Tent Grabbing or Land Grabbing at the World Social Forum?
Dakar, Senegal, 2011
The 2011 Social Forum will be remembered for the chaos and disorganisation that led to the cancellation of many side events because of a lack of meeting spaces at the University of Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal. The university sits at the heart of the city housing many faculties in one place. The WSF organizers were in deep trouble when one week before the forum, the University Vice Chancellor was changed and the new one refused to close university during the 5 days for the WSF. As a result, lecture halls were occupied even after rooms being assigned to various meetings. The programme was released daily but often delayed and not readily available. On the second day of the forum, organisation resorted to ‘Tent Grabbing’. The Senegalese military had begun setting up tents all over the campus, and due to the frustration of not finding meeting rooms, organisation resorted to branding tents so as to have a central point of meeting. What was sad, was seeing students fighting with activists over meeting rooms. All in all we managed to get some events moving alerting participants through cell phone and by word of mouth all in the spirit of the social forum!
Land Grabbing a threat to Food Security in Africa
The topic of land grabbing received the highest number of side events at the WSF showing the amount of attention and the social disruptions communities continue to face when their land is illegally acquired by multinationals and foreign countries for agrofuels, mining, food production for export and even fossil fuel exploration. The discussions recognized the need for the development of inside and outside strategies in light of the new companies and countries coming to Africa and not sensitive to human rights.
ABN in collaboration with Dignity International and others held a side event on Land Grabbing and its Impact on Food Security. Mercy Mutave from Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE), a member of the ABN shared her experiences with the communities as she works on promoting food security and diversification of food crops under the Climate Seeds and Knowledge programme. The discussions were covered on Finnish media http://svenska.yle.fi/nyheter/artikel.php?id=208195
Geoffrey Kamese from the National Association of Professional Environmentalists (NAPE), Uganda another member of the ABN shared the story of land grab in Kalangala island on the shores of Lake Victoria in Uganda. Here BIDCO company has acquired land to grow palm for biofuel. Communities have lost access to water and other resources, the company uses chemicals that run off to the Lake leading to a loss of biodiversity and reduced numbers of fish found in the area.
Kamese from NAPE also spoke about the success of CSOs and the public in Uganda in defending the Mabira forest. This forest that acts as a major carbon sink for Kampala had been acquired by the MEHTA group to grow sugarcane. NAPE and other CSOs led the campaign to defend it and won the fight but there was a price paid with the loss of lives and endless court cases for those who led the campaign. The case filed against the NAPE director and others was finally dropped in December 2010 due to lack of evidence. Kamese added that there is no homogenous way of solving land problems but complementarity is very important to win the war against land grabs in Africa. The cost of being docile is very expensive, we need to fight for our rights!
Anne Maina the ABN Advocacy coordinator spoke in the Bread for the World event on land Grabbing in Africa. FIAN International and other partners shared their views on the voluntary guidelines on land and human rights issues with regard to land grab. The ABN shared one some of the strategies it employs to empower communities defend their land and natural resource rights; this includes Ecomapping and capacity building on lobbying and advocacy. Employing the Ecomapping strategy empowers communities to identify their resources, discuss the importance of conserving a healthy and balanced ecosystem and as a result communities can defend these rights when faced with pressure from investors and the developed nations. People based advocacy is important in ensuring accountability and governance, alliance building and using a rights based approach.
Industrial Agriculture and Green Revolution models are not needed for food security
ABN moderated a session where Biowatch, a member of ABN discussed issues of Industrial agriculture revolution and Agro-Ecological agriculture. Lawrence Makhalipi from Biowatch elaborated on success stories from communities that practice family farming through sustainable agriculture. The result has been a continued production of sufficient food even in the face of the changing climate. Industrial agriculture has led to a loss of biodiversity due to monocultures that depend on patented seed thus increasing costs for smallholder farmers.
The discussions agreed that it is important that African governments change focus and prioritize support to farmers practising Agro-Ecological agriculture, recognize the role and importance of indigenous knowledge and practices and fund research into sustainable agriculture practices.
2nd Science and Democracy World Forum
The discussions focussed on innovation, technology and society; the need to promote innovation for sustainable development, public engagement, awareness raising and development of guidelines on science and technology. Pat Mooney for the ETC group emphasized the importance for a place to discuss the governance of science and new technologies. ‘There is need for techi-leaks for evaluation and risk assessment’, Pat Money added.
Anne Maina, spoke on GMOs in Africa in relation to the governance of new technologies in the world. Other issues discussed included; Geoengineering, Nanotechnology and Synthetic Biology.
The road to Durban and Rio+20
Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia spoke at the beginning of WSF emphasizing the importance of respecting mother earth in the face of climate change. The place of Cochabamba cannot be erased in the history of efforts to bringing back sanity in the climate change negotiations. We saw the hypocrisy that characterized the Cancun talks which were a complete failure. There is need for us to tell the real story and challenge the push by the developed governments who do not want to commit to reduce their carbon emissions. The North wants to continue its wasteful practices and resists to acknowledge their historical responsibility in the current state that mother earth finds herself in. Who will bring sanity back? A while back I said that maybe these international processes are a waste of time but now I feel that the Global South even needs to engage more and make their voice heard. Africa did not contribute much to climate change but continues to suffer the effects aggravated further by the lack of resources to mitigate and adopt.
The ABN has a story and experiences to share, look at the Climate Seeds and Knowledge process. This is a significant example of how communities are building their resilience. But, the process needs to be integrated; we need intergenerational learning to ensure the younger generation understands and owns the processes. Ecomapping helps communities to map their resources and become agents of their own lobby and advocacy.
The fact that the next UNFCCC COP will be held in Africa is very significant and a moment that needs to be seized, the momentum to Durban needs to be built to begin a process of change of ideology and debate in the climate discussion circles. The ABN engaged with various partners and allies that are working on the road towards COP 17. To build the momentum towards Durban, engagement, stakeholder sensitization and even caravans are being organized. However, there was emphasis on the need to do all this in a coordinated and organized manner for full impact and results.
We cannot speak about the road to Durban without mentioning Rio + 20 which will take place in 2012. The Earth summit website describes it as; ‘On 14th – 16th May 2012, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) or ‘Rio+20′ will take place in Rio de Janeiro. Also referred to as the Rio+20 Earth Summit, due to the initial conference held in Rio in 1992, the objectives of the Summit are: to secure renewed political commitment to sustainable development; to assess progress towards internationally agreed goals on sustainable development and to address new and emerging challenges. The Summit will also focus on two specific themes: a green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development, and an institutional framework for sustainable development.’
At the Social forum convergence on Rio +20, a huge fear was expressed on the fact that there is a big step for corporate resource grab in Rio. Civil society needs to get itself organized to be able to confront corporate who are driven by their greed for more profits. Rio must deal not only with the environment but also development. So what is development? It is utilizing the resources we have now sustainable while ensuring the future will also enjoy what we have in the future. It is not what the North is practicing, we need a paradigm shift to reduce emission gases, otherwise Mother Earth will have her Revenge!
In conclusion, the road to Durban and Rio + 20 needs to be built on a common and united platform that will help in creating a strong global platform that is transparent and links with all global movements.
Regards,
Anne Maina
