Food First Backgrounder, Spring 2014, Vol. 20, No. 1

Introduction: Land, Race and the Agrarian Crisis

The disastrous effects of widespread land grabbing and land concentration sweeping the globe do not affect all farmers equally. The degree of vulnerability to these threats is highest for smallholders, women and people of color—the ones who grow, harvest, process and prepare most of the world’s food.

At the turn of the 21st century, farmland was still considered an investment backwater by most of the financial sector. Although some insurance companies have had farmland holdings for years, most financial investors found farmland, and agricultural investment in general, unappealing compared to the much higher returns to be made in financial markets.

Introduction: Farmland, A Safe Investment in Troubling Financial Times

28 May 2014

GRAIN | La Vía Campesina

For immediate release

Friends of the Earth’s report, ‘What’s your pension funding? How UK institutional investors finance the global land grab’, highlights the investments of UK institutional investors, such as British Airways Pension Fund, Legal & General and Standard Life, in companies accused of grabbing land, destroying the environment, and undermining sustainable livelihoods.

Forest Peoples Programme and the Amerindian Peoples Association are pleased to announce the publication of a new special report:

Edited by Kate Dooley and Tom Griffiths

Authors: Oda Almås (FPP), Lawrence Anselmo (APA), Laura George (APA), Tom Griffiths (FPP), Solveig Firing Lunde (RFN) and Jean La Rose (APA)

May 2014

ISBN 978-0-9544252-8-9

Encroaching on Land and Livelihoods examines whether national expropriation laws in 30 countries across Asia and Africa follow the international standards established in Section 16 of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs). Section 16 of the VGGTs establishes standards on expropriation, compensation, and resettlement to ensure tenure security and responsible land governance. The UN Committee on World Food Security officially endorsed the VGGTs in 2012.

This yearbook chapter discusses the link between international investment law and commercial pressures on the world’s natural resources. It argues that changes in legal frameworks are redefining control over natural resources, and facilitating transitions toward more commercialised land relations. As pressures on resources increase, many national laws undermine the rights of people impacted by investments. If not properly thought through, international treaties to protect foreign investment could compound shortcomings of local and national governance.

 
La obra jurídica elaborada por María Clara Galvis Patiño y Ángela María Ramírez Rincón sistematiza y analiza decisiones judiciales de altas cortes de nueve países de América Latina: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panamá y Perú.
El citado Digesto refleja los debates y problemas jurídicos que han tenido que resolver los jueces ante el alto número de conflictos sociales relacionados con la propiedad de la tierra, el territorio y los recursos naturales de los pueblos indígenas.

El tema de los límites a la propiedad, o más precisamente del establecimiento a través de la ley de límites máximos a la propiedad de la tierra agrícola ha retomado actualidad en los últimos meses en el Perú. A la fecha se han presentado hasta tres propuestas legislativas al respecto, no obstante es necesario revisar algunos antecedentes antes de pasar a las propuestas mismas.

El autor plantea un análisis a la problemática de acceso a la tierra desde el ejemplo sucedido en la Provincia de San Juan en Argentina. La falta de reconocimiento de la propiedad de las tierras ancestrales para con los pueblos originarios causa conflictos con compradores que recurren al desalojo y al avasallamiento para obtener la tierra. Por su parte, las comunidades usan todos los medios posibles para defender su tierra de origen. El IPDRS se complace en presentarles el artículo 176 de la serie Diálogos  que nos muestra un caso de acceso y lucha por el territorio.
 

Preamble of Land Act: "Whereas, legislative reforms initiated from the Golden Throne have resulted in enactment and amendment of many laws for the benefit of the people of Bhutan, the Land Act of Bhutan shall stand testimony to the continued commitment and diligence of the Druk Gyalpo in his pursuit to promote the well-being of the Bhutanese people.

Article 2(1): 

"1. Civil legislation is based on the recognition of the equality of the participants of the relations regulated thereby, inviolability of property, freedom of agreement, prohibition of arbitrary interference in somebody's private affairs, indispensability of the free exercise of civil rights, and provision for the restitution of violated rights and their defence in the court."