Podcast | Land for sale – S. 5 Ep. 2

Just out 25 October 2024
International land transactions are nothing new. However, they often come under fire for their lack of transparency or the unfair way in which they treat local people, who are rarely consulted before sales go through. International observatories have recently seen a new land rush linked to growing demand for minerals for the energy transition, which has gone hand-in-hand with a lack of transparency. This situation has prompted research to link up with local communities and bridge the gap between what is happening on the ground and certain international institutions.
Au Suriname, construction d'une route en pleine foret pour accéder aux concessions foncières ou minières © ILC

Au Suriname, construction d'une route en pleine foret pour accéder aux concessions foncières ou minières © ILC

 

With:

  • Jérémy Bourgoin, geographer with CIRAD and the International Land Coalition (ILC) 
  • Ward Anseeuw, Lead, FAO Land Tenure Team

Between 2000 and 2020, the Land Matrix recorded 1865 international land transactions. In terms of land area, that meant 33 million hectares, or the equivalent of a country like Italy or the Philippines. At the time, most of those land deals were agricultural investments. Fifteen years on, international land observatories such as the Land Matrix revealed the emergence of new trends. The number of land purchases for agriculture is shrinking, while purchases linked to the energy transition in the countries of the global North are skyrocketing. New mines are opening here, there and everywhere, primarily in areas already suffering from land insecurity, which in some cases will be tipped into food insecurity. At the same time, land transactions are now in the hands of financial agents, often investment funds based in tax havens.

In Surinam, the Saamaka community is fighting mining and forest concessions granted by the government on its land. Representatives have called on the International Land Coalition to document such transactions. Between providing access to data, pooling approaches and defending local people's rights, reseach cannot be impartial: answering the question "who does land belong to?" is in itself an eminently political approach.

Nourrir le vivant, the CIRAD podcast

The global population is set to top ten billion by 2050, which will trigger an explosion in demand for agricultural products. However, conventional production and consumption practices will be unable to satisfy that demand in a sustainable fashion. What with pollution, biodiversity loss and global warming, how can we avoid sawing the branch on which we are all sitting? This huge challenge means making radical changes to how we interact with the living world around us. The CIRAD podcast, Nourrir le vivant (Feeding the living world), takes you on a voyage to discover the territories and people working to reinvent their farming systems. Alongside scientists, crop farmers, training staff, students and livestock farmers discover the potential for change within farming systems, from food production to jobs through ecosystem health.

The podcast is only available in French, with some transcripts available in English.

See also