There is also a growing trend of investments in Asia originating from other Asian countries, possibly facilitated 63 by trade liberalization policies. Since 49 58 2015, member-States of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have begun to open up their economies 48 33 28 to other ASEAN countries with freer flows of goods, services, labor, capital, 2015 2016 2017 and investments, as was envisaged in Asia Philippines the ASEAN Economic Integration. The Figure 1. Environmental Defenders Slain ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint from 2015 to 2017 (Global Witness, 2016-18) also specifies the region’s aim to amplify intra- and extra-ASEAN trade of food, agriculture, and forestry products under a Single Market and Production Base (ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint, 2008; Ravanera and Quitangon, 2013). In 2017, around one-third of the global FDI poured into Asia. The most recent report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed that with over 475 billion USD worth of FDI inflows, Asia received the most FDI in 2017. Investments in the wider Asian region are expected to remain high in 2018 (UNCTAD, 2018). The UNCTAD report also revealed that a quarter of the total investments in Southeast Asia were from other ASEAN countries. In a separate report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), it was documented that the intraregional trade share of Asia rose from an average of 55.9 percent from 2010 to 2015, to a recordhigh of 57.3 percent in 2016 (ADB, 2017). Increasing conflicts and violence While investments are generally regarded to have positive effects on a country’s economic growth, some business ventures may have undesirable effects on rural communities and natural resources. These investments are often in low- and middle-income countries, where resources are controlled by local elites, dated or conflicting land policies are in place, agrarian reforms are either faultily implemented or not instituted, and where land governance is weak. This environment has resulted in the increasing frequency and intensity of land ANGOC and KPA 83