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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Land grabbing Policy Brief Series
December 10, 2021CIDSE coordinated the production of this series, in collaboration with CGLTE-OA and key actors involved in the African platform “Our Land […]
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Raising the Voices of Vulnerable Communities – Online pilgrimage for
December 6, 2021As part of their engagement for land rights which are also intrinsically connected with climate justice and the need for […]
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“The unclear definition of nature-based solutions allows promoting false and
November 30, 2021Photo: UNDP Climate. Myrto Tilianaki, Food Sovereignty and Climate Officer at CCFD-Terre Solidaire – CIDSE’s French member organisation – attended COP26 in November to follow […]
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Right to Say No: Learning from global struggles
November 19, 2021Blog on global Webinar organised by the Thematic Social Forum on Mining and Extractive Economy on the “Right to Say […]
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News from CIDSE – September-October 2021
October 28, 2021Read our latest newsletter for an overview of our activities from September to October and find out what’s coming next! […]