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http://davidshinn.blogspot.com/2011/12/land-deals-in-south-sudan.html>
Land deals in South Sudan
17/12/2011
Read in PDF:
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_country_
report_south_sudan_2.pdf
The Oakland Institute, a policy-focused NGO, recently issued its
<
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/OI_country
_report_south_sudan_2.pdf> South Sudan report on investment deals in the
country. Based on research conducted between June and October 2011, it found
that from the beginning of 2007 until the end of 2010, private interests
sought or secured 5.15 million hectares of land in the agriculture,
biofuels, forestry, carbon credit, and ecotourism sectors. This constitutes
more than 8 percent of South Sudan's total land area and, it argues,
threatens to undermine the land rights of rural communities, increase food
insecurity, entrench poverty, and skew development patterns in South Sudan.
It looks at four case studies involving investment from the United States,
Finland, UAE, and Egypt.
The report concludes that most of the land deals fail to give due weight to
the land rights of community land owners. Opportunistic companies are taking
advantage of unclear procedures for land allocation to secure favorable
deals with power brokers at the local level. Large-scale land investments
that are currently underway are not complying with domestic law.
International financial institutions and donor countries may be compromising
the sustainability of peace building efforts by encouraging the government
of South Sudan to make land available to foreign companies for industrial
agriculture. The report urges the government of South Sudan to place limits
on land-based investment until it can put in place an appropriate regulatory
framework.
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Received on Sat Dec 17 2011 - 22:31:06 EST