At present, governments as well as private investors buy or lease considerable amounts of farmland, mostly in developing countries. If they ignore local entitlements, conflicts and evictions become likely. The latest outbreak of violence in Honduras between local famers and the owners of palm oil plantations illustrates how this oversight can develop into long-lasting conflict.



Conflicts arise wherever stakeholders ignore existing informal or traditional property rights on land – for instance, if local communities using their land according to common informal rules are excluded from negotiation processes. Governments need to respect such property rights and ensure their legal security. Establishing a land register is the first step toward doing so. However, it is often difficult to formalize local property rights, especially in corrupt and fragile countries. The situation in post-conflict regions, characterized as such by the presence of displaced people and refugees, further increases land tenure insecurity and can thereby contribute to conflict.



Investors, therefore, must not rely on the government, but have to take responsibility themselves in order to ensure the inclusion of all stakeholders. The "Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment", published by the World Bank and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation earlier this year, emphasize this. The principles should help avert land conflicts and ensure that local people not only participate in the negotiation process but also benefit from the investments.



However, governments and investors display little interest in transparency in their deals. The World Bank, for example, had to postpone the release of a study on past land deals several times, as governments and investors did not provide the requested information. But transparency and due consideration of local rights are a prerequisite for smoothing out conflict potential and for creating new benefits. After all, agricultural investments could bring additional capital and technology, and could contribute to increased rural agricultural productivity and incomes. (Stephan Wolters)



For further information on the events in Honduras, please see http://upsidedownworld.org/main/honduras-archives-46/2380-honduras-palm-oil-plantations-sustainable-development-facade



The principles for responsible agricultural investment are available here.

For an article examining the postponed release of the World Bank study on land grabbing, please see http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=64

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, June 2010