Land grabbing: the phenomenon and its extent in Europe

Abstract

In the last decades the interest for fertile land has increased and especially from 2008, in correspondence with the global crisis, it has been registered a raise in the volume of the purchase or lending of land. Transnational and national economic actors are eagerly acquiring large plots of land on which develop, maintain or extend large-scale extractive and agro-industrial enterprises in developing countries, both by developed countries and emerging ones. This phenomenon is commonly known as land grabbing, and it has serious consequences at the economic, environmental and social level. Usually land grabbing is affecting developing countries, especially in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. However, in the last years, the phenomenon has been registered in some parts of Europe. Land Grabbing in Europe is a slightly different phenomenon than the one usually known, first of all because it does not involve developing countries but developed ones, such as Bulgaria, Lithuania, Romania, Croatia, Ukraine and southern Spain. In those areas the phenomenon is constantly growing: recent studies have shown an increase in land-deals and of allocation of lands in the hands of few. There is an ongoing debate in the European Union institutions, which are concerned on the impact of the population. My thesis provides an overview of the phenomenon, describing the drivers, impacts, modality and extent of land grabbing and how it differs from the phenomenon going on in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia. Moreover, it examines which European policies, like the Common Agricultural Policy and the Renewable Energy Directive are influencing the spread and extension of land grabbing.