Summary
The commodity-boom of the mid-2000s saw a wave of land-use investments in low- and middle-income countries. The authors of this report review relevant literature and global datasets to evaluate the past trends and evolving patterns of this investment, as well as its underlying policies and frameworks, focusing on foreign investment in agriculture, mining and petroleum. The report goes on to discuss legal empowerment in the context of land use investments, presenting cross-cutting trends from a number of case studies, and identifying possible ways forward to improve the legal empowerment of rural people affected by foreign investments in land use change.