Indigenous peoples and smallholders are losing their livelihoods as 30 million hectares of land is being lost every year to soil degradation, urbanization and conversion to real estate development and industrial use, according to the UN. Report author and UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier de Schutter says the consequences for millions of smallholder farmers, fishermen and indigenous people, who depended on the land for their subsistence and livelihoods, was in many cases dramatic. His report argues that the key to safeguarding their rights was land tenure laws. He suggested the reinforcement of tenancy laws could significantly protect the rights of land users, as well as redressing the balance in the unequal distribution of land in rural areas. Speaking at the recent Committee on Food Security in Rome, Schutter said: "You won't solve world hunger by robbing the poorest from the land on which they depend: you will solve it by strengthening security of tenure and by ensuring a more equitable access to land and natural resources". Schutter has previously argued that decision-makers were ignoring the contribution that low-input agro-ecological farming methods employed by many smallholders could make to safeguarding food production in the long-term.
Link to site: http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/653063/stop_robbing_land_from_the_poorest_urges_un_food_expert.html
No comments:
Post a Comment