Dubious land transactions failing African economies: report

By Julius N. Uma

February 01, 2011 (JUBA) – The majority of African nations risk giving investors access to large areas of land in rushed, secretive and one-sided transactions that fail to deliver real benefits or create new social and environmental problems, a new report has revealed.

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) produced the report , based on analyses of 12 recent contracts, through which investors reportedly leased large areas of land in east, west, central and southern Africa for various agricultural activities.

Researchers, says the report, found many problems with the contracts, but also some signs of positive deals.

Meanwhile, a considerable number of these contracts reviewed, according to the report, appear to be heavily biased in favour of the investors, granting them long-term access to land at very low costs while, in return, requiring little from investors in the form of benefits for local people and safeguards to protect the environment.

“Contracts define the terms of an investment project, and the way risks, costs and benefits are distributed but most contracts for large-scale land deals in Africa are negotiated in secret,” report author, Lorenzo Cotula said.

“Only rarely do local landholders have a say in those negotiations and few contracts are publicly available after they have been signed,” the author adds.

The report, released January 31 observed that over the past few years, agribusiness, investment funds and government agencies have been acquiring long-term rights over large areas of land in Africa, raising both the promise of development opportunities and fears of a new “land grab”.

Cited as Africa’s major weakness in the land acquisition process were scanty details on what investors should do to ensure that risks are properly managed, the long-term nature of most leases, commonly up to 100 years – mean that local communities will be separated from the land for generations.

“This threatens to eradicate longstanding livelihood strategies and agricultural knowledge,” the reports notes, adding that some contracts grant investors priority rights over water, which can have adverse impacts on other water users in times of water shortage.

The land fees, it says, tend to be very low, citing one contract from Sudan, where land is reportedly leased for less than a dollar per hectare per year. Others, they say, make no mention of land fees at all, or explicitly allocate land for free – as in one contract investors signed with Mali.

However, in the case of Liberia, the report added, some contracts negotiated by the country stand out for: their short duration; more specific investor commitments on jobs, training, local processing and local procurement; greater attention to local food security; and their tighter social and environmental safeguards.

(ST)