Whose land are you giving away, Mr. President?
Alden Wily, Liz
Using Africa as example, this paper challenges the tenure grounds upon which third world governments are leasing land to foreign investors. It argues that most leased lands are ambivalently the property or right of governments to lease or alienate. The main basis of argument is that customary property rights have rarely been formally extinguished. Presumption by governments that this is unnecessary on grounds that the land is unowned or that customary land interests do not amount to property are egregiously flawed in historical and current reality. Even where customary ownership has been lawfully superseded by state ownership, the procedures followed have been constitutionally questionable in most domestic laws and in international human rights law as necessarily encompassing land rights in agrarian societies. There are also practical concerns of development and security soundness. With the exception of arrangements whereby farmers are directly contracted by investors, lazy, backward-looking approaches are being tolerated at the very time when felt gaps between rich and poor and state-people conflict makes an inclusive approach to natural asset-based capitalist transformation imperative. It is nonsensical for developing economies to once again miss the opportunity to equitably engage the majority rural poor as shareholders in agrarian enterprise (presuming this enterprise to be viable). While fault lies equally with the international aid and commerce community and with host governments which are putting their citizenss lands in the global market place without their consent, the latter, not investors, are the land grabbers.
Event: Annual Bank Conference on Land Policy and Administration
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