Land policies focussing on mass privatisation and formalisation of land rights were harshly criticised in the 1980s and 1990s, leading to the promotion of a ‘paradigm of adaptation’ and to the development of incremental procedures to encourage the evolution and adaptation of local land rights. But they seem to have found favour again in the 2000s, even if few of their pitfalls have (...)

Since much of the focus on large-scale land acquisitions is predominantly political and ideological, different models and practices embedded in the phenomenon and, by consequence the diverse implications they imply, tend to be overlooked. This is supported by the use of the term “land grabbing”: while it implies large differences in forms of organization of the production, investment (...)

A growing number of researchers and policy-makers now see the recognition and formalisation of local or customary land rights as a means of tackling insecurity of land tenure and encouraging investment. Several tools, such as the Rural Land Plans (PFRs) used in Benin, seem to resolve the tension between the logic of registering rights in order to increase productivity and the logic of securing (...)

Moving beyond the debates that often oppose large-scale agriculture against smallholders farming, this paper analyzes policies and regulations currently implemented to manage investment and land issues in the Office du Niger area in Mali. It questions to what extend family farming and large-scale farming can coexist in this context. First, we present the status of land investment projects in (...)

The paper begins by questioning if foreign investments in land have produced a ‘win-win’ scenario. The study, however, is not limited to the gains and losses incurred solely by investor and “host” country; instead, it deepens the analysis to examine the impacts on local populations, governments, intermediary, and investor, and discusses of the diversity of roles within these groups. We (...)

Basée sur l’analyse d’archives, cette communication traite des politiques foncières à Madagascar, du 18ème à la fin du 20ème siècle et cherche à identifier au profit de quels projets territoires et de quels acteurs ces politiques passées ont joué.