STOP LAND GRABBING NOW!

Say NO to the principles of “responsible” agro-enterprise
investment promoted by the World Bank
State and private investors, from Citadel Capital to Goldman Sachs, are leasing or buying
up tens of millions of hectares of farmlands in Asia, Africa and Latin America for food and
fuel production. This land grabbing is a serious threat to the food sovereignty of our
peoples and the right to food of our rural communities. In response to this new wave of
land grabbing, the World Bank (WB) is promoting a set of seven principles to guide such
investments and make them successful. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO),
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development (UNCTAD) have agreed to join the WB in collectively pushing
these principles. 1 Their starting point is the fact that the current rush of private sector
interest to buy up farmland is risky. After all, the WB has just finalised a study showing
the magnitude of this trend and its central focus on transferring rights over agricultural
land in developing countries to foreign investors. The WB seems convinced that all private
capital flows to expand global agribusiness operations where they have not yet taken
hold are good and must be allowed to proceed so that the corporate sector can extract
more wealth from the countryside. Since these investment deals are hinged on massive
privatisation and transfer of land rights, the WB wants them to meet a few criteria to
reduce the risks of social backlash: respect the rights of existing users of land, water and
other resources (by paying them off ); protect and improve livelihoods at the household
and community level (provide jobs and social services); and do no harm to the
environment. These are the core ideas behind the WB's seven principles for socially
acceptable land grabbing.
These principles will not accomplish their ostensible objectives. They are rather a move to
try to legitimize land grabbing. Facilitating the long-term corporate (foreign and
domestic) takeover of rural people's farmlands is completely unacceptable no matter
which guidelines are followed. The WB's principles, which would be entirely voluntary, aim
to distract from the fact that today's global food crisis, marked by more than 1 billion
people going hungry each day, will not be solved by large scale industrial agriculture,
which virtually all of these land acquisitions aim to promote.
1 "Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment that Respects Rights, Livelihoods and Resources"
Available at:
http://www.donorplatform.org/component/option,com_docman/task,doc_view/gid,12802
Land grabbing has already started to intensify in many countries over the past 10-15
years with the adoption of deregulation policies, trade and investment agreements, and
market oriented governance reforms. The recent food and financial crises have provided
the impetus for a surge in land grabbing by governments and financial investors trying
to secure agricultural production capacity and future food supplies as well as assets that
are sure to fetch high returns. Wealthy governments have sought to lease agricultural
lands for long periods of time to feed their populations and industries back home. At the
same time, corporations are seeking long term economic concessions for plantation
agriculture to produce agro-fuels, rubber, oils, etc. These trends are also visible in coastal
areas, where land, marine resources and water bodies are being sold, leased, or developed
for tourism to corporate investors and local elites, at the expense of artisanal fishers and
coastal communities. One way or the other, agricultural lands and forests are being
diverted away from smallhold producers, fishers and pastoralists to commercial purposes,
and leading to displacement, hunger and poverty.
With the current farmland grab, corporate driven globalisation has reached a new phase
that will undermine peoples’ self-determination, food sovereignty and survival as never
before. The WB and many governments see land and rights to land, as a crucial asset base
for corporations seeking high returns on capital since land is not only the basis for
producing food and raw materials for the new energy economy, but also a way to capture
water. Land is being revalued on purely economic terms by the WB, governments and
corporations and in the process, the multi-functionality, and ecological, social and cultural
values of land are being negated. It is thus more important than ever that these
resources are defended from corporate and state predation and instead be made
available to those who need them to feed themselves and others sustainably, and to
survive as communities and societies.
Land grabbing – even where there are no related forced evictions - denies land for local
communities, destroys livelihoods, reduces the political space for peasant oriented
agricultural policies and distorts markets towards increasingly concentrated agribusiness
interests and global trade rather than towards sustainable peasant/smallhold production
for local and national markets. Land grabbing will accelerate eco-system destruction and
the climate crisis because of the type of monoculture oriented, industrial agricultural
production that many of these “acquired” lands will be used for. Promoting or permitting
land grabbing violates the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights and undermines the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Land
grabbing ignores the principles adopted by the International Conference on Agrarian
Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD) in 2006 and the recommendations made by the
International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development
(IAASTD).
Land grabbing must be immediately stopped. The WB’s principles attempt to create the
illusion that land grabbing can proceed without disastrous consequences to peoples,
communities, eco-systems and the climate. This illusion is false and misleading. Farmer's
and indigenous peoples organisations, social movements and civil society groups largely
agree that what we need instead is to:
1. Keep land in the hands of local communities and implement genuine agrarian
reform in order to ensure equitable access to land and natural resources.
2. Heavily support agro-ecological peasant, smallhold farming, fishing and
pastoralism, including participatory research and training programmes so that
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small-scale food providers can produce ample, healthy and safe food for
everybody.
3. Overhaul farm and trade policies to embrace food sovereignty and support local
and regional markets that people can participate in and benefit from.
4. Promote community-oriented food and farming systems hinged on local people's
control over land, water and biodiversity. Enforce strict mandatory regulations that
curb the access of corporations and other powerful actors (state and private) to
agricultural, coastal and grazing lands, forests, and wetlands.
No principles in the world can justify land grabbing!
La Via Campesina
FIAN
Land Research Action Network (LRAN)
GRAIN
22 April 2010
Endorsed by:
AFRICA
 African Biodiversity Network (ABN)
 Anywaa Survival Organisation,
Ethiopia
 Association Centre Ecologique
Albert Schweitzer (CEAS BURKINA),
Burkina Faso
 Coordination Nationale des
Usagers des Ressources Naturelles
du Bassin du Niger au Mali, Mali
 CNCR (Conseil National de
Concertation et de Coopération
des Ruraux), Sénégal
 Collectif pour la Défense des
Terres Malgaches TANY
 Confédération Paysanne du
Congo, Congo RDC
 COPAGEN (Coalition pour la
protection du patrimoine
génétique africaine)
 East African Farmers Federation
(EAFF)
 Eastern and Southern Africa Small
Scale Farmers' Forum (ESAFF)
 Economic Justice Network of
FOCCISA, Southern Africa
 Food Security, Policy and
Advocacy Network (FoodSPAN),
Ghana
 FORA/DESC, Niger
 Ghana Civil Society Coalition on
Land (CICOL), Ghana
 Haki Ardhi, Tanzania
 Inades-Formation
 IPACC (Indigenous People of Africa
Co-ordinating Committee)
 London International Oromo
Workhshop Group, Ethiopia
 ROPPA (Réseau des Organisations
Paysannes et des Producteurs de
l'Afrique de l'Ouest)
 Synergie Paysanne, Bénin
ASIA
 Aliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria
(AGRA), Indonesia
 All Nepal Peasants' Association
(ANPA), Nepal
 Alternative Agriculture Network,
Thailand
 Alternate Forum for Research in
Mindanao (AFRIM), Philippines
 Andhra Pradesh Vyvasaya
Vruthidarula Union (APVVU), India
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 Anti Debt Coalition (KAU),
Indonesia
 Aquila Ismail, Pakistan
 Asian Human Rights Commission
(AHRC)
 Bantad Mountain Range
Conservation Network, Thailand
 Biothai (Thailand)
 Bridges Across Borders Southeast
Asia, Cambodia
 Centre for Agrarian Reform,
Empowerment and
Transformation, Inc., Philippines
 Centro Saka, Inc., Philippines
 CIDSE, Lao PDR
 Daulat Institute, Indonesia
 Delhi Forum, India
 Focus on the Global South, India,
Thailand, Philippines
 Foundation for Ecological
Recovery/TERRA, Thailand
 Four Regions Slum Network,
Thailand
 Friends of the Earth Indonesia
(WALHI), Indonesia
 HASATIL, Timor Leste
 IMSE, India
 Indian Social Action Forum
(INSAF), India
 Indonesian Fisher folk Union (SNI),
Indonesia
 Indonesian Human Rights
Committee for Social Justice
(IHCS), Indonesia
 Indonesian Peasant' Union (SPI).
Indonesia
 International Collective in Support
of Fishworkers (ICSF), India
 Kelompok Studi dan
Pengembangan Prakarsa
Masyarakat/Study Group for the
People Initiative Development
(KSPPM), Indonesia
 KIARA-Fisheries Justice Coalition
of Indonesia, Indonesia
 Klongyong and Pichaipuben Land
Cooperatives, Thailand
 Land Reform Network of Thailand,
Thailand
 Lokoj Institute, Bangladesh
 MARAG, India
 Melanesian Indigenous Land
Defense Alliance (MILDA)
 My Village, Cambodia
 National Fisheries Solidarity
Movement (NAFSO), Sri Lanka
 National Fishworkers Forum, India
 National Forum of Forest Peoples
and Forest Workers, India
 Northeastern Land Reform
Network, Thailand
 Northern Peasant Federation,
Thailand
 NZNI, Mongolia
 PARAGOS-Pilipinas, Philippines
 Pastoral Peoples Movement, India
 PCC, Mongolia
 People's Coalition for the Rights to
Water (KruHA), Indonesia
 PERMATIL (Permaculture), Timor-
Leste
 Perween Rehman, Pakistan
 Project for Ecological Awareness
Building (EAB),Thailand
 Roots for Equity, Pakistan
 Sintesa Foundation, Indonesia
 Social Action for Change,
Cambodia
 Solidarity Workshop, Bangladesh
 Southern Farmer Federation,
Thailand
 Sustainable Agriculture
Foundation, Thailand
 The NGO Forum on Cambodia,
Cambodia
 Village Focus Cambodia,
Cambodia
 Village Focus International, Lao
PDR
 World Forum of Fisher Peoples
(WFFP), Sri Lanka
LATIN AMERICA
 Asamblea de Afectados
Ambientales, México
 BIOS, Argentina
 COECO-Ceiba (Amigos de la Tierra),
Costa Rica
 FIAN Comayagua, Honduras
 Grupo Semillas, Colombia
 Red de Biodiversidad de Costa
Rica, Costa Rica
 Red en Defensa del Maiz, México
 REL-UITA
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 Sistema de la Investigación de la
Problemática Agraria del Ecuador
(SIPAE), Ecuador
EUROPE
 Both Ends, Netherlands
 CADTM, Belgium
 Centre Tricontinental – CETRI,
Belgium
 CNCD-11.11.11, Belgium
 Comité belgo-brasileiro, Belgium
 Entraide et Fraternité, Belgium
 FIAN Austria
 FIAN Belgium
 FIAN France
 FIAN Netherlands
 FIAN Norway
 FIAN Sweden
 FUGEA, Belgium
 Guatemala Solidarität, Austria
 SOS Faim – Agir avec le Sud,
Belgium
 The Slow Food Foundation for
Biodiversity, Italy
 The Transnational Institute (TNI),
Netherlands
 Uniterre, Switzerland
NORTH AMERICA
 Agricultural Missions, Inc. (AMI),
USA
 Columban Center for Advocacy
and Outreach, USA
 Cumberland Countians for Peace
& Justice, USA
 Grassroots International, USA
 National Family Farm Coalition,
USA
 Network for Environmental &
Economic Responsibility, United
Church of Christ, USA
 Pete Von Christierson, USA
 PLANT (Partners for the Land &
Agricultural Needs of Traditional
Peoples), USA
 Raj Patel, Visiting Scholar, Center
for African Studies, University of
California at Berkeley, USA
 The Institute for Food and
Development Policy (Food First),
USA
 Why Hunger, USA
INTERNATIONAL
 FIAN International
 Friends of the Earth International
 GRAIN
 La Via Campesina
 Land Research Action Network
(LRAN)
 World Alliance of Mobile
Indigenous People (WAMIP)
 World Rainforest Movement
(WRM)