Mary University); André Tioro (Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et de Producteurs de l’Afrique de l’Ouest ROPPA); Rivo Ratsialonana (Land Observatory, Madagascar); Ruff Hall (Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, PLAAS); and Annelies Zoomers (Utrecht University). Insightful comments on earlier drafts of the study’s findings were received from key policy makers at the national and state levels, multilateral and bilateral development partners, academia, civil society, and international organizations during a series of workshops and conferences: the World Bank Annual Bank Conference on Land Policy and Administration (April 2010, Washington, DC), the Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Workshop (May 2010, Helsinki), the West and Central Africa as well as Eastern Africa Regional Consultation for the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines on Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other Natural Resources (June 2010, Ouagadougou; September 2010, Addis-Ababa) and private sector consultation (January 2010, London), the Central Africa Rural Development Briefing of the ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (Yaoundé, September 2010), the Centre d’Analyse Stratégique (March 2010, Paris), the “Land Tenure and Development” joint technical committee of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the French Development Agency (May and November 2009, Paris), the World Forestry Congress (October 2009, Buenos Aires), and the CIRAD “land day” (September 2009, Montpellier). In the evolution of the study, valuable inputs were received at a side session to the United Nations General Assembly (September 2009, New York), the Land Day in conjunction with the Annual Meeting of the Global Donor Platform (January 2010, Rome), the European Development Days (October 2009, Stockholm), and a Chatham House Conference (November 2009, United Kingdom), and in various nongovernmental organization and private sector conferences and workshops, including the “Commercial Pressures on Land: Rethinking Policies for Development” conference co-organized by the Centre for Development Studies, University of Groningen, Utrecht University, Oxfam Novib, International Land Coalition, and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (July 2009, Utrecht) and the Global AgInvesting Conference (June 2009, New York). This work would not have been possible without generous support from a number of partners. Funding of the inventory and legal analysis components of this research was provided by the Program on Forests (PROFOR) with a view toward identifying possible implications of future land expansions on forested areas. Significant support was received from the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development (SDC), the Trust Fund for Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development (TFESSD), the Hewlett Foundation, and the Bank Netherlands Partnership Program (BNPP) to support in-depth social, environmental, and economic case studies. We are also very grateful to the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research for their support in the form of a seconded staff to the World Bank.
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