VOA标准英语2012-- Leasing Land, Leasing Water

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A new report says land acquisitions in Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America have sharply increased since the 2007/2008 food crisis. Some fear the investments by foreign countries and private corporations could lead to regional tensions over water rights.

最近一份报告称，自从2007-2008粮食危机以来，非洲、东南亚和拉美的土地征用规模急剧扩大。有人担心外国和私人企业投资会导致当地用水权的紧张。

The Stockholm International Water Institute released the report at the 6th World Water Forum¹ in Marseille, France. (3/12-17/2012) The study -- Land Acquisitions: How will they impact transboundary waters? -- says there is very little systematic² analysis of land investment.

斯德哥尔摩国际水研究所在马赛第六届世界水论坛（3/12-17/2012）上发表一份报告，标题是：土地征用将如何影响跨界水资源，报告称有关土地投资的系统分析很少。

The World Bank estimates nearly 60 million hectares of land in Africa were leased in 2009 – and over 200 million hectares leased in developing countries overall in the past 10 years.

世界银行估计，2009年非洲有将近6000万公顷土地租出，过去十年间，发展中国家出租土地超过了2亿公顷。

The land is being used not only to grow food, but crops for biofuels as well.

土地不仅用于种植粮食，还种植制造生物燃料的作物。

Who’s who?

“There is a range of actors. India and China are big in these land acquisitions, but also European and U.S. companies are making investments. Other big actors are some of the water-short countries in the Middle East – Jordan, Arab Emirates and so forth³. Even northern European ones, such as my own country Sweden, have companies that are investing in these African lands,” said Anders Jagerskog, the institute’s director of applied⁴ research and co-author of the report.

Anders Jagerskog是该研究所的应用研究主任，他是这份报告的合作者，他说，“很多国家都在出租土地，印度和中国的土地征用规模很大，不过欧洲和美国公司也在做这方面的投资。还有中东一些水缺乏国家，比如约旦、阿拉伯酋长国等。甚至像我们瑞典这样的北欧国家，也有公司在非洲投资土地。”

Since all the leases are not readily available for public inspection⁵, Jagerskog says it’s difficult to know just how many African countries are involved.

Jagerskog说，由于无法及时对整个租地现状进行公开检查，很难知道究竟多少非洲国家在从事这项交易。

“I know that there’s been [a] fair degree of investments in Sudan and Ethiopia, also in Mozambique, Madagascar, Nigeria and a country like Liberia, in relative terms at least, that has been leasing a lot of its land. Some figures say up to 60 percent of its Agricultural land has been leased, although that may be on the high end of the estimates,” he said.

“我知道，在苏丹、埃塞俄比亚、莫桑比克、马达加斯加、尼日利亚以及像利比里亚这样的国家，至少都出租了大量土地。有数据表明，非洲多达60%的农业用地都出租出去了，不过这可能是最高估计。”

The report says land investment is a water investment. So do countries leasing the land automatically have rights to the water?

报告称土地投资也是水资源的投资，这么说来，那些租用土地的国家也就自动获得水资源权吗？

“Often we have found that water is presumed to be included in the contract without explicitly⁶ mentioning it in these land lease agreements. And that has a lot of implications for land and water rights in these areas and these countries, which may have [an] effect on [the] national level, for pastoralists and so forth, but even moreso perhaps on an international level. In river basins, some of these land leases have occurred, and the implications have not been taken into account in river basin organizations or the equivalent of those,” said Jagerskog.

“我们发现，通常情况下土地出租协议上没有明确规定，水就自然被认为包含在协议中。这就对这些地区和国家的土地和水权利有很大影响，可能会影响到全国，包括牧民等群体，甚至还会影响到整个国际。一些流域也被签入协议，但流域组织等单位却没有考虑到这些影响。”

In many cases indigenous⁷ people, who’ve lived on these lands for generations, have not been consulted about the land leases.

在许多情况下，签订土地出租协议时，根本没有咨询过那些世代生活在土地上的土著居民。

“There could be a positive spin to all these investments – technological⁸ transfer, foreign direct investment that, if managed in a good way, boost the economies of these African countries. But the evidence seems to point in the other direction. That these deals are not necessarily that good for the countries that are seeing these investments,” he said.

“所有这些投资会带来一系列积极的东西—技术转让和外国直接投资，如果管理得当，就能促进这些国家经济的发展。但实际情况好像并非如此，对于那些追求这类投资的国家来说，这样的协议未必就很好。”

The Stockholm International Water Institute report recommends that international principles be followed in land leasing. It says this would help protect host countries and local populations. It says while the land deals could help ensure food security in countries leasing the land, they also run the risk of creating food insecurity in the host countries.

斯德哥尔摩国际水研究所的这份报告建议说，土地出租应遵循一定的国际原则，这就可以保护东道国和当地居民。报告还说，土地协议还能确保土地出租国的粮食安全，不过也有可能会导致东道国粮食的不安全局面。

What’s more, a land deal signed by one country could have detrimental⁹ effects on the water rights of neighboring countries.

另外，一国签署的土地协议，可能会危害邻国的水权。

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