Land grabs called developing scandal
Canadian firms named as complicit by Oxfam
An international aid group says more than a dozen Canadian companies and pension funds are contributing to what is fast becoming one of the “greatest scandals of the 21st century” in the developing world.
According to Oxfam, the companies are taking part in land grabs, which occur when western companies gobble up arable farmland in developing nations for commercial purposes — even when the land is already being used by locals.
Such transactions are occurring more frequently in recent years in Africa, which boasts 60 per cent, or 600 million hectares, of the world’s remaining arable, uncultivated land, according to the U.S. consultancy group McKinsey & Co.
The pursuit of land deals in developing countries is spiking. The price of grain and other staples have skyrocketed since a global food crisis in 2008, making the farmland more valuable.
Oxfam, a non-profit that has studied the trend, says that over the past four years, 21 complaints have been filed with the World Bank by communities that have been affected by the bank’s own land projects.
“Land is being scooped up at a feverish pace and poor people around the world are suffering as
“Land is being scooped up at a feverish pace and poor people around the world are suffering as they lose their land, their livelihoods and in some cases, their lives.”
LAUREN RAVON
POLICY ADVISOR WITH OXFAM
they lose their land, their livelihoods and in some cases, their lives,” said Lauren Ravon, a policy advisor with Oxfam’s Canadian unit.
“Too often, land deals involve mass evictions of poor families, sometimes violently, without consultation or compensation. Land sold as ‘unused’ or ‘underdeveloped’ is frequently being used by women to grow food, raise livestock and collect water and firewood for their families,” Ravon said in a statement.
Oxfam is urging Canada’s Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to exercise his influence at the World Bank’s annual meeting in Tokyo next week.
Oxfam wants the World Bank to commit to a six-month freeze on all land-related investments in developing countries. “Putting a stop to its investments in the short term will give the Bank time to put its own house in order and send a strong signal to global investors,” Oxfam said. In a report called Our Land, Our Lives that was released late Wednesday, Oxfam wrote that in Honduras, more than 60 people have been killed in a land conflict in the Aguan Valley while in Liberia, 30 per cent of the country has been swallowed up by land deals in five years. In 10 years, Oxfam said, land deals by foreign investors in developing countries are estimated at 106 million hectares — almost matching the size of Ontario. Canadian companies, banks and pension plans “have recently joined” the global land rush, according to Oxfam’s report. “Several Canadian investors have their eyes set on land in developing countries, and in the context of the global land rush this is a cause for great concern,” Ravon said. “Canadian investors should not be contributing to what is fast becoming one of the greatest scandals of the 21st century.” Oxfam’s research was completed by Ravon and notes at least15 Canadian companies have acquired agricultural or forest land in developing nations since 2000. Three of the companies are forestry firms. One Canadian tourism firm has acquired 607 hectares in Honduras. Twelve others have bought land for agricultural production purposes, the report said.
Brookfield Asset Management, for instance, has acquired 249,000 hectares in Brazil to be used to grow food crops and for forestry, the report said.
“On the agricultural side, Brookfield manages a fund that purchases cattle ranches in the Brazilian Cordero region and transforms them into soybean farms or sugarcane plantations, both of which add value to the land by increasing productivity,” said Brookfield spokesman Andrew Willis.
“It would be incorrect to say that Brookfield purchased farm land that used to grow crops, and converted it to another purpose,” he said.
“In fact, the opposite is true: Brookfield purchased cattle ranches in Brazil and converted these properties to more efficient uses, as producers of food and fuel.”
If the ranch is turned into a sugarcane plantation, crops are used to make ethanol to power cars and trucks, Willis said.
“On the forest products side, Brookfield manages timberlands where the teams harvest pine and eucalyptus,” he said.
“None of these plantations are in the Amazon region, and again, they are run to the highest standards of sustainability of the operations.”
Ravon also wrote that three Canadian pension funds invest in agricultural land overseas.