The spectacular global land rush: its character, extent and consequences

The spectacular land rush is over, but land grabbing continues. It is likely to gain greater momentum in the near future. In this paper, we caution against conflating several key terms associated with the global land rush (especially land rush and land grabbing), stress the importance of clarifying what is meant by operational and failed land deals, and highlight the need to differentiate between land deals based on the status of the enterprises as well as the scale of land grabs. Together, these measures have enabled us to conclude that land grabbing is a persistent social reality despite the waning media interest. We argue not only that the scope of land rush is different from that of land grabs, but also that the scope of both is far wider, and their impact on people, ecology and societies much more far-reaching, than previously estimated and understood. This has implications for how we study land politics, and how we view political and practical policy work related to land more generally.