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Ethical Guidelines for Foreign Land Investments: Balancing Growth and Sustainability

Explore the necessary nuances in foreign land deals, balancing economic growth with ethical considerations. Learn about the potential opportunities and threats of increased investments in agriculture. Discover the essential questions to ask and the elements crucial for a code of conduct to ensure equitable and sustainable land deals.

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Ethical Guidelines for Foreign Land Investments: Balancing Growth and Sustainability

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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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