Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS): Recent submissions
Now showing items 221-240 of 615
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Conservation and ecotourism on privatised land in the Mara, Kenya: The case of conservancy land leases
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012)This paper investigates private sector investment in conservation and ecotourism through conservancy land leases in the Mara region of Kenya. In a recent and growing tourism development, groups of Maasai landowners are ... -
Drivers and actors in large-scale farmland acquisitions in Sudan
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012)This study analyses the political, economic and social impacts of the land and ‘virtual water’ grab in Southern Sudan. The ‘virtual water’ concept, which explains the absence of water wars through water embedded in ... -
Commercial biofuel land deals & environment and social impact assessments in Africa: Three case studies in Mozambique and Sierra Leone
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)The rapid increase in attempts by foreign investors to acquire large tracts of land in Africa for biofuel developments has generated substantial concern about their potential negative impact on the communities living in ... -
The role of foreign investment in Ethiopia’s smallholder-focused agricultural development strategy
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)Recent foreign agricultural investment in Africa has generated a great deal of interest and criticism, with western media warning of a neo-colonial ‘land grab’. This paper moves beyond this narrow assessment by examining ... -
Household livelihoods and increasing foreign investment pressure in Ethiopia’s natural forests
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)Foreign investment in Ethiopia’s forestry sector is currently limited, but agricultural investments that affect forests — largely through forest clearing — are commonplace. We describe the nature of forest investments ... -
'Land belongs to the community’: Demystifying the ‘global land grab’ in Southern Sudan
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2011)Sudan is among the global ‘hotspots’ for large-scale land acquisitions. Although most of this investment activity was thought to be focused in the Northern part of the country, recent research indicates that a surprising ... -
Who gets the human appropriation of net primary production?: Biomass distribution & the ‘sugar economy’ in the Tana Delta, Kenya
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2012)In this article we focus on the connection between purchases of land and the emerging ‘biomass-economy’, analysing biomass distribution in a region targeted for land-grabbing in order to understand the process from both ... -
Foreign investments and livelihoods in northern Zambia
(Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, 2018-12)This study employs a wider livelihoods approach to challenge some insular neo-classical economic narratives on the nature, process and impact of large-scale land acquisitions on smallholder farmers living on Africa’s ... -
Cape Town's African poor
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2004)The typical ‘face of poverty’ in South Africa is no longer that of a rural woman engaged in subsistence agricultural production. Poverty today also refers to the large number of unemployed men who wait daily in vain on ... -
Forgotten by the highway: Globalisation, adverse incorporation and chronic poverty in a commercial farming district
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2004)This paper presents key findings from a livelihoods survey of households in four poor neighbourhoods in the Western Cape district of Ceres, one of the centres of South Africa’s deciduous fruit export industry (see Figure ... -
Poverty measurement blues: Some reflections on the space for understanding ‘chronic’ and ‘structural’ poverty in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2005)This paper explores the challenge of understanding chronic and structural poverty in South Africa, and questions the dominance of the econometric imaginary in present-day development and poverty studies. It argues that ... -
Chronic and structural poverty in South Africa: Challenges for action and research
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2005)Ten years after liberation, the persistence of poverty is one of the most important and urgent problems facing South Africa. This paper reflects on some of the findings based on research undertaken as part of the participation ... -
Overcoming inequality and structural poverty in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2010)Data indicates that between 1994 and 2008 poverty in South Africa declined marginally, but that inequality continues to increase, and the full impact of the rise in unemployment following the global financial crisis has ... -
Beyond populism or paralysis: a real debate on South Africa’s land reform trajectory
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2011)On 24 October 2011 the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) convened a public dialogue on South Africa’s land reform trajectory at Townhouse Hotel and Conference Centre in Cape Town. Present were a wide ... -
Study of sugarcane outgrowing at Kilombero
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2015) -
Agricultural investment, gender and land in Africa: Towards inclusive equitable and socially responsible investment
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2014)The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations; the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa; the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC); ... -
Making investment work for Africa: A parliamentarian response to “land grabs”
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2011)A new wave of foreign investment in Africa’s farmland and water was triggered in 2008 by the growing demand in Europe and North America for biofuels, spikes in oil prices, the global food crisis and the world financial ... -
PLAAS Workshop Report: National Land Workshop for Civil Society: Johannesburg, 2–4 October 2013
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2013)A number of recent government policies and bills seem to suggest that land may increasingly be transferred into the hands of traditional leaders and other elite strategic partners, rather than to communities, who will ... -
Report on an international symposium: The politics of poverty research and pro-poor policy making: Learning from the practice of policy dialogue
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2012) -
Workshop Report: Re-thinking rural transformation in South Africa
(Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), 2011)The Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) and Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) have collaborated to convene a civil society workshop aimed to strengthen strategic engagement around rural development and ...