Large-scale land acquisitions for carbon offsetting: Green grabbing or just transition?
Analytical report on land-based offset projects
The Land Matrix Initiative and the scope of this report
The Land Matrix Initiative (LMI) is a partnership between the Centre de coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), Centre for Development and Environment (CDE) at the University of Bern, German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and International Land Coalition (ILC) at global level, and the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development (AFA), Centre for Environmental Initiatives Ecoaction, Fundación para el Desarrollo en Justicia y Paz (FUNDAPAZ), and the Resource Conflict Institute (RECONCILE) in Kenya at regional level.
Established in 2009 to address the gap in robust data on the true extent and nature of the “global land rush”, the LMI has evolved into an independent land monitoring initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in decisions over large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) in response to the need to monitor such complex investment flows. We do this by collecting, capturing, and sharing data about LSLAs at global, regional, and national level on our online open access platform. Our four Regional Focal Points (RFPs), located in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America are responsible for data collection in their respective regions. We aim to systematically collect data for deals targeting agricultural production, timber plantations and extraction, carbon sequestration and offsetting, and renewable energy production, as well as case studies for tourism, industry, and mining in LMICs. Specifically, we record transactions that entail a transfer of rights to use, control, or own land through sale, lease, or concession; that cover 200 ha or more; and that have been concluded since the year 2000. We also mostly consider land deals that imply the potential conversion of land from smallholder production, local community use, or important ecosystem service provision to commercial use. In previous analytical reports by the LMI, we examined transnational deals in the agricultural sector. In this report, our focus shifts to deals centred on land-based carbon offsetting in LMICs aimed at compensating for emissions elsewhere. Finally, deals are only included in our public database for countries in which there is information on at least one investor name, one data source, and either the intended, contracted, or operational size. This explains why our database is not exhaustive, although we strive to get more precise and complete data on each deal where possible.
This report is based on a snapshot of the data available in our database taken on 7 July 2025. Since the database is continuously updated and data quality improved, the exact numbers and information available in this report may differ from the information available on the website currently. Our data are open-access and can be retrieved through www.landmatrix.org. Please refer to our frequently asked questions at www.landmatrix. org/ faq for a list of the countries we actively monitor, or to find out more about how we capture, analyse, verify, and use the data.
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