Land robbery, so-called land grabbing, continues voraciously, and the prime cause continues to be the lust to produce palm oil, to be poured into food-waste and so-called biofuels.
The third Land Matrix Initiative report notes the occupation of about 80 million soils, including 8 mln in the years 2019 and 2020 alone, with more than 2100 operations on fertile land. (1)
Large-scale land acquisitions ( LSLAs)-in developing countries, by Corporations and their suppliers-are associated with the most serious violations of human rights and the environment. Therefore, they also deserve attention in the analysis of risks related to
due diligence
and ESG, Environmental, Social and Governance. (2)
Meanwhile, the liberalization of land markets continues, as a lever and driver of new land grabs. From Brazil to Indonesia to India, where just these days peasant uprisings have just forced Prime Minister Modi to backtrack on land reform that would have crushed them. (3) And the industrial giants continue to reap business, as it turns out, on this grease of violence and burning.
Land robbery, palm oil in first place
Verisck MapleCroft-a global investment risk analysis company-has updated its report on more than 170 commodities. (4) Palm oil remains at the top of the list of causes of land grabbing, with particular but not exclusive regard to Indonesia and Malaysia:
– Indonesia-with which the European Union is negotiating yet another toxic free trade agreement, as previously reported-is the leader in palm oil production globally (>50%), and in land conflicts. The Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA), registered 241, in 2020 alone, including in New Guinea, (5)
– Malaysia ranks second in on-site production (about 35 percent of the planetary total), compounded by giga-investments by its palmocrats in other countries.
Land grabbing, other causes and effects
Verisck MapleCroft’s land robbery ranking continues with cobalt, the most extreme risk metal. Notably in Congo, where palm oil-related abuses and slavery have also continued since the time of the criminal monarch of Belgium Leopold II. This is followed by other food commodities – e.g., soy, coconut, garlic, sweet potatoes – and some metals that are key players in the ‘ecological transition’. Not only cobalt but also copper, bauxite, molybdenum. And the ever-present gold, whose extraction is accompanied by ecocide and mercury and sodium cyanide poisoning.
Investigations conducted by news agencies (e.g., the Associated Press, AP), NGOs (ex. Amnesty, Greenpeace), universities and research organizations in turn show how land grabbing-as well as being far more extensive than it appears-is accompanied by brutal violence and slavery, on women and children especially.
Systemic ecocide
Ecocide is systemic and goes hand in hand with land robbery. Verisck MapleCroft analysts report this in terms of ‘natural capital degradation,’ to be measured by the four indices of deforestation, air quality, water pollution, and CO2 emissions related to land use changes.
Large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) contributes substantially to deforestation, disappearance of natural habitats and land degradation. Thus also to biodiversity losses and high greenhouse gas emissions, especially when fires devour large carbon stocks such as tropical rainforests.
Basic human rights
Verisck MapleCroft analysts cynically refer to the ‘degradation of social capital‘ to hint at the impact of large-scale land ‘acquisitions’ on basic human rights. Without indulging in the atrocities that Grain Association collects and reports daily on the independent information site FarmLandGrab.
Land grabs always have dynamics that deconstruct the social fabrics of local communities, cause tensions and conflicts, and exacerbate poverty and food security (i.e., food availability) problems.
It refers first of all to the systematic failure to consult and prior consent of the inhabitants of the expropriated lands to their dispossession, and to the intimidation and violence accompanying their deportation. But also to the paucity of space left over from monocultures to surviving villages, often insufficient to be able to cultivate and feed families. To the low employment rate, lack of skilled jobs, harsh working conditions at low wages, and the dangers associated with the widespread use of pesticides so poisonous (e.g., paraquat) that they are banned in countries with more developed economies.
Possible solutions
The awareness campaign initiated by the writer (Dongo) a decade ago on land grabbing and ecocide associated with palm oil production remains, unfortunately, atrociously relevant. Neither the guidelines on responsible land, forest and watershed management(CFS, FAO, 2012) nor those on responsible investment in agriculture (CFS, FAO, 2014) have been enough to mitigate the voracity of palmocrats and that of the soy empire. The rights of farmers and rural communities proclaimed by the UN on 19.11.18, for that matter, remain on paper.
Holding operators accountable through due diligence-as is happening at Groupe Casino, France, for selling Brazilian meat ‘from deforestation’-could become an effective tool, for companies operating in the EU. So is the assessment of ESG performance, for listed companies seeking investment, to the extent that social and environmental responsibility can be tracked through public blockchain systems.
#Buycott!
While waiting for effective solutions so far unreported-perhaps even of a Constitution for the land, all the more useful because it is binding on every state on the planet-the boycott of food, cosmetics and ‘biofuel’ products that contain palm oil is the only tool available to all of us who firmly believe in the urgent need for a social, as well as ecological, transformation of the society in which we live.
The 17 SDGs(Sustainable Development Goals) in UN Agenda 2030, on paper, express the best resolutions so far drafted to repair a diffusely corrupt and unequal global civilization. And it is also our job to contribute to their achievement. (6) Eliminating palm oil from our daily consumption is simple, as has already been shared. Also from the processing industries and the large-scale retail trade, as well. With the added benefit of reducing the risks associated with business activities. Buycott!
#SDG1(No poverty), #SDG2(End hunger), #SDG5(Gender equality), #SDG12(Sustainable production and consumption), #SDG14(Life below water), #SDG15(Life on land)
Dario Dongo and Elena Bosani
Notes
(1) Land Matrix analytical report III, taking stock of the global land rush. Land Matrix. 9/27/21, https://landmatrix.org/resources/land-matrix-analytical-report-iii-taking-stock-of-the-global-land-rush/
(2) The acronym ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance – refers to the three factors adopted in international finance to ‘measure’ the sustainability performance of companies and organizations. In the absence, moreover, of uniform and shared parameters. V. Sarah Murray. Navigating the thicket of ESG metrics. Financial Times. 25.10.21, https://www.ft.com/content/75a9ed73-6f49-466f-a1d2-55be96678637
(3) Patralekha Chatterjee (2021). Agricultural reform in India: farmers versus the state. The Lancet planetary health. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00060-7
(4) Will Nichols, James Lockhart-Smith. Palm oil, cobalt highest risk for commodity-linked land grabs. Verisk Maplecroft. 4.11.21, https://www.maplecroft.com/insights/analysis/palm-oil-cobalt-highest-risk-for-commodity-linked-land-grabs/
(5) The pandemic of Covid and large scale land grabbing (2021). KPA’s End of the Year Report. https://www.kpa.or.id/?lang=en
(6) Dario Dongo, Giulia Caddeo. Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs. The challenge of humanity. Égalité. 5.9.19, https://www.egalite.org/sustainable-development-goals-sdgs-la-sfida-dellumanita/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
Lawyer in Milan and Frankfurt am Main. An expert in family, juvenile and criminal law, she is now enrolled in a university master's programme in food law
