The Global Land Rush revisited: current and future challenges in complex climate & land governance discourse

Based on data from the Land Matrix database, this paper analyses current trends and future challenges in the large-scale land acquisition debate, in the context of the complex and highly fragmented climate and land governance discourse. Within the water-food-energy nexus, current (research) challenges lie in governing (in)securies in the transition toward becoming a more resilient and sustainable society. Innovations in science and technology can help farmers in becoming more resilient toward the negative impacts of climate change and land grabs, which can also help to engage the (r)urban youth in the sector. To be able to deal with increased pressures on water, food, and energy reserves, the current climate and land governance regime requires other, more bottom-up approaches to governance. The worldwide emergence of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and inclusion of these organizations in the climate and land debate, is a good step forward toward more inclusive stakeholder oriented democratic governance approaches and mechanisms. Old institutions are often not able to deal with these new challenges. To be able to cope with these new challenges, governance mechanisms should therefore adaptively manage resilience through more inclusive and reflexive governance mechanisms. This requires reframing of the currently highly fragmented global climate governance regime in order to become more resilient to future challenges.