Preventing land grabbing and implementing state-protected measures for land and environmental defenders are critical to addressing social and environmental unrest in the region.
New data shows that although there are robust legal frameworks around indigenous peoples' land rights, their implementation remains weak.
Lima, 22nd August 2022 - Over the past decades, extreme land concentration in Latin America has posed several challenges for the region. With the highest rate of land inequality in the world, the top 10% of landowners capture up to 75% of agricultural land and the bottom 50% own less than 2% (Uneven Ground, 2020). And although several countries have made hopeful promises with their legal frameworks to improve land governance, the take-up is strikingly low, leaving a stark gap between promise and delivery. LANDex, the global land index, is monitoring and democratising data in the region, keeping governments and businesses accountable for their promises and providing key insights into how the region is faring on this complex issue.
Countries in the LANDex database receive a score from 0-100, depending on their legal frameworks, implementation and impact regarding a wide-range of land-related issues. So far, the tool has been implemented in thirteen LAC countries³ -out of a total of 31 worldwide.⁴
"The issue of land and how it is governed is at the heart of serious social and environmental conflicts and the violation of the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities. This is why it is urgent to take corrective measures on this issue. It is clear that the state of land governance in countries is an important indicator of the quality of their democracies, and the results we are seeing are alarming", said Zulema Burneo, ILC's regional coordinator in Latin America & the Caribbean.
She continued: “National Land Coalitions - in charge of the implementation of LANDex in the different countries - are using the information obtained to influence their governments and generate political changes to improve the situation of land rights in the region".
Some of the most relevant LANDex findings from the region:
- In Ecuador, where a recent national strike paralysed the government, LANDex data shows that rural women are extremely vulnerable, with just over 3% of them with documented rights to the land they work.
- In Colombia, where a new government has recently taken office, the legal framework on the land rights of ethnic groups is one of the most advanced, yet its implementation is limited. The pending challenges include recognising that collective land rights are not limited to land titling, as well as making progress in defining communities' land use rights.
- In Bolivia, although progress has been made through legislation in recognising indigenous peoples' land rights and titling of their territories, in practice these rights are not respected. In most cases, due to the extractivism promoted by the state, where the concept of Free, Prior and Informed Consent is not applied.
- In Peru, where family farming accounts for 97% of agricultural units, there is a lack of institutional support for this sector, including access to budgets and a more equitable distribution of land and other resources. They had the lowest score for family farming in the region.
- In Argentina, where there has been a notable expansion of agribusiness over the last two decades, security of tenure for local communities and indigenous peoples has yet to be addressed. All the communities consulted report having experienced tensions or disputes over their land, and most do not have documents to support their land rights.
- In Guatemala, despite the fact that family farming is responsible for the country's food security, the support it receives is minimal, as policies in its favour are neither implemented nor accompanied by adequate budgets. As LANDex notes, only 3.18% of a budget of USD 184 million is allocated to this sector. On the other hand, the crisis faced by land defenders in the country, far from being addressed, is perpetuated by the state in alliance with corporations with an interest in their territories.
- In Nicaragua there is an alarming dispossession of the lands of indigenous peoples and Afro-descendant communities, due to the expansion of the agricultural frontier for agro-industry, especially in the Northern Caribbean. Although there is a law protecting the lands of indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, conflicts over settler invasions of these lands persist, largely because of the state's facilitation of land concentration in the hands of agribusiness and mining.
- In Saint Lucia, a 616 km2 Caribbean island, although civil society organisations are beginning to come together to influence land governance processes, indigenous communities have little room for manoeuvre in deciding on the implementation of projects that affect their territories, as prior consultation is poorly implemented.
LANDex highlights worrying trends in land governance that threaten to undermine important advances in the region. "The data shows the gaps in governments' monitoring of land governance, and how it differs from how women, indigenous peoples and other stakeholders experience land governance", says Eva Hershaw, data officer at the International Land Coalition (ILC), the organisation behind LANDex.
The results of this initiative will be presented on 23 August at the online event Peoples data on land, what for? Regional presentation of the Land Governance Index (LANDex) results. National Land Coalitions from eight LAC⁵ countries will participate in the event to share key findings that demonstrate the limited progress on land governance, the ways in which they are using the data that is collected, and the challenges that remain.
¹ LANDex is structured around the themes of the International Land Coalition's 10 Commitments to achieve people-centred land governance.
² These include: CSOs, NGOs, government, academia and research institutes, among others. LANDex requires a minimum diversity of responses from various sectors and the data goes through several review and validation steps.
³ Information is considered from Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Belize, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and St. Lucia.
⁴ In LAC, 925 responses were received from 6 different sectors.
⁵ Of the 13 LAC countries where LANDex is implemented, results will be presented from Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Peru, and Saint Lucia.
CONTACT FOR MEDIA AND INTERVIEWS
Sandra Apaza Lanyi - ILC LAC
Mail: sandra@landcoalition.info
Mobile: +34 625 830983