Commercial pressures on land: Rethinking policies and practice for development

DPRN Expert Seminar: Commercial pressures on land: Rethinking policies and practice for development

Utrecht, 8 July 2009

Academiegebouw, Domplein/near Domtoren, Utrecht

Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Faculty of Spatial Sciences, University of Groningen

co-organized with:

Section of International Development Studies (IDS), Faculty Geo-Sciences, Utrecht University

Oxfam Novib, The Hague

International Land Coalition, Rome

Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Department for Sustainable Economic Development

Mrs. Dorine Burmanje, Chair of the Dutch Cadastre will deliver a key-note speech

[Click here for final programme]

Please note:

This seminar is hosted in conjunction with the seminar on 7 July “Sustainable development – Liberalization of land markets and new processes of land grabbing”. The preceding seminar will provide academics with a platform to discuss ongoing research. [Final report of that seminar here: http://www.landcoalition.org/cpl-blog/wp-content/uploads/utrecht-land-panel-july-2009.pdf.] The DPRN seminar on July 8 focuses on reviewing land policy and practice that enable a response to commercial pressures on land.

Increasing commercial pressures on land

Global economic and policy trends have emerged that boost the commercial value of land and investors’ interest in land worldwide. Long-term increases in food consumption (and thus demand and prices) and increasing consumption of agrofuels are creating new demands for large tracts of agricultural land. Even carbon-trading mechanisms are placing a commercial value on standing forests and rangelands that have previously been marginal to commercial production. Coinciding with the liberalisation of trade, competition for land is more and more played out directly between local land users, national economic elites, and transnational investors. Many transnational investors are private companies, but a significant number are financed by sovereign funds with the aim of achieving food security for the investing country by producing food for export back to their own populations.

Despite the magnitude of this phenomenon, most evidence is currently indicative or anecdotal. There is as yet very little systematic monitoring of these trends, research into the impacts, or exploration of the opportunities that may be created for rural development.

These trends pose both a threat and an opportunity to the rural poor, who will increasingly lose their land rights, triggering further marginalization and impoverishment. Dispossession is particularly likely to occur where their land tenure rights are weak and unrecognized. Most at risk are groups such as women, pastoralists, indigenous people and others dependent on customary and common-pool resource rights that are insecure and undocumented.

The vulnerability of these groups is often compounded by corruption that can accompany large-scale land transfers. There is already evidence of the displacement of poor resource-users by agro-fuel production, while others may lose access to resources, such as rangelands and forests, which may constitute an important safety net and livelihood source for marginalized groups. On the other hand, where poor people have secure land use rights, these same trends may actually offer opportunities for development.

Objectives

There is a need for an assessment of community-private sector partnership practice to identify approaches that can maximize benefits to the poor, whilst also remaining attractive to investors. Also there is a need for a process to explore how national governments, donors and other development practitioners can best facilitate the establishment of mutually beneficial partnerships, pilot such approaches and document best practices. Against this backdrop, the seminar on “new pressures on land: rethinking policies and practice for development” wishes to bring together relevant stakeholders on the critical issue of land rights and community-private sector approaches to rural land use: i.e. the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other donors, international organizations, academics from Dutch, Belgian and other international universities and research organizations, national and international civil society organizations and the private sector operating under a corporate social responsibility banner (planning consultants, geographical system companies, fair trade organizations and agricultural investors). It thus facilitates the communication, exchange and debate on analysis of land rights problems, approaches and policies.

Reviewing and rethinking policy and practice

The seminar is proposed in collaboration with Oxfam Novib, the International Land Coalition and the Sustainable Economic Development Department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which seeks to review its recent land policy and its linkages with the proposed theme and improve its policy effectiveness. Furthermore, all possible mechanisms for promoting socially and environmentally responsible land-related commercial activities that respect local livelihoods and natural resource use systems will be discussed. The seminar will thus rethink policy as well as practice on all levels of intervention: the local, national and international level, as well as Dutch and EU policy and corporate codes. The policy and practice review is aimed to allow increased cooperation between stakeholders engaged in policy analyses, adding to the credibility of the policy recommendations developed among all partners and laying the foundation for continued knowledge exchange and future collaboration.

The seminar is linked to setting up a potential consortium in order to play a significant role of facilitating and fostering multi-stakeholder participation in land policy review and address the pressing need for innovative approaches to food security, safeguarding poor farmers’ land rights and sustainable rural development. It will be a timely contribution to the formulation of more pro-poor based policies in facing the challenges of global economic crisis.

Registration

Due to limited space, it is necessary to register early (DEADLINE: 1 June 2009). For registration and further information on the DPRN expert seminar on 8 July, contact Dr. Hossein Azadi ([email protected]), Centre for Development Studies, University of Groningen, or Prof. Peter Ho: ([email protected]). See also: www.rug.nl/cds

For registration and further information on the academic seminar ‘Liberalization of land markets and new processes of land grabbing’ (7 July) contact Prof. Annelies Zoomers ([email protected]), International Development Studies (IDS), Utrecht University.

The Development Policy Review Network (www.DPRN.nl) promotes informed debate and synergy between scientists, policymakers, development practitioners and entrepreneurs. DPRN has a web portal which provides searchable access to development expertise in the Netherlands and Belgium (www.global-connections.nl) and a repository for publications of Dutch development organisations (www.Search4Dev.nl).