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puce Newsletter october 2015, Editorial by Michel Merlet : preparing the World Forum on Access to Land
La lettre d'information du réseau Agter

La lettre d'information du réseau Agter

The association AGTER runs an international network of people, exchanging and thinking together how to improve the governance of land, water and natural resources.The network selects and makes information available but it also formulates suggestions and alternatives to face the current great challenges. This quaterly newsletter is presenting the latest information available on our website : www.agter.asso.fr.

14 October 2015

Editorial october 2015

by

Michel Merlet

The preparation of the World Forum on Access to Land and Natural Resources (WFAL) is evolving every day. The International Organising Committee (http://landaccessforum.org/en/organ…) has already met up three times, by June and November 2014 at the FAO’s headquarters in Roma and by June 2015 at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels. The World Forum will be held on 31 March, 1 and 2 April 2016 in Valencia, Spain.

This place is highly symbolic. Indeed, in December 2004, the World Forum on Agrarian Reform (WFAR) took place; on the campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The WFAR greatly contributed to an international discussion on agrarian reform, at that time totally forgotten by most countries and all international organisations. More than 200 organisations from 72 countries representing the five continents participated to this World Forum. Several national governments took part to the discussions, including the Brazilian government assisted by a delegation of the Ministry of Agrarian Development leaded by Miguel Rossetto. A year and half later, in March 2006, on the request of the Brazilian government and other several countries, the FAO convened a new International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD). This conference took place 27 years after the first of the same nature.

Nowadays, land issues are central to debates on development. But the ICARRD’s results are insufficient to tackle current issues. The most significant step forward since ICARRD has been the dialogue between States and the global civil society that led to the redaction of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land and other natural resources. This step forward takes place at the time of current unprecedented global and massive land and natural resources grabs. These grabs take two forms: the privatisation of lands, natural resources and territories, up to now managed collectively; or the concentration of these resources by few individuals or companies. Nevertheless, the translation of these Voluntary Guidelines into binding measures able to tackle these processes will take a lot of time. The risk is high to be unable to put an end to dispossession and destruction of peasant agricultures and indigenous civilisations and finally that these global impacts become irreversible.

The processes of wealth concentration and increase of inequalities have never been as fast as nowadays. This evolution begins to cause a stir among varied circles. This adds up to other global threats: increase of armed conflicts, climate change, destruction of biodiversity, and so on. All the work done during the International Year of Family Farming has, without any doubt, contributed to sensitise urban populations and individuals without any link to agriculture or livestock on choices on agrarian development models. Nevertheless, all of this is still far from sufficient.

The World Forum on Access to Land and Natural Resources 2016 is an exceptional opportunity to bring together the representatives of varied social sectors: organisations of producers, civil society organisations not directly linked to agriculture, States and local governments, indigenous organisations, scholars and key figures. Together, they will think about how going further, moving faster in implementing the required measures, changing their nature and, when possible, establishing binding procedures at the different levels. It is of course important to promote the respect of fundamental human rights. But, the good will will never be sufficient. We will have to change significantly the balance of power in order to establish mechanisms that are not only voluntary. To that end, with a world population increasingly urban, we have to mobilise urban to change countryside. This mobilisation cannot be only the fact of consumers-actors who, by their choices, might contribute to make large companies socially responsible. Choosing your soda depending on the company’s stated determination to respect the Voluntary Guidelines will not be efficient! Above all, such practices cannot replace a political and democratic choice on the model of society. The WFAL will provide the opportunity to every participant to discuss the different ways to create the conditions for a democratic mobilisation of the entire society built on the issue of access to land. We do not look for “win-win” processes between large companies and dispossessed populations, but for devices in which the whole society will be a “winner”. Only regaining control over their “common” future, Peoples will be able to overcome the enormous increasing economic difficulties. It is for the AGTER’s members one of the main motivations of this Forum: give a decisive impetus to this indispensable change of paradigm.

Our efforts are focusing on the preparation of this event. The organisations that launched this call, CERAI and AGTER, are small structures based in Europe. Today, more than 300 organisations of producers and from the World civil society have joined the call for carrying out the Forum, in addition to 8 governments and intergovernmental organisations and about 400 key figures. The number of signatories is increasing every day.

We need you to strengthen this process. You can sign the call, if you have not yet done it, get your friends to sign and invite organisations that you think they could contribute to this great collective effort. The WFAL’s website is available in French, English, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian and Chinese ( http://landaccessforum.org).

We also need you to contribute to debates, to bring testimonies, analysis, proposals, during the period of preparation that begins this month and will last up to the end of March 2016. For the 2004 Forum, we had not organised a preparatory phase like this one, so the scope of proposals was limited. It is not possible during 3 days to replace these months of preparation! You will find below the instructions to proceed with an access to the WFAL’s provisional work themes.

The FMAT’s secretariat, with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), is organising on 16 November 2015 in Brussels a preparatory meeting, especially dedicated to land access in Europe. From now, you can register to this event by contacting directly the WFLA’s secretariat at secretariat@landaccessforum.org. The final program will be published very soon.

We will multiply the publication of the AGTER’s bulletin notes in order to keep you fully informed about the Forum’s preparation progress. If you are registered as signatory of the call, you will receive the WFAL’s specific newsletters.

Wherever you live, you can contribute. We are also looking for volunteers speaking at least one of the two Forum’s official languages to help us to collect contributions and analysing them. For this too, please do not hesitate to contact us.

article(s) French  Spanish English 

article(s)

En vue de la rencontre mondiale du FMAT-2016, envoyez vos contributions ! Ouverture des débats régionaux

14 October 2015
Quatre mois de débats régionaux pour établir un diagnostic de chaque continent, identifier les sujets clefs du débat et les pistes d’action possibles avant la tenue de la rencontre mondiale ! La rencontre mondiale du FMAT 2016 est fixée : les 3 journées de débat global auront lieu les 31 mars, 1er et 2 avril 2016, sur le campus de l’Université Polytechnique de Valence en Espagne. Pour préparer ces travaux, nous ouvrons aujourd’hui la phase des débats régionaux du FMAT. Le but est de réunir les (...)

En route vers le Forum Mondial sur l’Accès à la Terre, dont la rencontre de débat global se tiendra à l’Université Polytechnique de Valence (Espagne) les 31 mars, 1er et 2 avril 2016.

14 October 2015
La rencontre mondiale du FMAT réunira autant de représentants des trois catégories de signataires de l’appel FMAT que possible, avec une présence majoritaire d’organisations paysannes et de la société civile rurale et urbaine, parmi lesquelles des organisations de femmes et de jeunes (catégorie 1), des institutions gouvernementales et des organisations internationales (catégorie 2), des individus, parmi lesquels des chercheurs, des enseignants, des politiques, etc. (catégorie 3). Elle sera bien sûr (...)

Intervention de Geneviève Savigny devant l’assemblée générale du Conseil des droits de l’Homme

13 October 2015
Article extrait du site de La Via Campesina : http://www.viacampesina.org/fr/inde… Je m ́appelle Geneviève Savigny, je suis représentante de La Via Campesina en Europe. J’interviens aujourd’hui au nom de mon organisation ainsi que de FIAN International, de l’Union Internationale des Travailleurs Agricoles, du Programme sur les Droits Sociaux, Economiques et Culturels des Femmes et du Réseau International des Droits de l’Homme. Nos organisations accueillent avec plaisir le rapport de la deuxième (...)

Victoire du mouvement paysan dans sa lutte pour la reconnaissance de ses droits à l’ONU

13 October 2015
Article extrait du site de La Via Campesina : http://www.viacampesina.org/fr/inde… A la fin de la 30ème session du Conseil des Droits de l’Homme de l’ONU, le Conseil a voté à majorité la résolution qui mandate pour les deux prochaines années le groupe intergouvernemental de travail à composition non limitée à poursuivre la négociation, à finaliser et présenter un projet de texte de déclaration des Nations unies sur les droits des paysannes et des paysans et autres personnes travaillant en milieu rural. (...)

PÉTITION : SAUVONS LES PAYSANS MALGACHES DES NOUVELLES MENACES SUR LEURS TERRES

6 October 2015, by Collectif TANY, Plateforme SIF
La formulation par les autorités malgaches de politiques et de diverses lois impliquant l’usage des terres par les investisseurs risque d’organiser la négation des droits sur leurs terres pour les paysans et les communautés locales. Contrairement à son engagement de consolider la Réforme Foncière, le gouvernement malgache est en train de l’enterrer. Au mépris de l’intérêt général, il remet en cause les avancées acquises par la réforme foncière. Pourtant, cette réforme entamée par la Lettre de Politique (...)

De camino hacia el Foro mundial sobre el acceso a la tierra. Los días 31 de marzo, 1 y 2 de abril de 2016 tendrán lugar 3 jornadas de debate global en el campus de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (España).

14 October 2015
El encuentro mundial del FMAT reunirá tantos representantes de las tres categorías de firmantes de la convocatoria FMAT como sea posible con una presencia mayoritaria de organizaciones campesinas y de la sociedad civil rural y urbana, principalmente organizaciones de mujeres y jóvenes (categoria 1), instituciones gobernamentales y organisaciones internacionales (categoria 2), individuos, entre los cuales investigadores, profesores, politicos, etc. (categoria 3). Se abrirá también a todos los (...)

¡Esperamos vuestras contribuciones para el encuentro mundial del FMAT-2016! Apertura de debates regionales

14 October 2015
Cuatro meses de debates regionales para establecer un diagnóstico de cada continente, identificar los temas clave de debate y las pistas posibles de acción antes de que tenga lugar el encuentro mundial. Ya se ha establecido la fecha del encuentro mundial del FMAT 2016. Los días 31 de marzo, 1 y 2 de abril de 2016 tendrán lugar 3 jornadas de debate global en el campus de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (España). Para preparar el trabajo del Foro, abrimos hoy la fase de debates regionales (...)

Marco conceptual del libro "Rutas de desarrollo en territorios humanos. Las dinámicas de la vía lactea en Nicaragua". UCA, 2015.

25 September 2015

On the way to the World Forum on Access to Land. Discussions will take place between March 31st and April 2nd, 2016, on the campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain.

14 October 2015
The WFAL global assembly will unite as many representatives as possible from the three major categories of signatories. There will be a large number of farmers’ organizations as well as urban and rural civil society organizations (in particular, organizations that are focused on gender and on youth). The forum is of course open to any and all organizations or individuals interested in participating, as long as they respect the WFAL’s mission and the discussion rules laid out by International (...)

Send us your input in preparation for the WFAL-2016 global assembly ! Opening of regional discussion phase

14 October 2015
Over the next four months, we will be holding regional discussions. Information collected during these regional discussions will form the basis for regional diagnostic reports and help us to identify key discussion topics and appropriate courses of action before the global assembly begins! We have set a date for the global assembly: discussions will take place between March 31st and April 2nd, 2016, on the campus of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Spain. The regional discussion (...)

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