Events
06 FEB 2013
London
The global theft of land: Human rights, dispossession, and destruction

Date and time: Wednesday 6 February 2013, 6.30-8pm
Venue: Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

Speakers: Megan MacInnes, Fred Pearce, Dr Subir Sinha
Chair: Professor Chetan Bhatt

The forcible expropriation of land from people by states and Megan MacInnescorporations – ‘land grabbing’ – is occurring on a phenomenal scale and affects every continent and most countries of the ‘South’. Land grabs and the forced displacement of populations, including through state and corporate violence, have been justified through economic development, human development, the extraction of natural resources, the use of land for economic growth, among many other factors. Yet deforestation and land Subir Sinhagrabs in Indonesia, slum clearances and land grabs throughout India, environmental destruction and population displacements in the Amazon and in various countries of southern America, and massive land grabs, including through natural resource mining across the African continent, have created misery and havoc on a large scale for many populations. In some places, land grabs have gone hand in hand with environmental destruction, conflict and war, forced labour, child labour, illegal expropriation of natural resources, widespread poverty and serious violations and abuses of human rights.

This event explores land grabbing as a global phenomenon that some writers have described as a new form of ‘primitive accumulation’ and ‘accumulation by dispossession’. The origins of land grabbing and its consequences for human rights, including indirect causes related to environmental destruction and climate change, are discussed.

LSE
05 FEB 2013
London
Landowners or laborers? A panel on the rural development choices facing leaders of developing countries

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is co-hosting with Forest Peoples Programme (FPP), a panel discussion and the launch of its annual review of the current status of forest and land rights in developing countries. In 2012, a key choice facing developing countries was revealed ever more starkly. Would they choose a development path built on inclusiveness and respect for the rights of their citizens, or would they opt instead for extractive exploitation of their people's land and natural resources? The report identifies this and other key choices and challenges that emerged in 2012 for forest rights and tenure globally, faced now by leaders of developing countries in 2013 and beyond. Panelists include:
Li Ping - Senior Attorney, Landesa, China
Alfred Brownell - Executive Director, Green Advocates, Liberia
Samuel Nguiffo - Director, Center for Environment and Development, Cameroon
Maung Maung Than - Project Coordinator/Consultant (Capacity Building Program for Community Forestry in Myanmar), RECOFTC - The Center for People and Forests
Joji Carino - Coordinator of the IIFB Working Group on Indicators, Tebtebba, Philippines
Saskia Ozinga - Campaign Coordinator, Climate Change, Export Credit Agencies and Forest Peoples, FERN
Jeffrey Hatcher - Director, Global Programs, Rights and Resources Initiative
The agenda for this event will be available soon. Please contact Madiha Qureshi at [email protected] with questions.

RRI
05 FEB 2013
New Delhi
Indian agriculture investments in Ethiopia: A boon or a bane?

Day-long conference on the “Impacts of Indian agricultural investments in Ethiopia” with representatives from impacted communities along with Oakland Institute researchers and Indian civil society. Preceded by a press conference.

INSAF, Oakland Institute, Kalpavriksh
22 JAN 2013
Madrid
Acaparamiento de tierras: África expoliada

El Departamento de Campañas y Redes de Manos Unidas ha organizado una mesa redonda sobre el acaparamiento de tierras en Africa. Un fenómeno por el que países ricos y empresas agrícolas multinacionales adquieren tierras fértiles y agua en países pobres para producir para el mercado internacional de alimentos, biocombustibles, créditos de carbono, especulación con los alimentos, etc.
Todo ello afecta a las personas más pobres que se ven muchos de ellos expulsados de sus tierras. El acaparamiento de tierras es uno de los factores que hoy en día dificulta a nivel mundial garantizar una seguridad alimentaria para todos, especialmente para los más vulnerables.
¿Dónde? Universidad Pontificia de Comillas. Sala de Conferencias. C/Alberto Aguilera, 23. Madrid
¿Cuándo? El martes 22 de enero de 2013 a las 12:00h
Organiza: Manos Unidas
Entrada: Libre

Manos Unidas
17 JAN 2013
Berlin
Global Forum for Food and Agriculture 2013

The theme of GFFA 2013, organised by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), the Senate of Berlin and the Messe Berlin GmbH, is "Responsible investment in the food and agriculture sectors – Key factor for food security and rural development". Land grabbing is very much on the programme.

BMELV
17 JAN 2013
Berlin
Farmers' land in farmers' hand: A debate about landgrabbing in Romania

The panel will consist of the following speakers:
Willy Schuster -an organic farmer and representative of Romania’s peasantry whose interests he defends as co-president of the EcoRuralis NGO.
Attila Szocs works for EcoRuralis where he focuses on the CAP reform, landgrabbing, seed issues and agroecology.
Carlo Horn an organic farmer from the German county of Brandenburg.
Simon Wolk is cofounder of the Germanagrar group and its various subsidiaries. Since 2001 he has been in charge of the company’s agricultural investments and farming in the Baltic States and since 2005 he is responsible for Germanagrar’s Romanian activities.
Stig Tanzmann works for the Bread for the World – Protestant Development Service. He is currently working on the international dimension of the reform of the Common European Agricultural policy, EU meat exports to Africa and seed policies.
Hannes Lorenzen is senior adviser to the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg.

At Markthalle 9
Eisenbahnstraße No. 42/43, 10997 Berlin.
On 17. January 2013
From 19:00 pm.

Good Food Good Farming campaign
14 JAN 2013
Utrecht
Gender and Land Governance Conference

The conference is scheduled to take place in Utrecht, the Netherlands, from January 14-15, 2013. Details at landgovernance.org.

Utrecht Univ & LANDac
04 DEC 2012
South Africa
The great land rush

75% of Mali's population are farmers, but rich, land-hungry nations like China and Saudi Arabia are leasing Mali's land in order to turn large areas into agribusiness farms. Many Malian peasants do not welcome these efforts, seeing them as yet another manifestation of imperialism. As Mali experiences a military coup, the developers are scared off - but can Mali's farmers combat food shortages and escape poverty on their own terms? Watch the trailer on Youtube: http://youtu.be/Szx0cvJBemk

WhyPoverty
03 DEC 2012
London
Global AgInvesting Europe 2012

GAI Europe 2012 (London, 3-5 Dec) will build off of the recent success of our flagship event, in New York, which in April 2012 attracted over 700 attendees who represented over:
- $3.5 trillion in aggregated institutional assets managed by attending institutional investors
- 25 million acres under cultivation by attending companies
- $12.5 billion of farmland assets managed by attending fund managers
GAI Europe 2012 will help end investors understand different strategies and different risk/reward exposures that are being pursued by fund managers within the ag space. They will hear from fund managers about the challenges and opportunities presented by different geographies and operating strategies across illiquid investment vehicles (farmland, infrastructure and ag private equity), as well as liquid investment alternatives such as agricultural-focused hedge funds, public equities and commodities.

HighQuest & SoyaTech
27 NOV 2012
Bonn
SusCon: Investment in land and other scarce resources

"The German Federal Ministry for Development and Cooperation has formulated six principles that investments in land should adhere to with the goal for them to be structured in such a way as to promise sustained benefits for the development of the populations affected. 75% of the poor are living in rural areas and are relying on agriculture for their survival. At the same time many countries with poor smallholder agriculture systems have areas of suitable agriculture land and/or land which produce below its potential. Investments could result in an increased production of food and a transfer of know-how of sustainable and more productive agriculture systems.

Financing institutions have started to revise their investment policies, a few agro-business investment groups have started to develop specific strategies into sustainable use of land which aim to be beneficial for local communities too. Large food corporations and agricultural commodity traders have started to invest into more sustainable production of coffee, cocoa, cotton, soy, timber and many other commodities. They have to secure their raw material sources and understand more and more that benefit sharing along the supply chain is a must to stay in business.

How can “land grabbing” be avoided and responsible investments be further encouraged? Which are “good practices” of responsible investments into agricultural land (and other resources)? Which governmental guidelines exist? Neither governmental organizations nor the private sector can manage this situation alone.How can they work hand in hand for a broader impact?"

GIZ/BMZ

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