Report shows much larger proportion of global land deals are for biofuels production than expected
Thu 15 December 2011
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A report by the International Land Coalition says that the majority (about 60%) of global land deals are for biofuels and not, as previously thought, from food deals for Gulf States. The report, produced by a global alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations which comprise the Land Coalition, says that the evidence points to significant threats to the poor in developing countries from land grabs for biofuels production.
More than 40 organisations collaborated on the Global Commercial Pressures on Land Research Project, which synthesised 27 case studies, thematic studies and regional overviews.
The report also includes the latest data from the ongoing Land Matrix project to monitor large-scale land transactions, and covers a full decade of land deals from 2000-2010. Those deals amount to more than 200 million hectares of land – or eight times the size of the United Kingdom.
The Land Coalition, which comprises more than 40 organisations, works to promote secure and equitable access to and control over land for poor women and men through advocacy, dialogue, knowledge sharing and capacity building.
Reported in The Ecologist magazine, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth said: "These findings suggest that the scale of land-grabbing for biofuel production is far worse than previously imagined. Europe’s appetite for land is already unsustainable, reaching well beyond its borders, with devastating social and environmental impacts."
For further details about the report, please follow the associated links.
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