Risks for the peace process in Colombia: The land fund and prospects for community and smallholder access to land
Andres Fuerte Posada
Land concentration has been at the center of the armed conflict in Colombia, both as cause and consequence. Historically, the distribution of landholdings has been highly concentrated in Colombia: Gini coeficiente: 0.9 The top 1% of largest properties control 81% of land 800,000 rural families have no access to land at all In November 2016 a Peace Accord was signed between the Colombian government and the FARC guerillas that covers five major issues i comprehensive rural reform ( ii) political participation iii) ceasefire and disarmament iv) solution to the illicit drugs problem v) victims of the conflict The CRR seeks to lay the foundation for the structural transformation of the countryside, create conditions for well being of rural women and men and contribute to building a stable and long lasting peace A solution to the illicit drugs problem is closely related, as its success depends on effective implementation of commitments for the CRR The Land Fund is an essential component of the CRR to advance in the democratization of access to land It is to have 3 million hectares of land available during its first 12 years to benefit small scale farmer communities and especially rural women without land or with insufficient land and the rural communities most affected by poverty and the conflict Another 7 million hectares of land is to be formalized for small scale farmer communities Sources of land for the Fund are primarily: Land made available from the legal cessation of ownership in favor of the state Recovered land that once belonged to the state baldíos ) Land available from updating parameters of the Forest Reserve Areas Land acquired or expropriated for reasons of public utility (with due compensation) Land donated or acquired with international aid Resources from the national budget (for the purchase of land) To enable Peace Accord provisions to be incorporated into Colombian law, public policies and institutions, a special procedure was created in Congress and special faculties were given to the President The Land Fund was formally created through this procedure But other aspects central to the CRR have yet to be implemented, such as the multi purpose cadaster and the mechanism to allocate land in the Forest Reserve Areas There was a mechanism designed, the RESO (Registry of Subjects of Planning), for the Fund to distribute land to those with the greatest need, with a strong focus on rural women, based on criteria such as socio economic conditions, having been a victim of the armed conflict, and experience with agricultural activities The Land Fund faces various challenges, e g its institutional framework, lack of budget, extreme land concentration and policies like the ZIDRE S law (Zones of Interest for Economic and Social Development in Rural Areas which enables baldíos to be transfered to large companies not intended as Peace Accord beneficiaries
Event: Land Governance in an Interconnected World_Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty_2018
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