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Necessary Nuance: Toward a Code of Conduct in Foreign Land Deals

Necessary Nuance: Toward a Code of Conduct in Foreign Land Deals. Ruth Meinzen-Dick Senior Research Fellow International Food Policy Research Institute. Background. Government or private investors Accelerated by 2008 food price increases, lack of confidence in world food trade

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Necessary Nuance: Toward a Code of Conduct in Foreign Land Deals

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  1. Necessary Nuance: Toward a Code of Conduct in Foreign Land Deals Ruth Meinzen-Dick Senior Research Fellow International Food Policy Research Institute

  2. Background • Government or private investors • Accelerated by 2008 food price increases, lack of confidence in world food trade • 15 - 20 million ha since 2006 Terraced rice farming in Madagascar--Time

  3. Opportunities • Increased investment in agriculture • Farm and off-farm jobs • Development of rural infrastructure • Schools and health posts • Resources for new agricultural technologies • Future global price stability due to increased production, • Possible increased food availability in host country

  4. Threats • Uneven playing field in negotiations • Inability to enforce agreed compensation • Eviction, loss of land • Environmental problems of large-scale agriculture

  5. Questions to Ask on Cases • Current land use, users • Current land tenure • Proposed land use patterns • Livelihoods for local people • Food security • Ecological conditions • Terms of agreement • (expropriation < sale < rental < contract farming) • Transparency, local involvement in negotiations • Enforceability

  6. Elements of a Code of Conduct • Transparency in negotiations • Respect for existing land rights, including customary and common property rights • Sharing of benefits • Environmental sustainability • Adherence to national trade policies

  7. Institutional Requirements • International system to enforce code in investor country as well as host • Governments to monitor, safeguard local people’s rights • Media to increase transparency • Civil society to keep pressure against unjust expropriation

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