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
yap(at)cidse.org
Stories
Publications
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Civil society statement on biodiversity offsets and credits
July 22, 2024Biodiversity offsetting will only delay urgent action on addressing the root causes of biodiversity loss. A large coalition of over […]
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News from CIDSE – March/April 2024
April 29, 2024Read the latest issue of our newsletter for a review of our activities from January to February and find out […]
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Solidarity with the Maasai People of Tanzania
April 22, 2024On World Heritage Day, CIDSE’s US Member, the Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, released the following statement, as a member […]
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New Tales from Barroso Mountains
April 10, 2024A story of how local communities in Portugal are fighting against exploitation of their lands by large corporations In this […]
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News from CIDSE – Jan./Feb. 2024
February 29, 2024Read the latest issue of our newsletter for a review of our activities from January to February and find out […]