Land Grabbing Models in the International Scenario: the Case Study of the European Union

Abstract

The worldwide increase in population and consumption has produced a growing demand for food and energy in the rich and developing Countries and has intensiied the search for land on which to carry investments without transparency rules and without creating real conditions of development of local populations. The aim of this paper is to identify, through a cluster analysis, homogeneous group of investor countries and to verify if exist Land grabbing model for the EU Member States. The results show that the strategies adopted by the investors are driven by the need to achieve energy security and reduce CO2 emissions and to cope with the problems of food security in view of the exponential growth of the population. In particular, the acquisitions of EU Member States are driven by the need to reduce the energy deicit in view of the achievement of the objectives set out in the “Europe 2020.”