This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: African governments are using foreign investment, infrastructure projects and conservation schemes to extend their control over land and communities, according to new research spanning 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The study challenges the idea that African states are simply too weak to regulate powerful foreign investors.
Instead, the researchers argue that governments can actively use investment and partnerships with external organizations to strengthen their own authority—sometimes at the expense of communities' existing land rights. However, they say this does not diminish the responsibility of foreign investors, donors and conservation organizations, whose active participation helps shape these processes. The research, by The University of Manchester's Dr.
Carolin Dieterle and Yuezhou Yang of the University of Oxford, examines how governments use land policy not just to encourage economic development, but also to extend and consolidate their power. The paper is published in the journal Geoforum. The researchers analyzed 24 cases across 14 countries, combining fieldwork conducted between 2018 and 2024 in Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Kenya with a review of existing research and policy documents.
They identify two connected strategies. The first, which they call "widening," involves extending government authority into areas where control has traditionally been limited or shared with local communities. Governments can do this by attracting large-scale land investment, building transport and infrastructure corridors, or designating land for conservation.
The second strategy, "deepening," involves strengthening that authority over time through laws, administrative systems, land registration and technical tools such as digital mapping. In some cases, governments have described land as empty, ungoverned or underused to make it appear available for development. The researchers argue that such descriptions can overlook existing farming, pastoralism, customary land rights and local systems of governance.
The study highlights examples across the continent. In Ethiopia, government efforts to attract large-scale agricultural investment included identifying land for a federal land bank and promoting it as available for productive use. In northern Uganda, claims that land was uninhabited or ungoverned helped justify reclassifying customary land and allocating it for investment projects.
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