“…In general, global-scale inventories of land deals are difficult to compile because the acquisition and development of agricultural land are a highly dynamic process and access to the data is often limited due to lack of openness in the agencies that record land transactions, concessions, titles, and licenses; moreover, data can have different degrees of reliability depending on the main source of information (i.e. media reports, policy reports, companies' information, official government records, international and non-governmental organizations and academics) ( Messerli et al, 2014;Schoneveld, 2014;Anseeuw et al, 2013 ). To overcome some of the above limitations the Land Matrix database distinguishes the different stages (concluded, intended, or failed) in the granting process and indicates data sources in order to provide a refined and more differentiated picture of the phenomenon ( Anseeuw et al, 2013 ).…”