The guidelines aim to ensure small farmers are consulted about land deals that affect their property
By Chris Arsenault
RIO DE JANEIRO, June 14 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Global investors have spent more than $90 billion buying agricultural lands the size of Finland in deals criticized by rights groups for displacing small farmers, a report by campaign group GRAIN said on Tuesday.
Activists have condemned the deals as "land grabs" hurting developing countries while supporters say large-scale foreign land investments can alleviate poverty and help boost domestic farm productivity.
A set of guidelines drafted by the United Nations and endorsed in 2012 aims to ensure small farmers are consulted about land deals that affect their property and are compensated fairly if they are forced to move.
Action was needed after a spike in food prices and a rush for land resources resulted in an increase in large-scale land deals.
The guidelines, which also call for financial transparency and highlight the need for the protection of indigenous rights, were generally welcomed by rights groups and farmers' organisations.
"Historically, the issue of land has been linked to power relations," said Paul Munro-Faure, a senior official with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) who helped develop the agreement.
"The biggest achievement of these guidelines is they have enabled people to discuss an emotional subject with a more serious and open discourse."
Here are some key facts about the "Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security":
* They are designed to ensure farmland investment is responsible and transparent, creating mechanisms to resolve tenure disputes between investors and local residents.
* They aim to recognise informal tenure systems where communities have traditional links to their lands but no formal property deeds. These should be seen as legitimate rights that must be protected.
* The guidelines are voluntary and while countries do not formally sign up, the Committee on Food Security, a global body which helped developed them by consensus, now has 130 member countries.
* The U.N. has no power to punish countries or companies which violate the guidelines.
* They call for national governments to maintain control over how land is managed in their territory.
* The guidelines aim to put land rights onto the global development agenda, including an internationally agreed goal on poverty alleviation, and in forums such as the G7 group of leading industrial nations.
* They should foster the backing of business groups, represented by the International Agri-Food Network. Several multinational companies, including Nestlé, Unilever and Coca-Cola, have committed to the plan to prevent goods derived from "land grabs" from entering their products.
* More than 20 countries are working with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to update their land and resource policies to fit within the spirit of the guidelines. (Reporting By Chris Arsenault; Editing by Astrid Zweynert and Paola Totaro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)
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