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.
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Manny Yap
yap(at)cidse.org
Stories
Publications
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Lack of access to land one of the structural causes
June 29, 2012During a side-event at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development, CIDSE’s Gisele Henriques called on governments to act on land […]
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Investissements, accaparements des terres et des ressources
May 31, 2012Investissements et accaparements des terres et des ressources : prévenir les violations des droits humains, juin 2012 (Summary available in […]
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Biofuel partnerships
March 1, 2012Biofuel partnerships: from battleground to common ground? The effects of biofuel programs on smallholders’ use of land and rights to […]
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Not just food, Just Food – time to rethink the
October 10, 2011In a new paper issued ahead of World Food Day 2011 (16/10/2011) and an upcoming food summit in Rome at […]