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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CIDSE remembers Tomas Balduino, Bishop of the landless
May 5, 2014“As Jesus Christ said, you cannot serve two masters at the same time. One must choose between the logic of […]
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World Food Day: Biofuels industry clashes with the Right to
October 16, 2013Today is World Food Day, but there is not much to celebrate, as the European Union process on biofuels threatens […]
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In the face of hunger
October 14, 2013In the face of hunger. Food security in our globalized world, a report by Manos Unidas, April 2013 (Available in […]
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CSM: Biofuels Industry strong arms Governments at UN Food Security
October 11, 2013The International Food Security and Nutrition Civil Society Mechanism issued a statement on October 11 2013, saying that governments were […]
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CCFD-Terre Solidaire: Le combat d’Henry Saragih et des paysans en
October 7, 2013Révolté que la terre n’appartienne plus à ceux qui la travaillent mais aux multinationales agroalimentaires, Henry Saragih a passé sa […]