Land grabbing and its environmental justice implications

For over a decade there has been an increase in the commodification of land to meet the worldwide demand for food and materials, resulting in land acquisitions by a wide range of actors, especially companies and investment funds. This phenomenon is also known as land grabbing. Land grabbing causes the displacement of people because they often do not possess formal land titles over the land they have been living on for decades. Land grabbing has major negative social impacts like violent expulsions and human rights violations. For this PhD, research was conducted in Argentina where many violent conflicts over land take place. Research was undertaken on land grabbing for the expansion of industrial tree plantations, agriculture and nature conservation in the provinces Santiago del Estero and Corrientes. Important findings of this research are that vulnerable groups are disproportionately affected by land grabbing. The pre-existing injustices, like to lack of basic services and proper education, worsened the negative impacts of land grabbing and the extent to which local communities were able to resist land grabbing. Local communities experienced several obstacles to formalize land tenure. Even though rural people were aware of the risks of not formalizing land tenure, they would invest more time in addressing pre-existing injustice. Social movements played an important role in informing local communities about their land rights. However, they were not strong enough to avoid land grabbing. This PhD has shown that there is an immediate need for addressing the long term issues and pre-existing injustice experienced by local communities.