Netherlands Academy on Land Governance for Equitable and Sustainable Development (LANDac)

LANDac, the Netherlands Land Academy, is a partnership between Dutch organisations and their Southern partners working on land governance for equitable and sustainable development. LANDac was formed in 2010 in response to the need to strengthen the role of knowledge and research in sustainable development, poverty alleviation and international cooperation. LANDac partners share a concern for understanding and addressing new and existing types of land-related conflicts and increasing land inequality, and work together to promote equitable and sustainable development in the Global South through robust and inclusive land governance. The LANDac network brings together actors who might not usually meet, conducts research, and distributes information, focusing on new pressures and competing claims on land and natural resources. LANDac studies the impact of large-scale land deals in agriculture for food production and biofuels, urbanization, tourism; and the role of land laws, reforms, regulations, and voluntary guidelines and principles, in dealing with new pressures. The Dutch partner organizations are: the International Development Studies (IDS) group at Utrecht University (leading partner); African Studies Centre Leiden; Agriterra; the Sociology of Development and Change (SDC) group at Wageningen University; Oxfam Novib; the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT); the Land Portal; Royal Haskoning DHV; VNG International; Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation at the University of Twente; and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mission:LANDac aims to bring together stakeholders who might not otherwise meet – particularly academic researchers, private sector and civil society representatives, and policy makers and in the field of land governance and development. We believe that a multi-stakeholder and participatory approach is the best way to ensure human well-being is at the centre of the land agenda.