Seminar Series on Water, Energy and Food Security

Organizers

IUAV University of Venice

Venice International University

With the endorsement of

INEA, National Institute of Agricultural Economics

Comitato Expo Venezia

Enel Foundation

When

From October 2014 to January 2015

On Wednesdays at 2 pm

Where

Palazzo Badoer, San Polo 2468, 30125 Venice

Seminars Series on "Water, energy and food security towards Expo 2015. The challenge of large-scale land acquisitions".

The need to ensure the sustainability of food and energy provision for a rising population is the main theme addressed by the forthcoming Expo to be held in Milan in 2015. The increasing pace and dynamics of land acquisitions and the implicit appropriation of water resources poses major challenges to water, food and energy security. In this context, the proposed workshops aim to explore the main drivers and implications of land transactions around the world, with a particular focus on developing countries. Europe, and Italy particular, plays a major role as an investor in foreign land, which has been raising major concerns about the claimed sustainability of EU energy and food policies and targets.

The purpose of the seminar series is to discuss the identified issues by attracting contributions from leading international scientists active in this field of enquiry.

The duration of each seminar is 3 hours.

Participation to the workshop is free of charge.

However, for organisational purposes, participation will be subject to registration.

Please register here. 

October 22, 2014

“Land deals: drivers, scope and impacts. The pathway towards more responsible investments”

The seminar will introduce the topic of land deals, focusing on its characteristics, dimensions and impacts. Prof. Messerli from the University of Bern will address the consequences of the land deals in developing countries and those who are most affected by this investments. Prof. Kaitlin Cordes, the head of the section “Land and Agricultre” at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Development will discuss on the controversy of the deals and the respect for human rights. 

Peter Messerli (University of Bern) “Marginal land or marginal people? Analysing patterns and processes of large-scale land acquisitions in the Global South”

Kaitilin Cordes (Earth Institute, Columbia University) “Large-scale land acquisitions, contract farming, and human rights”

November 5, 2014

“The water dimension of global land acquisitions"

Every investment made on agricultural land is determined by water resources and this in turn determines a change in the use and allocation of resources. This topic will be the main focus of the remarks of Prof. Ward Anseeuw from the University of Pretoria and of Prof. Maria Cristina Rulli from the Polytechnic University of Milan. 

Maria Cristina Rulli (Politecnico di Milano) “Water appropriation in large-scale land acquisitions”

Ward Anseeuw (University of Pretoria), “Challenges in accounting for global investments in farming land"

November 26, 2014

“Conflicts and land acquisitions”

The European and international conflicts emerged from land acquisition is a subject to e addressed in the remarks of Prof. Laurea Fregolent, IUAV University of Venice and in the comments of Matilde Carabellese, from Università Orientale di Napoli that will focus particularly on the Argentinean case. 

Laura Fregolent (University IUAV of Venice) “Conflicts, landscape and renewable energies”

Matilde Carabellese (University of Naples) “Land grab: the case of soya and Argentina”

Filiberto Altobelli (Istituto Nazionale di Economia Agraria) “Food security and Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment: international debate and policy initiatives”

December 10, 2014

“Data availability and transparency in global land acquisitions”

The complexity in the studies related to land acquisitions derives from the difficult data availability. This is due to the ambiguity of the phenomenon of land deals and the difficulty to verify the investments advancement state, often based only on oral agreements between the investors and the land owners. This topic will be part of the intervention of Stefania Bracco from the University of Siena and of the comment of Martin Ostermeier, from the German Institute of Global Area Study. 

Martin Ostermeier (Hamburg, GIGA), “The Land Matrix – Patterns and Challenges of Tracking Large-Scale Land Acquisitions”

Stefania Bracco (University of Siena) “Large-Scale Land Acquisitions in Africa: Exploring Actors, Roles and Responsibilities”

Jannuary 14, 2015

“Land and water resources: balancing the needs for food and energy”

Which are the main consequences of land acquisitions in terms of food and energy security in the countries those deals take place? The goal of the seminar is to explore the connection water-land-food and energy through the interventions of Prof. Holger Hoff form the Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Emma Li Johansson, PhD student at Lund Unviersity and of Prof. Mario Giampietro, Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona. 

Mario Giampietro (University Autonoma Barcellona) “The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: A Multi-scale Bioeconomic Perspective”

Holger Hoff (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research) “Large-scale land acquisitions and the water-food-energy nexus”

Emma Li Johansson (University of Lund) “Virtual water exports from land acquisitions in Africa”

January 28, 2015

EU and International Land deals

Giuseppina Siciliano will focus on the topic of land acquisition by the major European investments, illustrating the relationship between the agricultural and energy policies of the European Union and investments in agricultural land in third countries. Will participate to the seminar Prof. Giorgia Giovanetti from Florence University, Prof. Nadia Cuffaro from University of Cassino  and  Prof. Tim Kreiger from Freiburg University.

Giuseppina Siciliano (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) “European transnational investments in agricultural land: drivers, dimension and geography”  

Giorgia Giovannetti e Nadia Cuffaro (University of Firenze; University of Cassino) “Large scale land acquisitions in developing countries: new evidence and development challenges”

Tim Krieger (University of Freiburg) “How Institutions Shape Land Deals: The Role of Corruption”