About the portal
The International Land Coalition is an alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations working together to promote secure and equitable access to, and control over, land and natural resources for women and men as a key strategy to overcome poverty and food insecurity. The way that rights to land and natural resources are allocated and managed plays a central role in enabling or hindering economic development, food security, social justice and environmental sustainability. Many rural areas of the world are crying out for investment, but how this investment arrives, who decides, who wins and who loses, are matters of critical importance.
Increasing commercial pressures on land are provoking fundamental and far-reaching changes in the relationships between people and land. The competition for land and natural resources has always been an uneven competition with the poorest losing most. But this competition is no longer simply due to increasing population, a shrinking resource base due to degradation, or the speculative efforts of local elites. Land is becoming a globalised commodity; local producers competing for the same resource with large international companies that produce food, fuel and fibre, sequester carbon, sell large ‘unspoilt’ landscapes to tourists, extract minerals, or seek to realise short and medium term gains for investor capital.
This portal has been set up by members and partners of the International Land Coalition, including Oxfam Novib, RECONCILE, IFPRI, Agter, CDE, CIRAD, Action Aid, IALTA, and GRET. The portal collects, systematises and makes available information on commercial pressures on land, large-scale land acquisitions and their alternatives. It is meant to fuel awareness and evidence-based debate on this phenomenon, and promote the ability of all stakeholders to identify and promote informed and equitable solutions.
This initiative is funded by:
