Press release

Europe most dependent on foreign land for goods - new report

10 October 2011

Europe is more dependent on foreign land to provide it with products such as food and clothes than any other region in the world, new research published by Friends of the Earth reveals today, as UN negotiations to regulate land-grabbing begin in Rome.

The report calculates different national and regional  'land footprints' - land used domestically plus land used overseas to provide imported products such as crops and wood, minus the land used for exports - and exposes the reasons behind an international rush to buy land.

The study, based on the latest available data (2004), shows Europe imports nearly 60 per cent of the 640 million hectares it depends on for food and clothes. The UK and Germany each import nearly 80 million hectares per year, making them the fifth and third biggest land importers globally, behind the US (242m ha) and Japan (171m ha). 

Britons use nearly four times as much land per person than people in countries such as China and India, and Europeans use on average more than three times as much land, through their consumption.

The study reveals that Europe's high and rising demand for meat, dairy, wood and other land-hungry products like biofuels are among the main reasons for our dependence on foreign land.

The report also shows the UK's total land-use increased by 16 per cent between 1997 and 2004, well above the rate of population growth. As developing countries increase their land consumption, Friends of the Earth is calling on policy makers in developed countries such as the UK to take steps to reduce theirs.

Friends of the Earth's Resource Campaigner Julian Kirby said: 

"Rich nations like the UK are swallowing huge swathes of land across the world to fuel our hungry lifestyle, threatening local wildlife and the ability of communities to feed themselves.

"The UK is facing competition for land due to soaring demand from countries like China and India - with only one planet to share it's in the economic interests of densely-populated countries like ours to cut their impact.

"We must tread more lightly on the planet to reduce our massive footprint through measures such as cutting waste, avoiding land-hungry biofuels and switching to less, but better quality, meat and dairy."

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. The report, 'Europe's Global Land Demand', by Friends of the Earth Europe and the Sustainable Europe Research Institute, is available as a short summary of the key findings or in full.      
2. The new analysis uses the most recent data available, from 2004, but it can be assumed that Europe's current demand for land is now even higher due to increasing use of land-hungry energy sources such as biofuels and biomass. 
3. The EU average land consumption is 1.3 hectares per capita, while countries such as China and India use less than 0.4 hectares per capita.
4. Friends of the Earth International is calling for:

• The EU and US to immediately scrap mandates or subsidies for biofuels use.
• The EU and US to use on-going reforms of farm policies to tackle their huge imports of feed and food. 
• The EU to start measuring its land footprint by making member states report annual land footprints and start taking appropriate and fair measures to reduce its overall land footprint.
• All Governments to take a strong position in UN negotiations on land tenure by opposing land grabs.
• Governments to work to protect and strengthen communities' rights and promote investment in small-scale food producers and ecological production systems.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust