Land rights and investment treaties

As economic globalisation intensifies and expands its reach, growing global consumption is placing the world's natural resources under unprecedented pressure. Petroleum and minerals are extracted in previously marginal sites, and agribusiness developments have extended their reach, displacing natural habitats and non-intensive land and resource use.

The effects of some 'land grab' deals are now clear to see: lands previously used for common grazing or foraging have been converted to monoculture. More intangible, but equally important changes in international law are shifting the balance between private interests and public authority in competing natural resource claims.

As demand for valuable lands intensifies and land relations become more transnational, struggles over land increasingly rely on international law – creating new opportunities to challenge and demand accountability. For example, indigenous peoples have taken encroachments on their ancestral lands to international human rights bodies.

Meanwhile, international treaties protecting investments can have far-reaching consequences for land relations – whether in the context of redistributive reform or land restitution, or with regards to large-scale land-based investments. 

What did IIED do?

We generated evidence on the linkages between land rights and investment treaties, and fed insights into policy processes at national and international levels.