The Land Matrix is a global and independent land monitoring initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in decisions over land and investment.
This website is a Global Observatory - an open tool for collecting and visualising information about large-scale land acquisitions. The figures visible in the Global Observatory are derived from a live database that is constantly evolving. Although the data will never be error-free, a number of erroneous entries and deals that have been found not to fit the data parameters (see What is a land deal?) have been removed since the Land Matrix beta version. However, the main differences are due to the altered ways in which the data is now categorised.
How reliable is the data?
The dataset is inherently unreliable, but over time it is expected to become more accurate. Land deals are notoriously un-transparent. In many countries, established procedures for decision-making on land deals do not exist, and negotiations and decisions do not take place in the public realm.