September 28

Land And Power... OXFAM

Land Trackbacks (0)

The new wave of land deals is not the new investment in agriculture that millions had been waiting for. The poorest people are being hardest hit as competition for land intensifies. Oxfam’s research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests.

Companies and governments must take urgent steps to improve land rights outcomes for people living in poverty. Power relations between investors and local communities must also change if investment is to contribute to rather than undermine the food security and livelihoods of local communities.

Key recommendations

  • The rights of the communities affected by these deals must be respected and their grievances addressed, and those who are profiting from the international deals must help to ensure this happens. Those financing and sourcing from land acquisition projects, and companies further down the value chain, must use their influence to ensure that this happens.
  • The balance of power must be shifted in favor of local rights-holders and communities. Governments should adopt strong, internationally-applicable standards on good governance relating to land tenure and management of natural resources.
  • Host governments should respect and protect all existing land use rights, and ensure that the principle of free, prior, and informed consent is followed and that women have equal rights to access and control over land.
  • Investors should respect all existing land use rights. They should make sure that the principle of free, prior, and informed consent is followed in all agreements, as well as seeking alternatives to the transfer of land rights from small-scale food producers.
  • Financiers and buyers should accept full supply-chain responsibility. They should require all agricultural operations that they finance or use as suppliers to follow the principles set out above, and remedy existing problems.
  • Home country governments should require companies investing overseas to fully disclose their activities, and ensure that standards and safeguards are implemented to protect small-scale food producers and local populations, including through development finance organizations.

 Land and Power: The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land (summary)

 Land and Power: The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land

September 15

Land Restitution, Community Rights And Conservation: A Success Story

South Africa Land Trackbacks (0)

Written by Dr M Weideman

Literature and news related to land reform in South Africa focuses on stark estimates, such as the 90% of land redistribution projects that were deemed to have failed according to the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform in 2010. Successful or innovative cases, however, are seldom reported or discussed...[More]

From: Consultancy Africa Intelligence

July 25

Let’S Transform The Debate On Land Reform

South Africa Land Trackbacks (0)
by Obiozo Ukpabi (blog admin)

This piece draws from PLAAS research evidence as well as opinions of PLAAS researchers voiced in informal discussions. The author takes sole responsibility for any disclaimers.

The future of South Africa’s countryside remains a hot topic for public debate. In anticipation of the release of the long-awaited Green Paper on Land Reform, which has been stuck in an opaque policy process for years, the focus of the political debate has rested on the question of ‘how to get the land’.

While Julius Malema’s calls for nationalisation of mines and land expropriation without compensation have reverberated throughout the country, the key questions that should guide a wider vision for agrarian reform on which a sensible land reform programme is to be based are not being addressed.

These key questions are:

  1. what do we want land reform for;
  2. how and for who do we want it; and
  3. with what land rights will we secure the ownership and tenure of those benefiting from land reform?

If the leaked version of the Green Paper on land reform that was circulating in 2010 is anything to go by the first two questions have hardly been considered in this key policy document...[More]

From Another Countryside: Weblog of the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies

 

June 10

Farmlandgrab.Org

Land Agriculture Trackbacks (0)

 

This website contains mainly news reports about the global rush to buy up or lease farmlands abroad as a strategy to secure basic food supplies or simply for profit. Its purpose is to serve as a resource for those monitoring or researching the issue, particularly social activists, non-government organisations and journalists.

The site, known as farmlandgrab.org, is updated daily, with all posts entered according to their original publication date.

This site was set up by GRAIN as a collection of online materials used in the research behind Seized: The 2008 land grab for food and financial security, a report we issued in October 2008. GRAIN is small international NGO concerned about farmers’ control over biodiversity and local knowledge. We see the current land grab trend as a serious threat to local communities, for reasons outlined in our report.

farmlandgrab.org is an open project. Although currently maintained by GRAIN, anyone can join in posting materials or developing the site further.

 

June 10

GRAIN

Land Agriculture Trackbacks (0)

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and international levels, and fostering new forms of cooperation and alliance-building. Most of our work is oriented towards, and carried out in, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Resources:

• Food crisis - documents and links on the current food crisis

• Agrofuels (biofuels) - documents, links and updates on the issues around agrofuels

• Bird flu - this page provides details of GRAIN publications, external documents and other resources on bird flu and their impact on small-scale farmers.

• Hybrid rice - a resource to help people track the push for hybrid rice and unmask the propaganda surrounding it.

• Bt cotton page - a resource tracking Bt cotton, a critical technology in the biotech industry's efforts to push GM agriculture around the world.

• Biodiversity rights legislation (BRL) A collection of emerging laws that directly affect people's control over agricultural biodiversity in developing countries.

• BIO-IPR - an electronic information service produced by GRAIN. Its purpose is to disseminate news and analysis about recent developments in the field of intellectual property rights (IPRs) related to biodiversity and associated knowledge, especially in developing countries.

• Bilateral deals with TRIPS plus - Bilateral agreements imposing TRIPS-plus intellectual property rights on biodiversity in developing countries

• FAO - This page provides some of the articles or letters that have been written in relation to the FAO in the last few years.


 

June 10

International Conference On Global Land Grabbing, 2011

Land Agriculture Trackbacks (0)

Organised by the Land Deals Politics Initiative ( LDPI) in collaboration with the Journal of Peasant Studies and hosted by the Future Agricultures Consortium at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex.

http://www.future-agricultures.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=1547&Itemid=978

The focus of the conference was on the politics of global land grabbing and agrarian change. The papers and panels address some of the most urgent and strategic questions around global land grab.

Other Resources ( 1 Files )

Conference Papers ( 90 Files )

Presentations ( 84 Files )

June 02

IFAD Report On Land Acquisitions In Africa

Africa Land Trackbacks (0)

The International Fund for Agricultural Development IFAD, has released the First detailed study of large land acquisitions in Africa. The report highlights a number of misconceptions about what have been termed land grabs. It found that land-based investment has been rising over the past five years. But while foreign investment dominates, domestic investors are also playing a big role in land acquisitions.

 UN Pulse Permanent Link: IFAD Report on Land Acquisitions in Africa



January 13

Land Tenure Policy, IFAD

Land Agriculture Trackbacks (0)

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has issued its policy on improving access to land and tenure security (full text, pdf, 488 KB). According to the introduction the policy aims to:

  • provide a conceptual framework for the relationship between land issues and rural poverty, acknowledging the complexity and dynamics of evolving rural realities;
  • identify the major implications of that relationship for IFAD’s strategy and programme development and implementation;
  • articulate guiding principles for mainstreaming land issues in the Fund’s main operational instruments and processes; and
  • provide the framework for the subsequent development of operational guidelines and decision tools.

July 07

FAO Report On Land Degradation

Land Food and Agricultural Organisation Trackbacks (0)
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has issued a new report, Global Assessment of Land Degradation and Improvement (full text, pdf, 7.17 MB). The study, which used data taken over a 20-year period, finds that land degradation is intensifying in many parts of the world. Defined as a long-term decline in ecosystem function and productivity, land degradation is increasing in severity and extent in many parts of the world, with more than 20 percent of all cultivated areas, 30 percent of forests and 10 percent of grasslands undergoing degradation. Learn more from the FAO press release.

UN Pulse Permanent Link: FAO report on land degradation

March 13

Pro-Poor Land Policy. UN-HABITAT

Poverty United Nations Land Trackbacks (0)
The UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) issued a report on How to Develop a Pro-poor Land Policy - Process, Guide and Lessons (full text, pdf, 278 Kb). According to the introduction, "developing new land policies can be a long and difficult process. It is even more so if the policies are to be pro-poor – if they are to help correct the disadvantages that poor people typically suffer in many areas of land policy." 

 Permanent Link: Pro-poor Land Policy UN Pulse 

October 04

Land And Housing In The New South Africa: The Case Of Ethembalethu

World Bank South Africa Housing Land Trackbacks (0)

In Search Of Land and Housing in the New South Africa: The Case of Ethembalethu

 A World Bank case study

The case study suggests a number of areas for policy and program reform:

  • overcoming reluctance and resistance by municipalities and prospective neighbors to low-income settlements
  • making land use planning in municipalities explicitly pro-poor
  • restructuring the land market
  • realigning planning processes
  • designing a land and housing program targeted to peri-urban areas
  • reengineering program implementations
  • freeing up and building capacity