Land grabbing

According to the fathers of the Earth. The Report on the approval of the land 2020: consequences on human rights, environment and migration, conceived and edited by FOCSIV, 79 million hectares of fertile land have been hoarded in recent years by multi-national companies, finance, investors international real estate and states to the detriment of local peasant communities and indigenous peoples. The continuous race for land with new investments on large plots for the production of monocultures for human and animal nutrition, biofuels, for plantations and forest cutting, for mining, for industrial and tourism projects, for urbanization carried out in an unsustainable way, excluding indigenous peoples, degrading the earth. Above all, they cause a loss of biodiversity and contribute to the warming of the planet.

These two phenomena create the conditions for the mutation and spread of viruses that can have as a consequence pandemics, such as the current Coronavirus. To counter this phenomenon, it is necessary to adopt strategies for managing risks, preparing for pandemics and international cooperation is essential.

For years, the organisms adhering to Focsiv have repeatedly reported that in many parts of the world there is a multiplication of cases of external interventions, of governments and companies, which try to grab the essential resources for the life of the populations. It is extraction, a term that summarizes the action of land grabbing, land grabbing, and some operations related to it.

A term also used by Pope Francis to indicate those actions of governments and multinational companies aimed at extracting strategic resources for the international market, but also essential and universal goods such as land and water. Economic financial model that impoverishes the planet and leads to acute hunger over 250 million people by the end of the year according to WFP. A model that we have repeatedly denounced and that we oppose in many parts of the world with our commitment to development cooperation. FOCSIV together with CIDSE, the alliance of international Catholic NGOs for sustainable development, is committed to introducing rules and policies to defend and increase the decision-making power of local communities, so as to be able to monitor the practices implemented locally by national and international governments and companies, in favor of greater responsibility and transformation of production and consumption models that determine the extraction and hoarding of natural resources.

Gianfranco Cattai

NP novembre 2020