Speakers and panelists
Abdallah Ramadhani Mkindi (Tansania), Judith Maldonado Mojica (Kolumbien), Gilma Rosa Tellez (Kolumbien), Fatima N. Burnad (Indien), Thomas Fritz (FDCL), Roman Herre (FIAN Deutschland), Michael Windfuhr (Brot für die Welt), Dr. Thomas Koch (DEG), Vera Koeppen (GTZ), Sophie Ratzke (BMELV), Dr. Ralf Leonhard (FIAN Österreich/freier Journalist, Wien), Carolin Callenius (Brot für die Welt)
Download: Programm (pdf, 1.5 MB)
Background
Private and state investors have been increasingly hunting for agricultural land in the global south. Their hunger for land is driven by different global factors and processes: the food crisis, climate change, an increasing demand for agrofuels and last but not least the global financial crisis. Financial investors are expecting that a deflationary situation will be turning into an inflationary one which might prompt the development of various funds promoting investments into agricultural land.
For investors, fertile soil seems a secure and inflation-resistant asset class. According to the World Bank the most attractive target countries for investments are those with high land availability, low mechanisation and a deficient land regulation system. Investments will preferrably take place in countries where traditional landusers or small-scale farmers are easily disposed of their land, large-scale monocultures can be grown and the use of machinery promises short-term gains in productivity.
The „new landgrab“ holds enormous ecological and social risks. The applied industrial production model negatively affects soil fertility, water quality and biodiversity. Small-scale farmers, indigenous people and herdsmen with insecure rights of use of the land are threatened with accelerated displacement. Another threat consists in an increasingly scarcer food supply for internal markets when a growing share of the fertile land serves for export production.
International development organisations and agencies have recognized the risks of ‚the new landgrab‘ for the environment and food security. But as they mainly call for voluntary guidelines and principles for responsible agro-investments, their answers have remained far from what is really necessary. It takes more radical measures to effectively protect natural resources and traditional land rights. And those measures need to be applied in both the countries of origin and the target countries of the investments.
Although there are proposals for adequate measures on part of the civil society they were largely left out so far. And much more weight needs to be given to the voices of the people affected by landgrab projects: Restricting the ‚land grab wave‘ is of utmost importance to guarantee their livelihood.
By organizing the symposium the FDCL and partners want to make a contribution to this important debate.
Main conference language will be German. Simultaneous translation into English and Spanish will be provided. More information about the conference: www.land-grabbing.de
Entrance free. Please register via mail: info@fdcl.org. or call + 49 (0) 30 693 40 29 oder send us a fax on + 49 (0) 30 6926590.
