Land Grab on a Global Scale

[babylonsister]

Land Grab on a Global Scale
by Dennis Martinez


Among the English-speaking settler societies — U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand — an irrational but powerful myth still prevails. It drove “manifest destiny” and is still alive and well, if usually unconscious.

Divinely inspired colonists wrested lands occupied by native peoples and bestowed the mixed blessings of civilization on them. The rationalization for dispossession then — and now — was that these “primitive” peoples were not making productive use of their lands. What they did not know, and still do not, is that they took over lands that were largely shaped and maintained by indigenous peoples through extensive and intensive land care practices that enabled them to not only survive but also thrive.

Enter the 21st century. The work of indigenous dispossession is about to be completed. The last great global land grab and indigenous asset stripping is happening as I write. (I borrowed these phrases from Rebecca Adamson of First Peoples Worldwide and Andy White of Rights and Resources Initiative at a meeting of the World Bank that I participated in.)

We have a big problem. Some unintended outcomes of well-intentioned climate mitigation measures are below the media radar screen. Land values are dramatically increasing because of demand by northern multinational corporations for land to produce biofuels, plantation monocultures for carbon trading offsets and transfat substitutes such as palm oil in the developing south.

Indigenous peoples presently occupy 22 percent of the Earth’s land surface, are stewards of 80 percent of remaining biodiversity and comprise 90 percent of cultural diversity. As demand increases the value of indigenous lands — already poorly protected — the rate of loss of indigenous assets and livelihood options becomes more rapid. Adding to these losses are losses of homelands set aside by big environmental NGOs and third-world government elites for conservation reserves and parks through forced evictions. Also disappearing is global genetic diversity maintained by indigenous peoples, which is essential for maintaining the capacity of plants and animals to adapt to climate change.

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/02/8041/

[BigBearJohn]

1. Wow. Thanks for posting this, Babylonsister

[roguevalley]

2. this is so sad. we are all so screwed.