responsabile: Margherita Emma Turvani

durata: 12 mesi

termine previsto: 31 dicembre 2017

finanziamento: 2.500 euro

tipologia: call di dipartimento

fonte di finanziamento: call 2016 Dppac
Linea di finanziamento 1.b “Progetti di ricerca”

motivation and proposal

Since the mid 2000s, a renewed interest in allocating private as well as public-private investments in the agricultural sector has been reported. This trend has been associated with the rise in the acquisitions of large tracts of agricultural land (generally over 1,000 ha) by means of long-term lease, which typically run from 55 to 99 years, or purchase agreements, by private companies, state-owned companies, investment funds and public-private partnerships. This phenomenon is referred to as land grabbing when transactions bring about human rights violations, lack of transparency and lack of consent by the host community. Land acquisitions generally involve investors from industrialised and emerging economies, whose investments are directed either towards foreign or domestic land, generally for the purpose of production of either food or energy crops.

Land transactions emerged in the early 2000s and accelerated in 2007-2008. The ban to exports and the increase in export levies set up by many food-exporting economies played a role in this process. Investors either aim at primary production of crops or at the ownership of successive stages of the value chain through vertical integration. The drivers of land acquisitions are mainly three. First, the need to secure reliable (domestic) food supplies in the long-term, especially for land and/or water-scarce countries. Secondly, the increasing demand for agrofuels, especially in Europe and the US, supported by subsidies and incentives. The production of energy crops is a major purpose of land acquisitions, in Sub-Saharan Africa. A third factor is the speculation on future increases in the price of agricultural land.

Since April 2012 the Land Matrix Global Observatory have collected the land transactions which have entailed a transfer of rights to use, control or own land through sale, lease or concession; have implied a conversion from land used by smallholders, or for important environmental functions, to large-scale commercial use; are 200 ha or larger; and were not concluded before the year 2000. It is difficult to trace the clear contour of the phenomenon due to the very nature of the phenomenon and the elusive data available.

The number of concerns arised by land acquisitions are many. These are mainly related to the capacity to secure domestic food supplies in the targeted countries after the agreement ; the exclusion of local populations with customary access to land from the new agricultural development projects ; and also the questioning of land and water rights. The growth of land acquisitions in pursuit of biofuel crop production, has raised additional concerns, as biofuel crops compete with food crops not only in terms of land but also water resources, and may also jeopardize food security in the target countries. The need to ensure that large-scale land acquisitions are pursued in a “responsible” fashion has been highlighted. Several initiatives have been aimed at defining responsible investment in the agricultural context, such as the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (PRAI), the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests, the UN Global Compact “Food sustainability – A Guide for Private Sector Action” (a summary of international initiatives is provided in).

The aim of the present study is to analyse the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies to provide ground for ensuring that global investments in farming land are conducted responsibly, that is, considering the social and environmental implications of these investments. The voluntary schemes and certifications adopted by the investors influence their corporate social responsibility, and set economic, environmental and/or social criteria, whose effectiveness in the context of land acquisitions will be here investigated. This goal will be pursued by analysing land agreements involving European investors, with a focus on investments pursued by Italian investors. Italy is the second largest EU investor after the United Kingdom, and is currently involved in 26 investments targeting only African countries, mainly for energy crop production. The expected results are the detailed  analyses of the initiatives adopted by the Italian operators acquiring land abroad, describing their effectiveness in ensuring responsible land investments. The study advances knowledge on the recent wave of land acquisitions for two main reasons. First, it increases understanding on the potential for CSR and voluntary schemes to shift to more responsible investments by providing an in-depth analysis of the extent to which current land acquisitions comply with sustainability criteria or adopt responsible behaviour. Secondly, Italian investments have not been analysed by previous studies, with the exception of a report carried out by the NGO Re: Common.