LAND GRABBINGA new colonialism?

Defining Land grabbing….

LAND GRABBING= “acquisitions or concessions that are one or more of the following:

• in violation of human rights, particularly the equal rights of women;

• not based on free, prior, and informed consent of the affected land-users;

• not based on a thorough assessment or in disregard of social, economic and environmental impacts, including the way the are gendered;

• not based on transparent contracts;

• not based on effective democratic planning, independent oversight and meaningful participation.

(International Land Coalition, Tirana 2011)

Year 2011 (Land Matrix Database):

-1217 agricultural land deals;

-83.2 million hectares of land in developing countries;

-1.7% of the world agricultural area.

BUT it’s difficult to estimate the true scale of the phenomenon!

LAST TEN YEARS: the rate of acquisitions remained low until 2005, after it accelerated greatly peaking in 2009 and slowing down again in 2010 and following years.

Which factors are driving the current push?

1) Food security

Expansion of agricultural frontiers and trade, innovations in production great supply, food prices decline.

BUT in the last ten years:

population growth;

increasing urbanization rates;

changes in diet.

pushing up global food demand.

This demand wasn’t supported by a sufficient supply. Why?:

reduction of agricultural production;

negative environmental externalities (soil quality, water supply, etc.);

lack of infrastructures.

The result was an increase of food prices and consequently a strong food insecurity.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization

The acquisition of land became a possible strategic solution for developed countries.

2) Biofuels

Production of liquid biofuels is a key driver of much recent land acquisition:

Energy security: the availability of cheap oil as been a major factor in the rise of agricultural productivity; between genuary 2007 and july 2008 oil prices trebled not only affected the production, processing and distribution of agricultural commodities, but also increased the demand of biofuels.

Rural development: a new and profitable land use provided better opportunities for farmers and employees.

Export development: for countries biofuels are an opportunity to develop new export markets and improve the trade balance.

3) Non-food agricultural commodities

Some countries depend on imports of non-food agricultural commodities as part of their indistrializion model and their role in global production and in consumption system.

Commodities that are subject to this kind of pressure include:

Rubber

Cotton

Sugar

Coffee

Cocoa

Tea

4) Expectations of returns

Expectations of competitive returns from agriculture or land seem to be the first driver for private sector involvement; with agriculture commodity prices rising the acquisition of land for agricultural production looks like an attactive option of business, through direct acquisitions or shares in companies holding land, producing fertilizers or otherwise involved in agricultural activities.

5) Host countries incentives

Among many developing countries there is a renewed interest in agriculture as a source of emplyment, growth and revenue.

foreign investments are seen as capable of bringing new tecnology, developing productive potential, facilitating infrastructure development and creating emplyment.

The protagonists

Target countries

There are many differences between countries that are targeted by investors but it’s possible to identify some key characteristics:

Poverty

Institutional weakness

Agro-ecological characteristics: yield gaps and land availability

Hunger and high agricultural shares of GDP

The demand for land by foreign actors seems to be widespread in developing countries around the world:

- African countries

- Asia

- Latin America

Investor countries

We can identify four different types of investors:

Private companies

Public or state owned enterprises

Investments funds

Private-public partnerships

… and three separate groups of investors:

- emerging countries

- Gulf states

- the Global North

NB: other two important examples of investors involved are: Domestic partners and multiple investors.

Consequences

Losing land means losing food security and opportunities for development land is not only an important productive asset but has multiple other uses which are vital to family security:

- land often serves as an important safety net to fall back on when other economic ventures fail;

- land can also provide nuts, fruits, medicinal and kitchen herbs, timber, and roofing and fancing materials;

- it’s also a space for social, cultural, spiritual and cerimonial events and it’s essential for sustaining the identity and well-being of a community;

- lack of access to and control over land is also a determinant of gender inequality.

Case studies: North Sudan and Ghana

Since the 2008 surge in food prices, foreign interest in agricultural land has increased and, in less than a year, investors have expressed interest in acquiring some 56 million hectares of land, of which 29 million were in Sub-Saharian Africa in 2010.

Customary land tenure is the dominant system of land use and ownership in both North Sudan and Ghana. Almost 80% of the land in both countries is held customarily. The rest is statutorily owned.

But significant differences exist between the experiences of these countries, especially in terms of the legal recognition of customary interest in land:

• while the state recognizes customary land rights in Ghana and accords traditional authorities legal recognition, the state in North Sudan does not.

• while titling seems to improve the chances of obtaining access to credit in Sudan, there is no evidence to show that titleholders in Ghana have better access to credit.

Land grabbing in North Sudan started in the nineteenth century and it’s still going on today. Between 2004 and 2008, total land grabs amounted to 4 million hectares of land. The government is actively involved in expropriating land from customary holders and giving it to investors, both foreign and local. Private land owners may be expropriated too, but they are usually compensated even if compensation is not usually payed.

Government land grabs are evidently the case in Ghana. Between 1850 and 2004, the state executed 1336 instruments to acquire land compulsorily. State land is mostly underutilized and generally sold to state officials. Many plots of land are also shared among party members and individuals who are believed to be closely affiliated to the government. In addiction, governments sometimes grant state land to people who voted for their favourite politicians, while dispossessing people who voted against. Besides, many agents of the state use state land in ways that are contrary to the provisions of the consitution.

The role of national governments

Each government should ensure that land investments are in the interest of its community and protect it from abusive practices.

Unfortunately:

- In many cases negotiations are not mandated by the land rights holders and oftent it’s the government which negotiates with a disputed mandate from the people whose land rights are at stake;

- Rights holders don’t have the access to accurate information; lack of transparency also undermines public scrutiny and open the door to corruption;

- The pressures on land have put more strain on the legal systems of many target countries investors can exploit the confusion to evade the requirements or trum them by alligning with the government.

The only possible solution is the respect of the principles of free, prior and informed consent which is the key for good governance and poverty reduction.

In practice local governments should promote a fair access to the land:

- introducing a moratorium on the trasfer of property of land, until it won’t be defined a national management system that will respect human rights;

- implementing land reforms and redistributing lands;

- permitting women to have access to the land and control it, according to the family law;

- requiring more transparency in agricultural projects and contracts.

The mother countries of the firms should:

- assume the responsability of what their firms do abroad;

- require more transparency.

Investors in agricultural projects should:

- respect and protect the rights on land;

- guarantee complete information to local communities

- involve little producers offering faire contracts;

- provide an evaluation on environmental impact of agriculture projects.

Public opinion and media should:

- use their power of vote, consume and investment to ask governments and firms to contrast land grabbing;

- promote transparency.

… and international institutions

When national accountability mechanisms fail, international instruments should prevent abusive or irresponsible practices.

These instruments are:

- human rights conventions which contain clear obligations in relation to the negotiation of large-scale land acquisition;

- UN intervention in order to propose measures to fill the governance gap in applying human rights principles to business operation framework built on the ideal of “protect, respect and remedy”;

- other global instruments that can provide effective protection against corporate abuse of power, like OECD guide lines or rules, standards and mechanisms that have been developed within the private sector itself.