A/HRC/13/32
Brazil, for example, the extreme concentration of land in the huge estates of rich
landowners (latifundios) is largely explained by colonization and the fact that more
recently, export-oriented agriculture has not allowed redistributive agrarian reforms. For
many countries, this means increasing dependency on international markets, with
detrimental effects on the livelihood of rural population when prices go down. This was for
example the case in Ethiopia when coffee prices went down (E/CN.4/2005/47/Add.1).
26.
In recent years, the phenomenon of the “global land grab” has added a new
dimension to these concerns, with the potential to involve an unprecedented degree of land
expropriation, forced evictions and displacements. With the expansion of biofuels
production since 2003 and the global food crisis in 2008, the revival of the strategy of
foreign investors, both Governments and companies, to buy or secure long-term leases of
productive land in other countries can have detrimental effects on local farmers, if land
used by small farmers is sold or leased to foreign investors. The most famous case is the
deal between the company Daewoo and the Government of Madagascar, on a lease of 1.3
million hectares of land – or third of arable land of the country. The same phenomenon is
witnessed in many other countries, with an estimated number of 180 land deals existing at
varying stage of negotiation.16
3.
People living from traditional fishing, hunting and herding activities
27.
Around 10 per cent of the world’s hungry subsist through fishing, hunting and
herding activities. In many countries, the traditional way of life of these people and their
means of livelihood are threatened by competition over productive resources, leading to
increasing hunger and malnutrition.
28.
There are two types of fish production; fish captured in the wild from the sea or
inland waters (capture fisheries); and fish farmed in the sea or inland waters (aquaculture).
Both are now driven to industrialization, privatization and export-orientation, which end up
depriving local people of their traditional rights of access to fishing resources. People
subsisting on hunting activities in forest and hill areas are also increasingly marginalized in
many parts of the world. Many have lost their access to traditional forest livelihoods and
food resources through the creation of forest reserves or because of development projects
such as dams, power plants, coal mines and mineral industries; many remain without access
to food or to government services. Finally, conflicts over land and water are also increasing
between pastoralists and crop farmers. The complementarities between pastoralists and
farmers have been lost in many countries, as farmers tend their own small animals and are
less eager to allow pastoralists to graze their herds in the fields after the harvest. This is for
example the case in Ethiopia (see E/CN.4/2005/47/Add.1) and the Niger (see
E/CN.4/2002/58/Add.1).
C.
The right to food and the urban poor
29.
With the size of urban population continuing to rise, the absolute number of urban
poor and undernourished also continues to increase. Intra-urban differences reveal levels of
inequalities and malnutrition rather than an average that provides one single estimate of
16
8
C. Smaller and H. Mann, A Thirst for Distant Lands: Foreign investment in agricultural land and
water, 2009; L. Cotula, S. Vermeulen, R. Leonard and J. Keeley, Land grab or development
opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa, 2009; The Economist, 21
May 2009, “Outsourcing`s third wave. Rich food importers are acquiring vast tracts of poor countries’
farmland. Is this beneficial foreign investment or neocolonialism?”
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