A report released recently by Oxfam says that poor people, particularly in Africa, are hardest hit by a new wave of land deals. In many African countries, local residents regularly lose their land to elites, domestic or foreign investors, because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively or to defend and advance their interests. According to the report, in developing countries, as many as 227 million hectares of land – an area the size of Western Europe – has been sold or leased since 2001, mostly to international investors. Thus, there is a general fear that this surge in large-scale acquisition of land for investment will do more harm than good if land grabbing is not stopped. Read more here.
The Citizen
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