This project examines the role of foreign large scale land acquisitions in shaping development, conservation and sustainability practices in Madagascar, Ethiopia and Uganda. The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa?s arable land, sparking new international debates about land grabbing. While proponents argue that land deals lead to economic growth, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection, detractors point to livelihood losses, cultural changes, land dispossession, and environmental degradation. However, an empirical basis upon which to prove or disprove such assertions is lacking. This project aims to fill this gap by generating an analytical and theoretical framework to analyse the global drivers and local impacts of large-scale mining in Madagascar, foreign food production in Ethiopia, REDD initiatives in Madagascar, and Chinese investments in Ugandas Lake Victoria Free Trade Zone. The project integrates an interdisciplinary (history, anthropology, geography, GIS/Spatial Analysis, political science, ecological economics, linguistics) team of experts active in land studies. Results will be made available and discussed with all relevant stakeholders (smallholders, NGOs, government officials, policy-makers, private sector). Findings should reveal various local realities and implementation processes of land deals thus far lacking in the literature. The research has four aims. First, we will analyse the global actors, networks and interests (e.g. political, economic, social, cultural, environmental) driving foreign land acquisitions, examining the role of the state, neoliberal reforms and donor interests in facilitating land access. Second, a grounded stakeholder analysis will detail local impacts, perceptions and responses to land deals. Third, we will map, through our theoretical model, zones of intermediality, the ontological grids of (inter)national - local stakeholder encounters where diverse ideologies, discourses and practices of land use and valuation are mediated. Fourth, we will use this model to capture commonalities between stakeholders and potential areas of contestation. The four aims are anchored in two phases. Phase I (aims 1, 2) will construct an inventory of stakeholder land claims and intangible/material valuations of land (e.g. heritage, source of identity, biodiversity, food security). Phase II (aims 3, 4) will define zones of intermediality where various cultural paradigms and land claims meet on the same playing field, and imperatives of local cultural references, practices and discourses encounter those of external actors. We posit that this model will neutrally unravel the complexities of stakeholder interaction whilst identifying conflict resolution strategies to mitigate or resolve adverse impacts of land deals.