LANDac’s Annual International Conference 2018 focuses on “Land governance and (im)mobility: Exploring the nexus between land acquisition, displacement and migration.” The conference takes place on June 28 & 29 in Utrecht. Call for abstracts is now open; abstract submissions will be accepted until 1 April 2018.

The 2018 conference will look at land investments through the lens of mobility. What are the implications of land based investments on the movements of people? And how have displacement and population movements contributed to new and contesting land claims?

LANDac invites to submit abstract proposals for one of the panels (see full list here), including Inclusive Business and Food Security; Delta Cities and Food Security; and the Learning Platforms.

The 2018 conference takes the land-mobilities nexus as a starting point, focusing on the extent to which land acquisitions trigger the inflow or outflow of particular groups of people – and also yield other mobilities (capital, goods, ideas etc.) and land claims. Providing people with secure and equal access to land is fundamental in giving people the ‘right to remain’, but land acquisitions simultaneously contribute to evictions and displacements, and the resettlement of groups. Up to now, the discussion has focused on respecting land rights, informing the local inhabitants in advance, and, in the case of forced displacement, offering fair compensation.

Given the variety of mobilities, what are good ways forward in land governance?  To what extent can land governance contribute to inclusive development – preventing eviction and displacement, while supporting vulnerable groups to settle in safe places and build secure and sustainable livelihoods? How can property regimes (and ideas of fixing people to the land) move along with these changes and be made more suitable? How do economic transformations – value chain integration, market liberalization or reregulation – affect the ability of rural people to make a living on their lands? What do we know about the stability of ´foreign´ investor communities – and what are the implications of their land investments for the mobility and immobility of local communities? And what is the role of migrants who themselves invest in land – and who are sometimes powerful actors in land-related negotiations that might disadvantage others? At the heart of the conference debates will be the Sustainable Development Goals – what is the role of land governance in the context of the ambition to “leave no one behind”?