One of the key contexts of contemporary land grabbing is the changing dynamics in the agrofood, feed and fuel complex in the face of multiple crises. The mainstream idea is that there is a solution to these problems, and the solution lies in the existence of global reserve agricultural lands that are available and can be transformed into zones of production for food, feed and biofuels, and extraction of timber and minerals. But what does it mean „marginal lands?? What are the ways in which such types of lands are identified, measured and quantified, and what are the problems with and implications of these processes? This panel will critically look into these questions.

Chair: Saturnino M. (‘Jun’) Borras Jr. International Institute of Social Studies (ISS)

• Saturnino M. Borras Jr., ISS (The Hague), Danilo Carranza (Rightsnet, Philippines), Jennifer C. Franco (Transnational Institute, Amsterdam) and Maria Lisa Alano (AFRIM, Philippines), Land grabbing and the contested notion of marginal lands: Insights from the Philippines (Presentation)
• Rachel Nalepa, PhD student, Department of Geography and Environment, Boston University, USA, A question of scale: the construction of marginal lands and the limitations of global land classifications (Presentation)
• Gustavo de L. T. Oliveira, PhD Student, Geography Department, University of California at Berkeley, Land regularization in Brazil and the global land grab: a state-making framework for analysis (Presentation)
• Fouad Makki, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University and Charles Geisler, Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University, Development by Dispossession: Land Grabbing as New Enclosures in Contemporary Ethiopia