Large-scale land-based investments by the food and agriculture,
forestry, and extractive industries can have profound impacts on local
communities in Africa and around the world. They can affect the
quality of the environment; rights to land and other natural resources;
and the livelihoods of all those who live in the area. Demand for land
in low- and middle-income countries, where land rights tend to be
the least secure, has increased substantially in recent years. In Africa,
well in excess of 20 million hectares of land have been transferred to
investors since 2000.1
Because of this situation, governments, international organizations,
business, and civil society have developed guidelines that lay the
groundwork for large land-based investments to respect the rights and
improve the livelihoods of local people.