Indications of Gentle Forest Land Grabbing in Latvia

19th International Scientific Conference "Economic Science for Rural Development 2018": Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference. No.47: Rural Development and Entrepreneurship ; Production and Co-operation in Agriculture 2018
Jānis Viesturs, Armands Auziņš, Inga Šņore

The term land grabbing in scientific literature has been used since approximately 2007 - 2008 to describe a trend of large scale land transactions (deals, acquisitions etc.) in rural areas made mostly by foreign companies or multinational corporations as well as governments. In many places worldwide, such transactions have reached large-scale proportions. There are several similar characteristics that explain what exactly is ‘land grabbing’, its causes and its consequences. The purpose of this research is to identify the trend of land grabbing in general and then to determine whether land grabbing characteristics are found in Latvia. Specifically, this research is focused on the data analysis of forest land owned by foreigners who own a minimum 500 hectares in at least one region of Latvia.

Keywords
land grabbing, large-scale land transactions, international real estate transactions, land foreignization.
DOI
10.22616/ESRD.2018.042
Hyperlink
https://llufb.llu.lv/conference/economic_science_rural/2018/Latvia_ESRD_47_2018-359-367.pdf

Viesturs, J., Auziņš, A., Šņore, I. Indications of Gentle Forest Land Grabbing in Latvia. In: 19th International Scientific Conference "Economic Science for Rural Development 2018": Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference. No.47: Rural Development and Entrepreneurship ; Production and Co-operation in Agriculture, Latvia, Jelgava, 10-11 May, 2018. Jelgava: LLU ESAF, 2018, pp.359-367. e-ISBN 978-9984-48-292-7. ISSN 1691-3078. e-ISSN 2255-9930. Available from: doi:10.22616/ESRD.2018.042

Publication language
English (en)