Elite land grabbing in Namibian communal areas and its impact on subsistence farmers’ livelihoods

Abstract

Large scale land acquisitions by foreign investors in Africa for agricultural purposes continue to capture attention worldwide. In recent years Namibia has received some proposals from multi-national agricultural corporations to develop large scale irrigation projects, mainly in Namibia’s water rich north-eastern regions However, to date none of these proposed large scale projects have materialised. In 2010 two proposed large scale agricultural projects in the northeastern communal areas of Namibia did not come to fruition. Plans to develop a 10 000ha commercial crop production farm within the Bwabwata National Park were dropped after an environmental assessment showed that it was not feasible for the developer, Demeter, to continue with the project.