TWN
Info Service on Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge (May24/09)
14 May 2024
Third World Network
Dear friends and colleagues
Soaring
land prices, land grabs, and carbon schemes creating unprecedented
‘land squeeze’
A
comprehensive new report, Land
Squeeze, by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable
Food Systems (IPES-Food) reveals that soaring land prices, land grabs,
and carbon schemes are creating an unprecedented ‘land squeeze’, threatening
farmers and food production.
The
2008 global financial crisis unleashed a huge wave of land grabbing.
But the pressures on farmland never went away. 15 years on, global
land prices have doubled and farmers are being squeezed from all sides.
Huge swathes of farmland are now being snapped up for carbon offsets
and other forms of ‘green grabbing’, adding to the pressures from
conventional land grabs. Land inequality is on the rise in all world
regions, and the farmers and communities who deliver food security
and steward the land are being forced out.
The
‘Land Squeeze’ report identifies transformative actions needed to
reverse the land squeeze and achieve meaningful and equitable access
to land, including putting community-led responses at the heart of
climate and biodiversity policies, cracking down on dubious carbon
offsets and land speculation, getting land back into the hands of
farmers through innovative financing and ownership models – and delivering
a new deal for farmers and rural areas, and a new generation of comprehensive
land and agrarian reforms.
With
best wishes,
Third World Network
———————————————————————————————————
IPES-FOOD
(International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems)
Press release
Monday 13 May 2024
***
Land
Squeeze: Global Land Prices Double in 15 Years Threatening Farmers
and Food Production, Experts Warn
***
Top
lines:
- New
study exposes how land grabs in various forms have led to doubling
land prices globally since 2008, and tripling in Central Europe,
placing unprecedented strain on farmers and rural communities.
- Land
around twice the size of Germany has been snatched up in transnational
deals worldwide since 2000, with 87% of land grabs occurring in
regions of high biodiversity.
- Pressures
are exploding, including for carbon and biodiversity offsetting
and clean fuel schemes, leading to huge swathes of farmland being
purchased by governments, corporations, and investors, threatening
food production. This global trend of land grabs and green grabs
is particularly affecting sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
***
13
MAY 2024, BRUSSELS – Soaring land prices, land grabs, and carbon
schemes are creating an unprecedented ‘land squeeze’, threatening
farmers and food production, reveals a comprehensive new report today
by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems
(IPES-Food).
The
report comes as land issues rise up the global agenda – with the World
Bank holding a conference
on ‘Securing Land Tenure and Access for Climate Action’ in Washington
DC this week, a recent World Bank report on net-zero in food systems
calling for measures to reduce the conversion of forests to croplands,
and as Brazil launches an agrarian
reform policy ‘Terra da Gente’ to allocate land for 295,000 families
by 2026.
The
study exposes the alarming escalation of land grabbing in various
forms, including through ‘green grabs’, opaque financial instruments
and speculation, rapid resource extraction, and intensive export crop
production. Land around twice the size of Germany has been snatched
up in transnational deals worldwide since 2000.
Major
new pressures are emerging from ‘green grabs’ for carbon and biodiversity
offset projects, conservation initiatives, and clean fuels, the report
highlights. Huge swathes of farmland are being acquired by governments
and corporations for these ‘green grabs’ – which now account
for 20% of large-scale land deals – despite little evidence of climate
benefits. Governments’ pledges for land-based carbon removals alone
add up to almost 1.2 billion hectares, equivalent to total global
cropland. Carbon offset markets are expected to quadruple in the next
7 years.
This
global trend of land grabs and green grabs is particularly affecting
sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, while land inequality is growing
fastest in Central-Eastern Europe, North and Latin America, and South
Asia. Shockingly, 70% of the world’s farmland is now controlled by
just 1% of the world’s largest farms.
As
demand for land continues unchecked, the panel of experts says the
‘land squeeze’ is inflaming land inequality and making small and medium
scale food production increasingly unviable – leading to farmer revolts,
rural exodus, rural poverty and food insecurity. With global farmland
prices doubling in 15 years, farmers, peasants, and Indigenous peoples
are losing their land (or forced to downsize), while young farmers
face significant barriers in accessing land to farm.
IPES-Food
calls for action to:
- Halt
green grabs and remove speculative investment from land markets;
- Establish
integrated governance for land, environment and food systems to
ensure a just transition;
- Support
collective ownership and innovative financing for farmers to access
land;
- Forge
a new deal for farmers and rural areas, and a new generation of
land and agrarian reforms.
Susan
Chomba, IPES-Food expert, Kenya, said:
“Land isn’t just dirt beneath our feet, it’s the bedrock of our
food systems keeping us all fed. Yet we’re seeing soaring land prices
and grabs driving an unprecedented ‘land squeeze’, accelerating inequality
and threatening food production.
“The
rush for dubious carbon projects, tree planting schemes, clean fuels,
and speculative buying is displacing small-scale farmers and Indigenous
Peoples. In Africa, powerful governments, polluting fossil fuel companies,
and big conservation groups are elbowing their way onto our land under
the veneer of green goals, directly threatening the very communities
bearing the brunt of climate change.”
Nettie
Wiebe, IPES-Food expert, Canada, said:
“Imagine trying to start a farm when 70% of farmland is already
controlled by just 1% of the largest farms – and when land prices
have risen for 20 years in a row, like in North America. That’s the
stark reality young farmers face today. Farmland is increasingly owned
not by farmers but by speculators, pension funds, and big agribusinesses
looking to cash in. Land prices have skyrocketed so high it’s becoming
impossible to make a living from farming. This is reaching a tipping
point – small and medium scale farming are simply being squeezed out.”
Shalmali
Guttal, IPES-Food expert, India, said:
“We’re seeing soaring land prices, land grabs and out-of-control
carbon schemes driving an unprecedented ‘land squeeze’. In this era
of economic turmoil huge swathes of land are being snapped up like
there’s no tomorrow by governments, corporations, and speculators.
Land prices have doubled globally since 2008. Farmers, peasants, and
Indigenous communities are being squeezed from all sides – losing
their land, livelihoods, ancestral and cultural roots, and undermining
their ability to produce food sustainably. They need to have real
agency to shape land governance.”
Sofía
Monsalve Suárez, IPES-Food expert, Colombia, said:
“It’s time decision-makers stop shirking their responsibility and
start to tackle rural decline. The financialisation and liberalisation
of land markets is ruining livelihoods and threatening the right to
food. Instead of opening the floodgates to speculative capital, governments
need to take concrete steps to halt bogus ‘green grabs’ and invest
in rural development, sustainable farming and community-led conservation.
Bottom line, we’ve got to make some serious changes to democratise
land ownership if we want to ensure a sustainable future for nature,
food production and rural communities.”
***
NOTES
Key
data points:
- Globally
1% of the world’s largest farms now control
70% of the world’s farmland.
- In
Latin America the smallest 55% of farms occupy
just 3% of land.
- Since
2000, an area twice
the size of Germany has been acquired through transnational
land deals.
- Between
2008 and 2022, land
prices nearly doubled globally – and tripled in Central-Eastern
Europe.
- In
the UK, an influx of investment from pension funds and private wealth
contributed to a doubling
of farmland prices from 2010-2015.
- North
America has seen 20 consecutive years of land price increases: and
30 consecutive years of land price increases in
Canada, with spikes of 12% in 2022 and another 8% in 2023. Land
prices in the US agricultural heartlands of Iowa quadrupled
between 2002-2020.
- By
2023, 960 active funds specialised in food and agricultural assets
managed over $150
billion.
- More
than half of land grabs are intended for water-intensive crop production,
and 87% of land grabs occur in regions of high
biodiversity.
- Agricultural
investment funds have risen ten-fold
from 2005 to 2018, with US investors doubling their stakes in farmland
since the pandemic.
- Nearly
45% of all farmland investments in 2018, worth roughly $15 billion,
came from pension
funds and insurance companies. Between 2005-2017, pension, insurance
and endowment funds invested around
$45 billion in farmland.
- ‘Green
grabs’ now account for 20%
of large-scale land deals. Governments’ pledges for land-based
carbon removals alone add up to almost 1.2
billion hectares, equivalent to total global cropland. Carbon
offset markets are expected to quadruple
in the next 7 years.
- Over
half of government carbon removal pledges on land risk interfering
with small-scale farmers & Indigenous Peoples.
- Some
25
million hectares of land have been snapped up for carbon projects
by a single ‘environmental asset creation’ firm, UAE-based ‘Blue
Carbon’ through agreements with the governments of Kenya, Zimbabwe,
Tanzania, Zambia, and Liberia.
***
Expert
authors available for interview:
- Susan
Chomba, IPES-Food expert and director of vital landscapes at
the World Resources Institute (WRI) [Kenya – EN]
- Sofía
Monsalve Suárez, IPES-Food expert and secretary general of FIAN
International [Colombia – ES, EN, DE]
- Shalmali
Guttal, IPES-Food expert and executive director of Focus on
the Global South [India – EN, HI, TH]
- Nettie
Wiebe, IPES-Food expert and farmer [Canada – EN]
***
CONTACT
Robbie
Blake, communications manager, IPES-Food
robbie.blake@ipes-food.org,
+32491290096
*****
