Tous les articles et traductions

As I write this piece, the finance minister has dispatched the Union Budget 2011. The press is busy reflecting the views of business and industry lobbies, as they quibble over duty exemptions, insist on financial stimulus and other incentives, and cry for big-ticket reform—foreign direct (…)

The promise of the Forest Rights Act remains largely unfulfilled, says a committee set up by the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Tribal Affairs. It seems hard for a government used to controlling most of India’s common lands to let go of them. Even though it has passed a law mandating (…)

Ask Chennai’s (Madras’) fisherfolk and they will tell you that the road to hell is built on stilts. Various Central and state government agencies plan to construct three controversial expressways on stilts in the coastal city. These roads will displace more than 1 lakh people — mostly urban poor (…)

Even as the new CRZ notification grants fishing communities the right to redevelop the land on which they live, it lays open coastal lands for other forms of development which will adversely impact their livelihoods, says Kalpana Sharma. Read more

Plans to ban extremely and moderately hazardous pesticides in cardamom district, Idukki.
Endosulfan poisoning in Kasaragod district has made the Kerala government cautious in its approach to use of pesticides. Agriculture minister M Retnakaran recently announced that the ban on extremely and (…)

In Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s eight years as president of Brazil, he signed decrees creating just 88 indigenous reserves, far fewer than his immediate predecessors. That figure comes from the governmental National Indian Foundation (FUNAI) and the Indigenous Missionary Council (CIMI), which (…)

Shortly before Valentine’s Day, the European campaign “Fair Flowers - for Human Rights” presents a study on the health impacts of pesticides in the Ugandan flower production for the export to Europe. The study was conducted by the campaign’s partner, the Uganda Workers’ Education Association (…)

Jatropha is still being touted as a biofuel wonder crop. But there is evidence that jatropha does not deliver on its promises. This new report lists ten reasons why jatropha is neither a profitable nor a sustainable investment. Read more
– Download the full report (pdf)

What are the implications when one of China’s most powerful agribusiness firms starts acquiring thousands of hectares of land in the Province of Rio Negro, Argentina for the production of soyabeans, wheat, and oilseed rape to ship back to China? What are the consequences for the local (…)

The European Union is a significant player in the widespread occurrence of land-grabbing in Southeast Asia; both through its corporate sector and public policies.
Summary
Land-grabbing is occurring at a significant extent and pace in Southeast Asia; some of the characteristics of this land (…)

"China has made remarkable economic and social progress over the past three decades, lifting several hundred millions out of poverty, and food security benefited significantly from this overall progress. However, the shrinking of arable land and the massive land degradation threatens the ability (…)

Land grabbing in massive proportions is happening all over the world, threatening not only the survival of small farms but the very food sovereignty of nations. Prospective foreign buyers and speculators are justifying the land rush with the continuing global food crisis, rising energy demand (…)

The flooding that submerged nearly a fifth of Pakistan starting in July this year displaced about 20 million people and killed nearly 2,000. This number of people whose property and livelihoods were destroyed surpassed the number of combined victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2005 (…)

Research in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania indicate that land grabbing is currently a big challenge for African countries because of increased interest by foreign agricultural investors to acquire massive pieces of land in rural Africa…
Summary : - Includes the rise (…)

Anywaa Survival Organisation-ASO is concerned about the unprecedented land grab and destruction of ecological environment of the Gambela region. Since 2008 foreign companies with the help of the Ethiopian authorities in the centre have been acquiring vast fertile farmlands with limited (…)

Recent years have witnessed a renewed interest in private-sector investment in agriculture. Some have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities in lower and middle-income countries. Others have raised concerns about the possible social impacts, including loss of local (…)

As global attention switches from the new Nagoya Protocol of the Biodiversity Convention to the next climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, ETC Group releases a groundbreaking report that lifts the lid on the emerging global grab on plants, lands, ecosystems, and traditional cultures.
The New (…)

“A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive. Plans from national governments setting out how they will reach these targets, which are (…)

With settlement expansion and continuing human rights abuses against Palestinians, the lessons from the anti-apartheid movement continue to motivate the growing global opposition to the occupation.
On a full-day drive through the Jordan Valley late last month, we skirted the earth’s oldest (…)

The high corridors of the nation are abuzz with talk about how much food should be given to the country’s poor as a right. Should it be 25 kg of rice or 35 kg of wheat a month per person at highly subsidized rates?
Then they worry who should get this right to food. All who are poor, the very (…)