but the focus to date has largely been on Latin America and deforestation - this highly original work breaks fresh ground in looking at the African perspective. Most African governments see biofuels as having the potential to increase agricultural productivity and export incomes and thus strengthen their national economies, improving energy balances and rural employment. At the same time climate change may be addressed through reduction of green house gas emissions. There are, however, a number of uncertainties mounting that challenge this scenario. Using cutting-edge empirical case studies, this knowledge gap is addressed in a variety of chapters examining the effects of large-scale biofuel production on African agriculture. In particular, 'land grabbing' and food security issues are scrutinised, both of which have become vital topics in regard to the environmental and developmental governance of African countries. A revealing book for anyone wishing to understand the startling impact of biofuels and land grabbing on Africa.

African Land Reform Under Economic Liberalisation

African Land Reform Under Economic Liberalisation PDF Author: Shinichi Takeuchi
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9811647259
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This open access book offers unique in-depth, comprehensive, and comparative analyses of the motivations, context, and outcomes of recent land reforms in Africa. Whereas a considerable number of land reforms have been carried out by African governments since the 1990s, no systematic analysis on their meaning has so far been conducted. In the age of land reform, Africa has seen drastic rural changes. Analysing the relationship between those reforms and change, the chapters in this book reveal not only their socio-economic outcomes, such as accelerated marketisation of land, but also their political outcomes, which have often been contrasting. Countries such as Rwanda and Mozambique have utilised land reform to strengthen state control over land, but other countries, such as Ghana and Zambia, have seen the rise in power of traditional chiefs in managing the land. The comparative perspective of this book clarifies new features of African social changes, which are carefully investigated by area experts. Providing new perspectives on recent land reform, this book will have a considerable impact on scholars as well as policymakers.

The Land/Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone of West and Central Africa

The Land/Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone of West and Central Africa PDF Author: Salif Diop
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9783319063874
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Although the main focus of this book is on the estuaries, its scope goes well beyond this particular coastal feature. Indeed, the estuary can only be considered as part of the life cycle of the entire river and the marine area it feeds into: an area particularly subject to human and natural pressures. The main estuaries and deltas of West and Central Africa region provide a variety of goods and services to its coastal population. The most important of them are related to critical fish habitat, wood and charcoal from mangroves, as well as space for agriculture, aquaculture, urban development, tourism and transport. Particular emphasis has been made in this book on mangroves that play a significant role in terms of flood control, groundwater replenishment, coastline stabilization and protection against storms. They also retain sediments and nutrients, purify water, and provide critical carbon storage. Such hydrological and ecological functions explain the focus on serving mangrove ecosystems and the nearby communities, which draw significant income from fishing, rice production, tourism, salt extraction and other activities such as harvesting honey and medicinal plants, hence the need for preserving mangrove ecosystems to ensure sustainability of the estuaries and deltas of West and Central Africa region. The book has a foreword by Mr. Achim Steiner, United Nations Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP who is stating that credible and up-to-date information is essential for the public at large but more specifically for scientists, researchers, managers, decision-makers all working together in order to safeguard, protect and sustainably manage estuaries, deltas and lagoons, and the coastal and ocean waters of Western and Central Africa.