LAND RIGHTS
The last twenty years have seen the rapid acquisition of large plots of land in the global south by national and international elites, often referred to as land grabbing. Land grabbing can be defined as the control of land – whether through ownership, lease, concession, contracts, quotas, or general power – for purposes of speculation, extraction, resource control or commodification. (Ecoruralis 2016)
Land grabbing is a violation of human rights by threatening access to food and livelihoods. The new land proprietors often favor profitable export of their crops or minerals over feeding the hungry. Peasant farmers lose access to their land and thus their income and nutrition. The environmental health of the land is compromised as industrial forms of agriculture are implemented.
CIDSE is supporting the resistance of land grabbing in Africa, by connecting church actors with social movements and organising spaces for exchange. In 2015, CIDSE contributed to the organisation of a Pan-African Conference on Land Grabbing and Just Governance in Kenya, which brought together church and non-church actors to exchange knowledge and strategies on land grabbing, resulting in the establishment of a permanent platform called “Our land is our life” for these purposes. A similar conference was organised again in 2017 in Abidjan. The reflection and discussion on land grabbing from the perspective of Laudato Si’ and Catholic Church social teachings that began at the conference in Abidjan was then concretized in a paper on the theology of land grabbing to facilitate the opening of a concrete dialogue on land issues with church actors.

Manny Yap
Stories
Publications
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News from CIDSE – May-June 2022
July 1, 2022Read our latest newsletter for an overview of our activities from May and June and find out what’s coming next! […]
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Standing up against land grabbing
June 22, 2022An African delegation stages a demonstration in front of the headquarters of Belgian company SIAT to reclaim their land and […]
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Resistance to Land Grabbing in Ghana
June 13, 2022CIDSE releases a video containing testimonies from communities affected by the activities of SIAT, a Belgian company active in palm […]
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Land Grabbing in the Ivory Coast
June 13, 2022CIDSE publishes the new policy brief “The case of SIAT’s subsidiary in Ivory Coast” on land grabbing in the Ivory […]
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Human rights and environmental abuses by the Belgian company SIAT
June 13, 2022An African delegation shares its experiences and mobilises in Brussels PRESS RELEASE, 13 June 2022 A delegation of African communities […]