Environmental, climate and socio-economic factors in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs)

Abstract

Since the economic crisis of 2007–2008, during which food commodity prices peaked, there has been an increase in Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs) worldwide (Landmatrix, 2017). In addition to socio-economic factors, climate change might be in relation to LSLAs but its possible role has largely been unrecognized. We assessed the role of economic, political, environmental and climate variables on LSLAs, both in host and investor countries. We hypothesized that investors may be influenced in their land acquisitions by the level of climate change both in the target and the investor countries. We used a gravity model starting from a raw dataset of 2402 concluded deals from 2003 to 2017. The results suggest that climatic conditions play a statistically significant role as explanatory factors for LSLAs in Target countries, confirming the original assumptions.

Keywords

• Large scale land acquisitions
• Climate risk
• Gravity model
• Environmental impact