EASTGRAB · Understanding Land Grabbing in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: an Integrated Assessment of Impacts, Conflicts and Trade-offs""

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Project objective

The major aim of the EASTGRAB research project is to deepen the existing knowledge of the socio-economic and environmental aspects which characterize the process of agricultural land acquisitions due to commercial purposes, especially in marginalized and poor areas of the world. This process of land trade has been defined recently in the academic literature and in the media as “global land grabbing”. The convergence of global crises in food and energy, has driven a re-valuation of land resource. Transnational and national actors buy or lease large portion of land outside their country borders and all over the world to ensure food, energy and water security at home. The contemporary global land grab has recently become a key development issue. Due to the complexity of the topic, in terms of the large amount of aspects that have to be taken into account, as well as due to the novelty of the research field, in-depth analysis has become crucial in order to have deeper and meaningful debate around this issue. Further research is needed to collect information on land acquisition processes in countries where few studies have been (yet) undertaken, such as is the case of Eastern Europe, as well as Central Asia Region. The EASTGRAB project will further advance the scientific knowledge on this complex and emerging field of research from an interdisciplinary perspective in that region, and specifically in Ukraine, which due to the magnitude of foreign land acquisitions represents the most significant example of land grab in Eastern Europe. The research will integrate methods which belong to both social sciences, such as institutional and conflict analyses, and natural sciences, such as land use changes and environmental degradation due to natural resources’ exploitation. The results are expected to provide a better basis for rural development policies to achieve sustainability in rural areas of Eastern Europe in general and of the study area in particular.""

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM · RotterdamCoordinatorNetherlands

Links

• View on CORDIS