Introduction: Rushing for land: Equitable and sustainable development in Africa, Asia and Latin America

The global land grab is causing radical changes in the use and ownership of land. This ‘foreignization’ of space is driven primarily by the acquisition of land for growing biofuels, food crops and/or nature conservation. In addition, pressure on the land is rapidly increasing due to entrepreneurs investing in tourism development (including residential tourists buying properties at ‘exotic’ locations); expanding mining concessions; governments developing business parks or urban extensions and acquiring new territories ahead of the rise in sea level and/or REDD; and migrants purchasing land in their areas of origin. Annelies Zoomers argues that this has important implications for equitable and sustainable development: local peoples must either endure enclosure or move to marginal locations