Via Campesina:
Stop Land Grabbing
download booklet Stop Land Grabbing (11 MB)
Booklet of Via Campesina.
"(..) If you look at the reality of our villages, land grabbing takes on extremely varied forms: women are expelled from their land when
their husband dies, mining companies expel peasants and small-scale farmers, as do oil and tourist projects, plantations, military
bases, and so forth. Investors are not always multinational companies or foreigners. Sometimes, they are local or domestic. These
expulsions of peasants and family farmers, both women and men, from their land are all de facto land grabs.
What is new today, is the massive offensive carried out by firms and states as they acquire, for long periods of time ranging from
30 to 99 years, vast tracks of cultivable land abroad in order to produce staple products (usually foodstuffs) earmarked for export.
Landgrab at Mali, Africa.
(..) Land grabbing displaces communities, destroys local economies, cultures and the social fabric. It endangers the identity of communities, be they peasants, small-scale farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, workers, indigenous peoples or the 'casteless'. Those who dare stand up to defend their legitimate rights and the survival of their families and communities are beaten, imprisoned and killed.
Big demonstration against mining at Manora, Chhattisgarh, Central India, 2010.
(..) Land grabbing is often presented as an improvement for society and a modernization of agriculture which would benefit investors, peasants
and other people working in rural areas, and populations in general. It is often also said thet the land is 'uninhabitated' or poorly worked. This is
usually not the case: men and women peasants and family farmers lose the land they cultivate and industrial agriculture destroys both the environment
and rural communities.
(..) The World Bank reports that 56 million hectares were rented or sold worldwide in 2008-2009."
Go to next page: Via Campesina: Peasants Can Feed the World
download booklet: Via Campesina: Stop Land Grabbing (11 MB)
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