‘One Does Not Sell the Land Upon Which the People Walk’: Land Grabbing, Transnational Rural Social Movements, and Global Governance

Abstract

Defending their access to land has always been a major motivation for rural people to mobilize locally, nationally, and, more recently, in global struggles against land grabbing. I analyze how rural social movements have built up their capacities as global mobilizers and policy players over the past decade. I assess the success with which they are exploiting the current window of political opportunity opened up by interlinked global food, fuel, climate, and financial crises, accompanied by the highly publicized phenomenon of land grabbing. Particular attention is given to the newly reformed Committee on World Food Security, as the only global policy forum in the UN system in which these actors intervene as full participants, and to the recent negotiation of Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Land, Fisheries and Forests. The conclusion identifies challenges that need to be addressed in order for rural social movements to consolidate the gains made.

Defender su acceso a la tierra ha sido una de las mayores motivaciones de las poblaciones rurales para movilizarse local, nacionalmente y más recientemente, en las luchas globales contra el acaparamiento de tierras. Analizo cómo los movimientos sociales rurales han construido sus capacidades como activistas globales y actores de la política en la última década. Evalúo el éxito con el cual están explotando la ventana actual de oportunidad política abierta por la interrelación de alimento, combustible, clima y crisis financieras, acompañadas por un fenómeno altamente publicitado, del acaparamiento de tierras. Se presta especial atención al nuevo Comité de seguridad alimentaria mundial reformado, como el único fórum de política global en el sistema de las Naciones Unidas, en el cual estos actores intervienen como participantes de pleno derecho, y a la reciente negociación de las Directrices voluntarias para una gobernanza responsable en la tenencia de la tierra, la pesca y los bosques. La conclusión identifica los retos que se necesitan abordar para que los movimientos sociales rurales consoliden los logros obtenidos.

捍卫接近土地的权利一直是农村人民在当地、在国内，甚至在全球行动起来反对土地掠夺的主要动机。笔者分析了在过去的几十年农村社会运动如何积蓄作为全球行动者与政策形成者的能力。我评估他们利用由全球粮食、燃料、气候和金融危机相互连接而打开的当前政治机遇之窗，以及伴随着土地掠夺这一广为人知的现象而获得的成功。特别关注的是新近改革了的世界粮食安全委员会，该委员会是联合国系统唯一的全球政策论坛，在此系统中这些行为体为完全意义上的参加者；最近关于《土地、渔业和森林等领域的责任治理自愿准则》的谈判也被给予了特殊关注。在结论部分，本文指出了为农村社会运动巩固已获成果而需要解决的挑战。

كان دفاع سكان المناطق الريفية عن حقهم في الحصول على الأرض حافزاً رئيسياً لتعبئتهم على المستويين المحلي والوطني، بل وعلى المستوى العالمي كما تبلور مؤخراً في النضالات ضد عمليات الاستيلاء على الأراضي. وفي هذه المقالة، أحلل كيفية قيام الحركات الاجتماعية الريفية ببناء قدراتها في التعبئة العالمية وفي التأثير السياسي خلال العقد الماضي، فأقيّم مدى نجاح هذه الحركات في استغلال نافذة الفرصة السياسية التي فتحتها الأزمات العالمية المتداخلة في الغذاء والوقود والمناخ والمال، مصحوبة بظاهرة الاستيلاء على الأراضي التي باتت واضحة جداً. وأولي اهتماماً خاصاً للجنة الأمن الغذائي العالمي التي أُعيد تشكيلها مؤخراً، باعتبارها منتدى السياسات العالمية الوحيد في منظومة الأمم المتحدة، حيث يُمثَّل فيها الجميع كمشاركين كاملين، كما أهتم بالمفاوضات الأخيرة حول "المبادئ التوجيهية الطوعية بشأن الحوكمة المسؤولة للأرض والمصايد والغابات". وفي الاستخلاصات أحدد التحديات التي يجب معالجتها من أجل تمكين الحركات الاجتماعية الريفية من توطيد المكاسب التي حققتها.

토지에 대한 접근을 옹호하는 것은 항상 농촌 사람들이 토지 점유에 반대해서 지역적으로, 국가적으로, 최근에는 전 지구적인 투쟁의 형태로 집결하는 주된 동기였다. 나는 농촌 사회운동이 지난 10 년 동안 어떻게 지구적 동원가와 정책 행위자로서의 능력을 키웠는지를 분석한다. 토지 점유라는 대단히 공개된 현상과 더불어 서로 연계되어 있는 지구적 식량, 연료, 기후와 금융위기에 의해서 만들어 진 정치적 기회구조를 성공적으로 활용하고 있는 것을 평가한다. 특별히 행위자들이 참여하고 있는 새롭게 개혁된UN 내 유일한 정책 포럼인 <세계 식량안보 위원회>(Committee on World Food Security)와 <토지, 어업과 삼림에 대한 책임있는 거버너스에 대한 자발적인 가이드라인>을 둘러싼 최근의 협상에 특별히 관심이 주어질 것이다. 결론은 농촌 사회운동이 얻은 것을 공고히 하기 위해서 다루어야 할 필요가 있는 도전과제를 다룬다.

Защита доступа к земле всегда была главной мотивацией для крестьян, чтобы мобилизовать в местном, национальном и, совсем недавно, в глобальном масштабе на борьбу против захвата земель. Я анализирую, как за прошлое десятилетие сельские общественные движения накопили потенциал глобальных мобилизаторов и стратегических игроков. Я оцениваю успех, с которым они эксплуатируют текущие рамки политических возможностей, открываемые связанными глобальной продовольственной системой: топливом, климатом и финансовыми кризисами, которые сопровождаются громкими захватами земель. Особое внимание обращено на недавно реформированный Комитет по Всемирной продовольственной безопасности как единственный глобальный стратегический форум в системе ООН, в который эти субъекты вмешиваются как полноправные участники; и к недавним переговорам о Добровольных руководящих принципах ответственного управления земельными ресурсами, рыбным и лесным хозяйством. В заключение определим задачи, которые должны быть решены сельскими общественными движениями, для того чтобы объединить достигнутые успехи.

Keywords:

• land grabbing
• transnational agrarian movements
• resistance
• La Via Campesina
• Committee on World Food Security
• United Nations
• global democracy
• global governance

Notes

Tashunka Witko, a Lakota leader (1840–1877). This citation was used as the slogan for the People's Food Sovereignty Forum in Rome on 13–17 November 2009, held in parallel to the FAO World Summit on Food Security.

The author has participated in these evolutions as the FAO officer responsible for civil society relations through 2003 and, subsequently, as a supporter of rural social movements' efforts to gain effective access to FAO policy forums and the reformed CFS. This article draws on her direct experience, which has been documented and analyzed in the cited publications.

The literature on institutional reactions to land grabbing is voluminous. On popular resistance see Borras (2008, pp. 261–262; 2010); Borras and Franco (2010b); Matondi et al. (2011); Moyo and Yeros (2005, p. 1); Rosset et al. (2006, pp. 5–19).

See Borras et al. (2006, pp. 4–9) for a comprehensive discussion of the history of the land reform agenda. For a detailed and thoughtful review of the land policy and agrarian reform work of FAO, see Monsalve Suárez (2008).

Invitation issued by the chief of the Unit on 30 April 2008 to attend a ‘partners’ meeting on Voluntary Guidelines on Land and Natural Resource Tenure.

Mobilization on trade issues in opposition to the WTO is another area in which rural social movements have engaged strongly, but mostly from the outside.

Interview with Sofia Monsalve Suárez, January 2011.

Particular mention goes to the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, whose courageous, lucid, and articulate positions on land issues have made him a strategic ally in social movement and civil society efforts to defend an alternative paradigm to market-led productivist approaches.

See McKeon (2009, pp. 17–120) for a detailed documentation and analysis of the progressive enlargement of political space for civil society engagement with FAO and McKeon (2009, pp. 141–157) and McKeon and Kalafatic (2009, pp. 17–23) for a comparative analysis of UN system global mechanisms for policy interaction with civil society.

During the biennial FAO Regional Conferences in 2012, for the first time, civil society spokespersons were enabled to intervene on the same footing as governments on agenda items that concerned issues being treated in the CFS.

See, for example, Oxfam's ‘Land and Power’ report launched on 22 September 2011 (Oxfam, 2011) just before a key Voluntary Guidelines negotiation session. In contrast, the press release issued collectively on 7 October 2011 by the social movements/CSOs participating in the negotiations gave voice to representatives of small-scale producers, artisanal fishworkers, and indigenous peoples. It received considerably less media attention than did the carefully orchestrated Oxfam launch.

This could be a fruitful object of social movement–academic collaboration. Case studies and reflection that could be drawn on are located in various areas of inquiry these include those of globalization and global civil society, see Khagram et al. (2002) and Pieterse (2000); on global accountability, see Gaventa and Tandon (2010), Macdonald (2007), Newell and Wheeler (2006), and the burgeoning literature of land grab case studies that the LDPI is stimulating (for a recently published example, see Smalley and Corbera, 2012).

Interview with Ibrahima Coulibaly, December 2010.