Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa: Publications
Reports
Alors que les efforts de la communauté pour récupérer 100 000 hectares de leurs terres ancestrales, initialement saisies il y a plus d'un siècle pour des plantations de palmiers à huile, sont confrontés à une répression violente, des arrestations illégales et des meurtres, un nouveau rapport de l'Oakland Institute — Sur les pas du roi Leopold: Les investisseurs dans les plantations de palmiers à huile de PHC en République démocratique du Congo — dévoile les noms des investisseurs fi
As community efforts to reclaim 100,000 hectares of their ancestral land, initially seized over a century ago for oil palm plantations, are met with violent repression, unlawful arrests, and murder, In King Leopold's Steps: The Investors Bankrolling the PHC Oil Palm Plantations in the Democratic Republic of Congo unveils the names of the investors financing the plantations in the DRC.
Endless War: The Destroyed Land, Life, and Identity of the Tamil People in Sri Lanka, brings forth shocking new evidence on the extent of the continued persecution of the minority Tamil population in the North and East of the country.
L'Oakland Institute publie C’est notre terre, Pourquoi rejeter la privatisation des terres coutumières, un document éducatif qui démystifie les arguments utilisés pour privatiser les terres dans le monde, tout en démontrant comment les systèmes fonciers coutumiers sont essentiels pour protéger les moyens de subsistance et assurer le développement durable pour la population et la planète.
El Oakland Institute lanza Esta es nuestra tierra: por qué rechazar la privatización de la tierra consuetudinaria, un recurso educativo que desmiente mitos utilizados para privatizar la tierra en todo el mundo, al tiempo que proporciona hechos sobre cómo los sistemas de tenencia consuetudinarios son fundamentales para proteger los medios de vida y garantizar el desarrollo sostenible para las personas y el planeta.
This Is Our Land: Why Reject the Privatization of Customary Land, is an educational resource that debunks myths used for privatizing land around the world, while providing facts on how customary tenure systems are critical to protecting livelihoods and ensuring sustainable development for the people and the planet.
Dignity or Exploitation — What Future for Farmworker Families in the United States? documents the systematic abuse of workers in the H-2A program and its impact on the resident farmworker communities, confronted with a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions.
Nicaragua’s Failed Revolution details the incessant violence facing the Indigenous communities in the Caribbean Coast Autonomous Regions, as evidenced by recent attacks against the Alal, Wasakin, and Miskitu communities, and provides in depth information about the actors involved — foreign gold mining firms, national and international actors in logging and cattle ranching industry, as well as prominent Nicaraguan officials.
Pages
Briefs
Since the first World Bank Doing Business survey in 2008, Liberia has implemented a series of reforms to improve the “ease of doing business in the country,” leading to its classification among the “top ten global reformers” of the 2010 Doing Business ranking. The subsequent worldwide advertisement of the country’s success attracted foreign direct investments (FDIs). In the agricultural sector, this resulted in giant palm oil and rubber producers acquiring more than 1.5 million acres of land, leaving communities without fundamental resources to sustain their livelihoods.
In recent years, corporate investments in the agricultural sector and skewed land deals have been a source of intense conflicts with farmers, and have resulted in displacement, widespread human rights abuses, and murders. Yet, turning a blind eye to human rights and land rights violations, the World Bank continues to support agribusiness in the country through the provision of substantial loans.
En los últimos años, las inversiones de parte de grandes empresas y las negociaciones defectuosas en el sector agrícola han sido una fuente de conflictos intensos con los campesinos, que han resultado en desalojamientos, violación generalizada de los derechos humanos, y asesinatos. Sin embargo, el Banco Mundial hace la vista gorda a las violaciones de los derechos humanos y del derecho a la tierra y sigue apoyando a la agroindustria en el país a través de la concesión de préstamos sustanciales.
According to the World Bank, Guatemala is one of the countries most open to foreign direct investment (FDI). It is among the top ten global reformers, and the only country in Latin America to appear on the Doing Business 2014’s top reformers list. In the past four years, the government has made significant reforms to attract FDI. In the agricultural sector, increased FDI—due in part to the adoption of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR)—has led to land grabs by large sugarcane and palm oil producers, resulting in the massive and violent displacement of thousands of people.
The Tanzanian government has put agriculture at the forefront of its development agenda through its “kilimo kwanza” (agriculture first) initiative, which was established in 2009. For a country like Tanzania, which is gifted with a rich diversity of natural and human resources and has a population that is still largely rural, investment in agriculture can offer considerable development potential.
From its very name, American-owned SG Sustainable Oils Cameroon, Ltd. (SGSOC) presents a pro-environment, pro-resources image. This is supported by an impressive-sounding partnership with an NGO by the name of All for Africa and as a package typifies the kind of convoluted modern-day foreign investment going on in Africa. It is sadly all too familiar to communities on the ground. They are unimpressed with promises of infrastructure and jobs, and angry about their loss of land and livelihoods.
In June 2011, the Oakland Institute (OI) released details of the largest land deal in Tanzania, which had been hidden away from public scrutiny prior to that and obscured from national debate and discussion. The deal involved Iowa-based Summit Group and the Global Agriculture Fund of the Pharos Financial Group working in partnership with AgriSol Energy LLC and Iowa State University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.
The Oakland Institute is proud to have sponsored the first ever assembly of communities impacted by large-scale foreign land investments in Sierra Leone. Between April 1-4, 2012 farmers, small land owners, women, youth, and elders assembled in Freetown to have their voices heard and strategize a way forward. Joan Baxter, Senior Fellow at the Oakland Institute reports from the meeting.
In 2011, Socfin Agricultural Company Sierra Leone Ltd. (Socfin SL) secured 6,500 hectares of prime farmland for rubber and oil palm plantations in Malen chiefdom in Pujehun district in the south of Sierra Leone. The firm is now seeking an additional 5,000 ha in expansion plans in the Malen region or neighboring chiefdoms. The initial investment, estimated at $100 million, with promises of job creation, compensation for lost farms, and construction of infrastructures, has enjoyed high-level government support. The 50-year lease was signed by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security, Dr. Sam Sesay.
In this series of press briefings, Green Scenery examines some key assumptions behind the acquisition of farmland in Sierra Leone, to promote informed public debate. This first briefing note looks into land “availability” in Sierra Leone.