LAND RIGHTS
The last twenty years have seen the rapid acquisition of large plots of land in the global south by national and international elites, often referred to as land grabbing. Land grabbing can be defined as the control of land – whether through ownership, lease, concession, contracts, quotas, or general power – for purposes of speculation, extraction, resource control or commodification. (Ecoruralis 2016)
Land grabbing is a violation of human rights by threatening access to food and livelihoods. The new land proprietors often favor profitable export of their crops or minerals over feeding the hungry. Peasant farmers lose access to their land and thus their income and nutrition. The environmental health of the land is compromised as industrial forms of agriculture are implemented.
CIDSE is supporting the resistance of land grabbing in Africa, by connecting church actors with social movements and organising spaces for exchange. In 2015, CIDSE contributed to the organisation of a Pan-African Conference on Land Grabbing and Just Governance in Kenya, which brought together church and non-church actors to exchange knowledge and strategies on land grabbing, resulting in the establishment of a permanent platform called “Our land is our life” for these purposes. A similar conference was organised again in 2017 in Abidjan. The reflection and discussion on land grabbing from the perspective of Laudato Si’ and Catholic Church social teachings that began at the conference in Abidjan was then concretized in a paper on the theology of land grabbing to facilitate the opening of a concrete dialogue on land issues with church actors.
Stories
Publications
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Xolobeni Community and the Struggle for Consent
November 27, 2017“We believe that we know who we are because of the land. We believe that once you have lost the […]
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Land grabbing in Francophone Africa: identifying and strengthening endogenous solutions
November 22, 2017Regional Conference, Abidjan, 21-23 November 2017.
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Exploring Agroecology Principles: highlights and ways forward
October 30, 2017On October 26, at the Agroecology Europe Forum in Lyon, CIDSE organized a workshop entitled “Exploring Agroecology Principles”, to exchange […]
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Press release: EU-Myanmar Investment Protection Agreement: Many risks, few benefits
September 26, 2017The EU-Myanmar Investment Protection Agreement (IPA) could have serious consequences for the country’s already grave human rights situation, warn organisations […]
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On anniversary of Laudato Si’, bishops of Mozambique call for
June 15, 2017To mark the second anniversary of Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’, the Bishops’ Conference of Mozambique has issued a pastoral […]