Land grabbing and climate change, the 2019 IPCC report
Reform of the Third Sector, still delays
12 August 2019
The Cadillac on wheels
15 August 2019
Land grabbing and climate change. The IPCC 2019 report of panel UN intergovernmental expert on climate change underlines the impact of irresponsible land management on the ongoing ecological crisis. The Earth is in fact at the center of abuses and intolerable conflicts. And the entire civil society, in the absence of politics, must respond with a strong signal. #Buycott!
Land grabbing and climate change, the report 'Climate Change & Land'
'Climate Change & Land' - the published report the 8.8.19 by IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) - highlights how the irresponsible management of land, reservoirs and forests contributes significantly and dramatically to the ongoing climate change. The document focuses on the acquisitions of large areas of territories. The cd 'Large Scale Land Acquisition'(LSLA).
Irresponsible investments on huge expanses with agro-industrial objectives, according to the IPCC report, they are particularly widespread In Africa Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America E. Brazil, Argentina e Perù these are just some of the examples of the socio-ecological disasters taking place.
Le Large Scale Land Acquisition, traded by large investors with the connivance of local governments, produce almost always disastrous social and environmental impacts. In fact, they pursue the exclusive interests of industrial finance. But without any respect for fundamental human rights and ecosystems. All this in defiance of criteria defined by Committee on World Food Security (CFS) at FAO. (2) The recurring pattern is in fact that of violently evicting the inhabitants from their lands.
Land grabbing vs. sovereignty over natural resources
The robbery of the lands, land grabbing, is in fact functional to the conversion of boundless plots of virgin natural areas. After deforestation, they are invaded by intensive monocultures of oil palm and GMO soybeans. These are in fact the commodities that for decades have led the robberies of the lands and deforestations on a planetary level. (3) Pending planting, the land is also destined, in Latin America, to graze beef cattle.
The international convention on economic, social and cultural rights (4), adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations, already in 1966 affirmed the right of peoples to 'freely dispose' of natural resources and means of subsistence. Corresponding to this is the ban on depriving local communities of these resources. A prediction, however, systematically violated by palmocrats and soybean imperialists.
'All peoples may, for their own purposes, freely dispose of their wealth and natural resources, without prejudice to any obligations deriving from international economic cooperation, based on the principle of mutual benefit and international law. Under no circumstances can a people be deprived of their means of subsistence'(ICESCR, article 1.2).
The Inter-American Court of human rights
The Inter-American Court human rights, Inter-American Court of Human Rights (I-ACtHR), in turn, argued that such rights include sovereignty over natural resources. As well as respect for cultural identities and the dignity of life intrinsically linked to them.
'Under public international law, States are the ultimate owners of natural resources and control over those located on their national territory is a component of their sovereignty. [...] Under international human rights law, peoples have the right to freely dispose and benefit from the use of their natural resources. ' (5)
Three guarantees for a 'fair balance'
A 'right balance' in the case law of I-ACtHR it has been defined among the conflicting interests on land. Three specific guarantees are prescribed:
- the effective participation, consultation and consent of local communities to any operation on their lands. Regardless of the holding of title deeds,
- the obligation to share 'reasonable advantages' with indigenous communities when changes in the intended use of the territories are shared,
- the preventive elaboration of environmental and social impact assessments, in relation to each 'development', investment, exploration or extraction plan.
It's at stake 'the essential value the protection and conservation of cultural diversity in pluralistic societies. Therefore, the protection of the right to common property of indigenous peoples could be interpreted as a vehicle, a legal instrument that contributes to safeguarding the maintenance and perpetuation of their cultural identity.'. (6)
#Buycott! GMO soy, palm oil and American meats
The neologism #Buycott! is the crasis between two English words. Buy, buy, e boycott, boycott. Our initiative is expressed in fact in an invitation to boycott the supply chains that derive from the most atrocious abuses on human beings and ecosystems. Radically refraining from purchasing products that contain palm oil, GMO soybeans (even if used as a raw material for farm animal feed, from which meat and dairy products from untraced 'GMO-free' supply chains are derived) and American meats.
#Buycott! GMO soy, palm oil and American meats. #NotInOurName. #NotInOurNames. Thats enough!
Dario Dongo
Note
(1) IPCC, UN. (2019). Climate Change and Land, an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems. v. https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2019/08/2b.-Chapter-1_FINAL.pdf
(2) FAO, Committee on World Food Security (CFS), The Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests, 9.3.12. v. http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/nr/land_tenure/pdf/VG_en_Final_March_2012.pdf
FAO, Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems, 15.10.14. http://www.fao.org/3/a-au866e.pdf
(3) Sam Lawson, Art Blundell, Bruce Cabarle, Naomi Basik, Michael Jenkins, and Kerstin Canby (2014). Consumer Goods and Deforestation, An Analysis of the Extent and Nature of Illegality in Forest Conversion for Agriculture and Timber Plantations. forest trends, https://www.forest-trends.org/wp-content/uploads/imported/for168-consumer-goods-and-deforestation-letter-14-0916-hr-no-crops_web-pdf.pdf
(4) International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ICESCR
(5) Jérémie Gilbert and Nadia Bernaz. (2015). Natural Resource Grabbing: An International Law Perspective. ISBN-13: 978-9004305656. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004305663
(6) Alejandro Fuentes. (2016). Exploitation of Natural Resources and Protection of Indigenous Peoples' Communal Property over Traditional Lands and Territories. Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, 28.10.16, https://rwi.lu.se/app/uploads/2017/04/ExploitationNaturalResources_2016.pdf
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
