BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS / Šturma, Mozetic (eds)

Tanzania witnessed a significant increase in foreign and domestic attempts to establish large-scale biofuel plantations in the country between 2005 and 2008, when around 640,000 hectares of land were allocated to investors, thus depriving peasants and rural households of their lands and livelihoods and increasing their food insecurity. According to the African Development Bank, 75% of the population of Tanzania are small- scale farmers; whereas pastoralists represent some 10% of the population of Tanzania (including the Maasai), but continue to face the massive loss of their land arising from the sale of land without the adequate knowledge of the legal and practical consequences, corrupt and illegal allocation of land to foreigners, and the classification of land as trust land, reserves or national parks by the authorities. 9 The above-mentioned cases are just examples of a surge following the food crisis in 2008. 10 It has to be noted however that this is just one momentum, following earlier waves of land sales, first of which can be tracked back to the colonial times (especially in Africa). 1.2 Definition Land grabbing is (similarly to alternative formulations, e.g. “large-scale land acquisitions”, “large-scale land deals”, “green rush”) a term used in the media and literature to describe an empirically proven global trend of land acquisition. It is a phenomenon, which has a complex and multi-dimensional interface and is rapidly evolving. This makes land grabbing a contested term. Land deals are a very normal part of everyday life, so not every such deal of course qualifies as “land grabbing”. Hence identification of the key aspects or parameters, serving for the determination of a “land grab deal”, may not be easy. Whether a deal can be denoted as “land grabbing” certainly depends on the specific (socioeconomic, ecological, legal and other) circumstances. A consensus on a definition has not been reached yet. Nevertheless, this contribution will make use of one of the most notable attempts in this regard – the definition developed by the International Land Coalition (ILC), 11 a global alliance of civil society and farmers’ organizations, United Nation’s agencies, NGOs, and research institutes. The ILC, in its Tirana Declaration (2011) defined land grabbing as acquisitions or concessions that are one or more of the following: clear violation of human rights; displacement of affected local communities is carried out without free, prior, and informed consent; acquisitions or concessions not based on transparent contracts; are in disregard of social, economic, and environmental impacts, including the way they are gendered. 12 Ibid ., para. J. 10 For more detailed assessment see e.g.: COTULA, Lorenzo, VERMEULEN, Sonja, LEONARD, Rebeca, KEELEY, James. Land Grab or Development Opportunity? Agricultural Investment and International Land Deals in Africa , Rome/London, FAO, IFAD, IIED, 2009, available online at: http://www.iied.org/ pubs/display.php?o=12561IIED (accessed 7 February 2018); The World Bank, Rising Global Interest in Farmland , op. cit. 5. 11 For more information on the International Land Coalition, see http://www.landcoalition.org/en/about- ilc (accessed 2 February 2018). 12 International Land Coalition, Tirana Declaration (para. 4). The Declaration was adopted by the International Land Coalition’s Assembly of Members on 27 May 2011. The Declaration is available online 9

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