Countries and companies are rushing to buy millions of acres of farmland in developing countries at the expense of local farmers and the food needs of local people, says Oxfam.
And the international aid group also is pointing a finger at Canadian companies and pension funds as part of the problem.
“The trend is getting worse,” Oxfam Canada policy adviser Lauren Ravon said during an Oct. 2 briefing for reporters.
“More and more land is being sold to financial investors and local farmers and the food security of nations often is the victim. It is not a solution to poverty or hunger.”
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Last week, Oxfam launched a worldwide campaign to convince the Washington-based World Bank to quit financing “land grabs” for six months while policies are developed to protect developing country land.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has developed voluntary guidelines but they often are not honoured in the breach.
Oxfam Canada will lobby finance minister Jim Flaherty, Canada’s representative to the World Bank, to press its arguments and try to convince Canada to propose or support a moratorium on World Bank financing of land purchases.
In countries like Mozambique and Liberia, tracts of land have been bought to produce food for the purchasing country or to grow crops used to create biofuel for the European market, Ravon said. Often, these countries are food-deficient but land is being used to produce for export.
“This is a win-win for investors and a lose-lose for people on the ground,” she said. “Millions of people are being evicted from their land. Child labour is common. It is a scandal.”
Oxfam produced a list of 15 Canadian companies that have purchased or leased large chunks of land in developing countries in-cluding Cathay Forest Products, which leased forestry cutting rights on more than 1.5 million acres of land in China and Russia, and companies with claims to land in Africa and South America.
“Most transactions have taken place since 2005, most of the land acquired is leased not purchased,” says an Oxfam Canada research paper.
“These investments have been mainly for biofuel production, food production and forestry.”
Cash-rich Canadian pension plans also are eying the potential of land investments, it says.
Ravon said part of the Oxfam plea to the World Bank is that it stop advising vulnerable developing countries on ways to make it easier for foreign companies to invest in farmland. Investors target countries with the weakest land protection laws.
“It (the World Bank) is an adviser to countries but it isn’t offering good advice,” she said. “It is advising on how to make it easier for foreign investors to buy land. Instead, it should be advising countries on how to strengthen their laws to control foreign investment.”
