Thousands of indigenous and community groups are fighting for their land rights around the world, marking an alarming global land rush that has been going on since 2009, Oxfam has said.
By KHANYILE MLOTSHWA
According to report titled Custodians of the Land, Defenders of our Future: A New Era of the Global Land Rush, aid and charity organisation, Oxfam said “millions of hectares of land has been acquired by investors to meet rising demand for food and biofuels, or for speculation”.
“This often happens at the expense of those who need the land most and are best placed to protect it: farmers, pastoralists, forest-dependent people, fisherfolk, and indigenous peoples,” the report said.
Back home in Matabeleland South, villagers in Maphisa are locked in a bitter land feud with the Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, who are funded by petroleum giant, Trek, for purposes of contract farming.
Some villagers have been arrested and are being sued, as Arda accuses them of illegally apportioning themselves land that the government entity claims it acquired in 1930, but only pegged in 1947.
However, the villagers insist that their ancestors lived off that land way before Rhodesia was established.
According to Oxfam, a full report, to be published next month, reveals that “we are now entering an era of implementation as contracts are increasingly signed and work on their intended projects started”.
“This means we will see their full implications in the years to come,” the organisation said.
“Up to 59% of these deals cover communal land claimed by indigenous peoples and small communities, meaning that millions are affected.
“Yet only a small fraction of deals have involved any real dialogue with local communities. The potential for escalating conflict is huge.”
Oxfam said what is worrying is that, in all of Latin America, Africa, Asia, women are at the forefront of these land struggles.
“Governments and powerful business interests are marginalising up to 2,5 billion women and men from their lands,” it said.
“It is the single biggest attack in the world today on people’s identity, rights, livelihoods and security, as well as our environment. A diverse campaign of terror and displacement is taking place across many countries, driven by greed and impunity. People are being beaten, forcibly evicted, intimidated, disenfranchised, criminalised, tricked, discriminated against, and denied their rights.”
Oxfam said in some countries, these land battles were fatal and experts from Global Witness, who track the assassination of land and environmental defenders, claim that in 2015, more than two land environmental defenders were killed each week, almost half were from indigenous communities.
“The attacks on the custodians of common lands are helped by weak and pitiless governments, and dodgy lending. Big businesses are reaping the profits — from mining and logging companies, to agribusinesses and speculators,” the report says.