As the scale and pace of large-scale land
acquisitions increases globally, evidence is
mounting that the land rush is out of control
and that the price being paid by affected
communities is unacceptably high.
A huge amount of land has been sold off or
leased out globally in the past decade.
According to the Oxfam report, Our Land, Our
Lives which was released earlier this month
(October 4), an area equivalent to the size of
Kenya has been sold off in Africa to
international investors over the past decade in
order to facilitate the growing of bio fuel and
other commercial crops.
Oxfam says the land grab is accelerating and
that “foreign investors have been buying an
area of land the size of London every six days.”
The report also says the land already sold
“could feed a billion people, equivalent to the
number of people who go to bed hungry each
night.”
With food prices spiking for the third time in
four years, interest in land could accelerate
again as rich countries try to secure their food
supplies and investors see land as a good long-
term bet.
While some land deals are negotiated with local
people, Oxfam say that “all too often, forced
evictions of poor farmers are a consequence of
these rapidly increasing land deals in
developing countries.”
Oxfam says the World Bank itself is partly to
blame for the crisis. “As the world’s leading
standard-setter and a big investor itself, the
World Bank should freeze its own land
investments and review its policy and practice
to prevent land-grabbing.
“In the past the Bank has chosen to freeze
lending when poor standards have caused
dispossession and suffering. It needs to do so
again, in order to play a key role in stopping the
global land rush.”
The World Bank’s investments in agriculture
have tripled in the last decade, from $2.5bn in
2002 to $6–8bn in 2012. Oxfam argues that
although such an increase is welcome, it also
heightens risks which must be addressed.
“Investment should be good news for
developing countries – not lead to greater
poverty, hunger and hardship,” says Oxfam
chief executive Dame Barbara Stocking.
“We would argue, based on the evidence, that
in too many cases, the application of safeguards
for affected communities has not been
sufficiently stringent.”
The activists say that since 2008 alone, 21
formal complaints have been brought by
communities affected by Bank investments that
they say have violated their land rights.
However the World Bank hit back over the
Oxfam report, saying that although it “shares
the concerns Oxfam raised in their report”
regarding the potential risks that can be
associated with large-scale land acquisitions, it
“disagrees” with Oxfam’s call for a moratorium
on World Bank Group investments in land
intensive large-scale agricultural enterprises,
especially during a time of rapidly rising global
food prices.
“A moratorium focused on the Bank Group
targets precisely those stakeholders doing the
most to improve practices — progressive
governments, investors, and us,” a statement
said.
“Taking such a step would do nothing to help
reduce the instances of abusive practices and
would likely deter responsible investors willing
to apply our high standards.”
New Forests Company
The Independent on Sunday newspaper cited
one example of well intentioned land projects
that can go wrong, highlighting the case of the
New Forests Company (NFC) tree plantation
programme in central Uganda.
The report acknowledges that the project “has
clearly brought much good to an impoverished
region, planting more than 14 million pine and
eucalyptus trees over the past seven years on
three plantations that employ more than 1,400
people.”
But, the report continues, “not everybody is
happy. Some communities around the
plantations in the central Ugandan districts of
Mubende, Luwunga and Kiboga claim they
have been forcefully evicted in campaigns that
some allege included arson. The communities
also say they were not properly consulted and
have been offered no adequate compensation
or alternative land.”
Tanzania, too, has become increasingly jittery
about land leases to foreign agriculture
companies.
In July, Tanzanian and international civil
society groups began to lobby the government
to revoke an $100million, 800,000 acre land
lease to a US agribusiness corporation, AgriSol
Energy LLC in Tanzania’s western Rukwa
region, a deal which could see the eviction of
160,000 households —mainly former refugees
from Burundi — who have been living on the
land for over 40 years.
According to Land Portal, an online public
database on international land deals, Tanzania
has leased more than 1.4 million hectares to
foreign companies from Europe and Asia,
including 100,000 hectares to Norwegian
company Green Resources AS for the planting
of trees, and 45,000 hectares to British
company, Cams Group, for the cultivation of
sorghum.
Kenya has leased about 555,000 hectares,
including 160,000 hectares to Canadian
company Bedford Biofuels and 93,000 hectares
to Swiss-based Bioenergy International, both
for the growing of jatropha — a plant used for
the manufacturing of biofuels.
Uganda, on the other hand, has leased 121,000
hectares, mainly to companies from the
Netherlands and UK for the cultivation of oil
palm and eucalyptus pine.
Agricultural investment
The Oxfam report says that while disputes over
land ownership in the developing world “are
nothing new, what appears to makes this case
stand out is that the World Bank is an indirect
backer of NFC through a $7m (£4.3m) loan it
made to AgriVie, an agricultural investment
firm that is a key shareholder in the London-
based group.”
In the case of NFC’s activities in Uganda, the
government’s National Forestry Authority
“claims responsibility for the evictions,” The
Independent says, and the World Bank has
“commenced a dispute resolution process” with
the support of all parties involved.
“NFC said it could not comment while the
resolution process was ongoing, although the
group has told the World Bank’s ombudsman it
does not assume any direct responsibility for
the evictions, was not involved in carrying
them out and was explicitly excluded from the
process by the Ugandan government.”
But the World Bank argues that by 2050, there
will be two billion more people in the world
and a 70% increase in global food production
will be needed to feed them.
It adds that food prices are rising, pushing
many people back into poverty. “Addressing
this challenge will require major new
investment in agriculture to improve the
productivity of large and small farmers while
protecting the environment and existing users’
rights.”
While acknowledging that “instances of abuse
do exist, particularly in countries where
governance is weak,” and that there need to be
“more transparent and inclusive participation
in cases of land transfers,” the World Bank says
it “does not support speculative land
investments or acquisitions which take
advantage of weak institutions in developing
countries or which disregard principles of
responsible agricultural investment.”
But Oxfam says the problem remains that
property laws are weak or non-existent in
many developing countries, and governments
are hungry for the revenues and jobs that land
deals can yield.
In many cases, families may have farmed a plot
for generations but have no legal title, making
it relatively easy for governments to sell the
land.
The UK based NGO adds that poor people’s right
to land and natural resources must be
protected and that there must be transparency
in any land deals which is “publicly accessible
for both affected communities and
governments.”