Seeing land deals through the lens of the ‘land–water nexus’: the case of biofuel production in Piura, Peru

ABSTRACT

This contribution examines two large-scale land acquisitions on Peru’s northern coast, using a ‘land–water nexus’ approach. The establishment of large sugarcane monocultures resulted in a massive transfer of land and water rights from smallholders to biofuel companies. Using Ribot and Peluso’s theory of access, we demonstrate that this transfer of rights was enabled by the convergence of neoliberal land and water reforms and the presence of the two investors. This constellation (1) altered smallholders’ bundles of rights; and (2) created sharp imbalances that radically changed access to land and water, not only through changing bundles of rights, but also, and maybe more significantly, through widening the gaps between smallholders’ and biofuel companies’ bundles of powers. Using Hall et al.’s powers of exclusion approach, we identify the processes both underpinning and resulting out of the changing access relations analyzed in this study. Changes to Peru’s water governance may accentuate power asymmetries between investors and smallholders, constraining locals’ access to increasingly scarce water.

KEYWORDS:

• Land–water nexus
• access
• exclusion
• large-scale land acquisitions
• neoliberalism
• Peru

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved this paper. Any remaining errors are our own. We are also grateful to Christoph Oberlack, Thomas Breu and Patrick Bottazzi for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper, as well as Anu Lannen for editing the manuscript. And, most importantly, we would like to thank Soledad Alburqueque, Nataly Ramírez, Eliane Debrunner, Felicia Guevara, Olga Zuñiga and countless others for their invaluable support in the field research in Peru that provided the empirical basis for this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 These comunidades campesinas assume the existence of (1) a communal territory – used familiarly and collectively; (2) a group of families who consider themselves its members/proprietors; (3) a body of leaders, who are in charge of internal social regulation as well as external representation; (4) other neighboring communities which interact with each other; and, (5) a state which recognizes these comunidades campesinas, grants them legitimacy and regulates some norms and functions (Diez 2006).

2 While part of this ‘common land’ is entirely in the hands of the state, parts of it overlap with areas under possessory ownership by local agricultural associations. A certificate of possession can be requested once you can prove the direct, continuous, peaceful and public possession of a parcel of land, lasting at least one year in the case of state land. However, these certificates of possession are issued at the local level (municipality) and do not carry the same weight as a land title.

3 Until 2002, Peru consisted of 24 subdivisions, called ‘departments’. In 2003 they were replaced by the 25 ‘regions’ of Peru. Callao, which had not belonged to any department, became a region of its own.

4 Water licenses are issued free of a set expiration date, and are presumably valid as long as the activity continues for which a license was granted. They are not transferable: if the license holder does not wish to continue using it, the license is forfeited to the state through the ANA.

5 According to fieldwork conducted by Burneo (2013), young people in the Lower Chira Valley do not wish to work in agriculture and prefer dedicating themselves to other activities/services (mototaxi services, construction, rural transportation, etc.) or working in artisanal fishing in the area of Paita.

6 Land users may request a certificate of possession when they can prove their direct, continuous, peaceful and public possession of a parcel of land, lasting at least one year in the case of state land and five years in the case of private land. However, these certificates of possession are issued at the local level (municipality) and do not carry the same weight as a land title. To obtain a formal title, land users’ possession right must be registered with Superintendencia Nacional de los Registros Públicos (SUNARP) (the national registration public office), who – if no complaint or counterclaim is made – may furnish the applicant with a registered title.

7 Before, most smallholders needed a motorized pump to get water from the river onto their farmland. Motors would break, causing crop loss. Now most of the affected farmers irrigate their fields using the gravity method: farmers needing access to water must only pay a water fee at the water user organization (junta de usuarios) and the corresponding floodgate is opened by the floodgate openers (tomeros).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge support from the Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS) through the research project ‘The Effects of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLA) on Households in Rural Communities of the Global South: Gender Relations, Decision Making and Food Security’.

Notes on contributors

Laura Tejada

Laura Tejada is a doctoral candidate at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, Switzerland. Her research focuses on land and water grabbing in Peru, emphasizing institutional and agrarian change, the ‘commodification’ of nature, and local resistance. Her research is funded by the international research project ‘The Effects of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions (LSLA) on Households in Rural Communities of the Global South: Gender Relations, Decision Making and Food Security’ of the Geneva-based Swiss Network of International Studies (SNIS), CDE and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). She also works within the research project ‘Archetypes of Transnational Land Acquisitions’, which is part of National Research Program NFP68 of the SNSF.

Stephan Rist

Stephan Rist is an associate professor of human geography at the Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Switzerland. He holds the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair ‘Natural and Cultural Heritage of Sustainable Mountain Development’, and also works at the Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), University of Bern, where he heads its Cluster on Governance of Land and Natural Resources. His geographic emphasis is on Latin America and Africa, where he is involved in several international research projects dealing with critical sustainability assessments of large-scale land acquisitions, food sustainability, local knowledge, social movements and transdisciplinary research approaches for enhancement of societal transformation on behalf of environmental justice. Email: [email protected]