International investments play a large part in globalising the economy. In developing countries, they can provide the means to exploit natural wealth. Such investments take the form of companies exploiting mines, forests or farmland. On one hand, they can promote the development of agriculture and better use of unexploited or underexploited land, provide work for the national population, and create wealth which benefits the host country. But they pose serious problems when they lead to the expulsion of local populations from their traditional lands and when they add up to no more than the seizure of natural resources for the benefit of the investors, without sufficient consideration or even the slightest consideration for the economy of the host country. In such cases the term ‘grabbing’ of land and natural resources is fully justified.