Each country that is shaded represents where an entity — be it public, private, or governmental — has performed a "land grab" in another country. A "land grab" is defined by GRAIN* as a large-scale land purchase or lease made by foreign investors. According to GRAIN, since 2006, there have been 416 land grabs in 66 countries covering nearly 35 million hectares (86.5 million acres).
The different shades of the map show the intensity of the land grabbing performed by each country, with BRIGHT GREEN representing more hectares grabbed and GRAY representing less hectares grabbed. Click a country for more information how much land was grabbed and on where the land was purchased or leased, as well as what sector the land will be used for. (e.g. agribusiness, construction, finance, industry, real estate, etc.).
Map created by Varun Mangla / Circle of Blue with contributions from Aubrey Ann Parker and Jordan B. Bates of Circle of Blue and technical assistance from Rebecca Shapley of Google Fusion Tables.
*Disclaimer: The landgrabbed and landgrabber information is based on a database provided by GRAIN — a Barcelona-based, 21-year-old international non-profit research and policy organization that advocates for small farmers around the world — which employs eight people and operates on a $US 800,000 (600,000 euros) annual budget, scouring the Internet, news reports, news releases, investor alerts, government announcements, and company news to amass its up-to-date online compendium of land deals. GRAIN's respected online database is widely regarded as the first stop for serious research on the global market in farmland, however, GRAIN acknowledges that its data may not, in specific instances, provide precise verification of every detail included in its database on global land transactions. Read more about a question raised by Circle of Blue on the precision of Grain's "land grab" term in the case of one Australian land grab here.