Martina Locher is a PhD student at the Department of Geography, Human Geography Division, University of Zurich. Her research focuses on foreign land acquisitions in Tanzania, and particularly on two cases of European forestry companies. It works with a critical livelihoods approach, thus taking a local viewpoint, but putting emphasis on institutions and power relations. The PhD-project aims at contributing to a more detailed understanding of land acquisition procedures and the effects of transnational land deals for local livelihoods. It is associated with the National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South. Before beginning her PhD research, Martina worked for two and a half years in the development cooperation sector in Bangladesh. She completed her Master of Geography with a thesis on gender issues in an integrated nature conservation and development project in Nepal. Contact: martina.locher@remove-this.geo.uzh.ch and http://www.geo.uzh.ch/~mlocher/