Competing claims on natural resources

Land is serving as a basis for the production of food, feed, fibres, wood, bio-energy, for biodiversity, recreation and many other goods and services ecosystems provide. Additional to that, land can also be used for infrastructure, houses etc., making no direct use of natural resources, but of the physical land structure. While some resources and ecosystem services can be delivered simultaneously, others are mutually exclusive, and therefore tend to compete for land. Competing claims is a notion that different and/or excessive claims are made on land that may jeopardize its sustained use. Increasing demand for food and energy in the world leads to further intensified use of agricultural land or to the transformation of non-agricultural land into productive agricultural land, with negative consequences for the environment and biodiversity. The objective for this report was to review global and regional market and policy trends governing land use change and competing claims and to explore the role of local power relations and perceptions of stakeholders for competing claims.