The 1.5°C goal of the Paris Agreement and its underlying climate models rely not only on rapid emission reductions, but also on large-scale afforestation and changes in land use practices. The land-based carbon market, selling credits to emitters – companies or state actors – worldwide, has experienced strong growth in recent years. But the extent to which these credits help mitigate the climate crisis is highly contested. Carbon projects have led to an increased pressure on land, even to land grabbing, particularly in the Global South. At the same time, there is a finance gap for climate change adaptation projects in regions most vulnerable to climate risks. In the HEKS/EPER Land Forum 2023, we invite speakers to give perspectives from the Global South on if and how this market could be used, or what would be radical alternatives for climate justice beyond carbon colonialism. Programme To include speakers and welcome participants from all time-zones, we will hold this year’s land forum online in three 2-hour sessions. Thursday, 2 November 2023, 13-15h CET: Understanding the System: The Land-Based Carbon Market and its Impacts on the Ground Land-based carbon projects play an increasingly important role in scenarios to limit global warming to 1.5°C. First, keynote speakers introduce the land-based carbon market as it exists today, its evolvement and main actors, and give their perspectives on its opportunities and risks. Second, based on project examples from Sierra Leone and, Uganda, we will examine the effects of carbon credit projects on land rights, local communities and ecosystems. Thursday, 9 November 2023, 13-15h CET: Improving the System: Avoiding Land and Human Rights Violations, Strengthening Climate Resilience Land-based carbon credit projects bear the risks of land and human rights violations, adverse biodiversity outcomes and insufficient carbon sequestration. We discuss concrete actions to improve the carbon market, such as strengthened safeguards to ensure Free, Prior and Informed Consent of affected people and alternative solutions to using ‘tons of sequestered carbon’ as the primary indicator, from a climate resilience perspective. We also hear about financing mechanisms to mobilize private sector money to finance climate change adaptation. Thursday, 16 November 2023, 13-15h CET: Changing the System: Alternatives towards Climate Justice beyond Carbon Colonialism How can climate justice be achieved outside the existing carbon credit system? We discuss the meaning of Carbon Colonialism and its links to the history of land dispossession.Based on examples of communities’ struggles to defend and protect their forests against corporate deforestation, we learn how we can best support these environmental defenders. From an NGO’s standpoint, we analyze the most suitable project and financing modalities to ensure truly emancipatory, decolonial and effective forest projects. Last but not least, we reflect on how a just tax system could raise the financial resources needed for more climate justice.

You are invited to the annual seminar of the Stop Land Grabs Coalition, on November 8 from 11AM to 1PM Eastern time (US). The event will be held in person at Harvard University and livecast over Zoom.

The seminar will focus on the key role that Harvard University and TIAA play in financial speculation on farmland in Brazil, the United States and other countries, causing displacement of rural communities, human rights violations, and environmental destruction. These financial corporations promote the expansion of agribusiness plantations that demand large amounts of chemical inputs based on fossil fuels. The seminar will build outreach to pressure Harvard and TIAA to divest from farmland. It will be an opportunity for international organizing in defense of food sovereignty and land rights for Indigenous, small farmers and peasant communities.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Please register to participate in-person or virtually over Zoom.

Date and time: Wed, November 8th, 11 am - 1 pm Eastern Time (US).
Address: Robinson Hall, Warren Center Conference Room B21, 35 Quincy Street, Harvard University
Speakers:
- Maria Luisa Mendonca, Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos (Network for Social Justice and Human Rights), Brazil
- Devlin Kuyek, GRAIN
- Dr. Sidney Chalhoub, Harvard University
- Tristan Quinn-Thibodeau, Stop Land Grabs Coalition/ActionAid USA
- Altamiran Ribeiro, Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), Brazil
- Rachel Carle, Stop Harvard Land Grabs

Local residents and direct descendants of the Elaine Massacre in Arkansas, US are still fighting for acknowledgment of and reparations for lands that were violently stolen from them and are now owned by the US pension fund manager TIAA

Rencontre des luttes paysannes et rurales, 26 août – 3 septembre près de Bure, Lorraine, France. Une quarantaine de fermes, groupes et organisations ont jusqu’à présent signé l’appel à participer au camp “Terre et Communs” près de Bure cet été. Déroulement, programme culturel, infrastructures … tout est entrain de prendre forme. Nous vous tiendrons informés au cours des prochains mois. Vous pourrez prochainement confirmer votre participation sur le site internet.

Des informations actualisées sont disponibles sur le site Internet multilingue https://lpr-camp.org.

Si vous pouvez et voulez aider financièrement : https://www.helloasso.com/associations/rencontres-paysannes-et-rurales/collectes/rencontres-des-luttes-paysannes-et-rurale-ete-2023

Encounter of peasant and rural struggles 26 August – 3 September in Bure, Lorraine, France. Around 40 farms, groups and organisations have so far signed the call to participate in the “Terre et Communs” camp near Bure this summer. Schedule, cultural programme, infrastructures … the whole thing is taking shape. We will keep you informed in the coming months. You will soon be able to confirm your participation via the website.

Up-to-date information is available on the multilingual website https://lpr-camp.org.

If you can and want to help financially: https://www.helloasso.com/associations/rencontres-paysannes-et-rurales/collectes/rencontres-des-luttes-paysannes-et-rurale-ete-2023

Del 26 de agosto al 3 de septiembre de 2023 os invitamos a participar a los encuentros transnacionales de las luchas campesinas y rurales que tendrán lugar cerca de Bure (Francia, 55), donde la industria nuclear francesa quiere construir el gigantesco basurero llamado CIGEO. Estamos planeando un gran campamento para reforzar los vínculos y la organización entre el mayor número posible de militantes implicadxs en las luchas agrarias y territoriales, aquí y en otros lugares.

The Nile is crucial to the health, economy, and cultures of 11 African countries, but land grabs and agribusiness investments threaten its accessibility.

The 4th round of the Global Forum of Struggles for Land and Natural Resources, coordinated by CONTAG, aims to inform and report on the reality in Brazil.

A 4ª rodada do Fórum Global de Lutas pela Terra e Recursos Naturais, coordenado pela CONTAG, tem como objetivo informar sobre esse tema.