Why the World Bank is Neither Monitoring, Nor Complying with the FAO Guidelines on Responsible Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests

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Around the world, peasants, pastoralists,
indigenous peoples and fisher folk are facing
increasing increased threats of displacement and
dispossession. The confluence of the food, financial
and climate crises has further exaggerated pressures
on land and forests, spurring land grabs, green grabs
and countless conflicts over natural resources.1
The deepening “ecological hoofprint”2 resulting
from expanding industrial meat production and the
corresponding demand for animal feed, along with
the boom in biofuels production, are key drivers
of these dynamics around the world.3 Meanwhile,
the World Bank’s 2008 report on agriculture for
development ramps up support for “new agriculture”
based on the same corporate model of industrial
production—what McMichael calls “new wine in old
bottles”—a development project that squeezes rural
farming economies toward concentrated control by
corporate actors and pushes small-scale producers
off of their land.