The international market for agricultural products – where products are traded between countries – represents only 15% of production and world consumption of agricultural products.
Prices of basic commodities traded in this market are very low because the farms that supply it are highly mechanised and capable of producing at very low cost.
Research and direct witnessing by participants allow realization of the extent to which the situation of native/indigenous peoples and rural communities in general (peasant, forest dwelling, pastoral and fishing) is dramatic everywhere on the planet. 2.5 billion people, members of so called indigenous/native peoples and rural populations in general, live on lands that they share and use in common. However, only a fifth of these lands are registered as community territories by national governments.
The voluntary guidelines do not create an absolute obligation. They are a basic tool that can be used to bring about changes in governance policies and practices associated with the tenure regimes applicable to land, fisheries and forests. The recommendations they contain are highly legitimate insofar as they were signed in late 2012 by the member states of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) following a drafting process that placed significant emphasis on the views of civil society around the world.
The food crises of 2007-2008, the cause of the “hunger riots” in several so-called developing countries, did not reveal a food shortage but problems accessing the food. These problems were the result of the development of an agricultural model, capitalist operation with workers, that does not meet the food-related needs of individuals with no or little money. The growth of this model is hindering the achievement of food sovereignty and security1.
The first observation from this workshop is that everywhere in the world, we are seeing strong growth in the inequalities of the distribution of land, with a growing concentration of land in the hands of a reduced number of players.
This land concentration phenomenon unavoidably leads to the exclusion and marginalization of small production units and their workers. We are dealing with an increasingly bipolar agricultural model which opposes family agriculture and large scale agriculture in an unequal fight.
Every day, more and more family/small holder users of land and natural resources find themselves made more insecure, deprived of their resources and evicted from their land. This affects peasants, nomadic herders, livestock farmers, fishermen and fisherwomen, forest dwellers … (Workshops 1, 2, 3, 5). This change is a dramatic one, affecting the whole of humanity. The direct human consequences of this change affect the vast majority of rural residents, who carry out the essential work of food production and contribute to maintaining ecological balance.
Throughout history, conflicts have been waged over land. Confrontations over territory, border disputes, occupation of the territory of one State by another, or grievances stemming from inequitable access to land invariably have dramatic consequences for human settlements. Never before has this been truer than with today?uss very different types of conflict which are increasingly taking place within nations.
In the vast majority of countries land and housing affordability is a critical contemporary challenge. While in different countries and regions the specificities of the challenge vary, the universal truism is that it is becoming increasing difficult for the vast majority of urban residents to obtain and retain adequate and affordable land and housing.
This publication on Pro Poor Land Management is based on the Handbook on Best Practices, Security of Tenure and Access to Land. It briefly describes recent innovations at the global level in the field of pro poor land management. It shows how governments, including local government and other stakeholders, are coming to grips with implementing the land related principles enshrined in the Habitat Agenda at a practical level in the cities and towns.
Demonstrates that most arguments leading to the current bias against rental housing are highly flawed. Argues for more tenure-neutral housing policies, and urges governments to modify regulatory frameworks, develop credit programmes and other forms of assistance to support housing production, with a view to creating more rental housing and to improve the existing stock.
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