People don't eat eucalyptus

Land is synonym of power and it is not a coincidence that thousands of millions of people do not have access to it. Since we wake up, we use products that come from the land: the sheets of our beds, the fabric of our clothes, the cereals we have for breakfast, the tortilla with meat we eat (What do cows eat?), the leather of our shoes. 

Written by Carlos Miguelez
Journalist of Solidarios
Translation: Euroidiomas, Lima - Perú

This apparently obvious fact explains the relationship between the land distribution in the world and the wealth distribution. Jacques Diouf, General Director of FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) says that if we could take a picture of 'poverty', we would see a family of peasants without land.

"From all poor people in the world those men and women are the poorest", says Diouf. From this reality came up the idea of calling on the ministries of several countries, their delegates, the scientific community, the civil society organizations, and NGO's to attend the International Conference about Agrarian Reform and Rural Development. The objective was to create a waybill to eradicate rural poverty in the world.

Without this reform it will be impossible to stop the demographical explosion that leads to massive rural exodus, the overpopulation of the cities, the ecological chaos, and the increase in crime and misery in the cities. Three quarters of poor people in the world live in rural areas and depend on the land to survive. Without those lands they feel rootless and, thus, more vulnerable to lose their rights and be abused.

To consider that efforts in agrarian matters are Utopian is to be unaware that policies fail when peasants and their communities are not taken into account to participate in the decisions that will eventually affect them. It is about a reform which is possible not only because it is necessary but also because many programs have been successful in some southern countries during the last years.

According to the figures given by the World Bank, extreme poverty in Mexico has decreased by 18% in recent years. This success was the result of the significant remittances sent by Mexican emigrants from the United States and the reduced rural poverty recorded between 2000 and 2004, which went down from 42% to 28% of the population.

This has been possible thanks to the governmental programs which provide scholarships, credits to gain access to school material, food, and basic health services to the poorest families. Many of these families donate part of the money received from remittances voluntarily to invest in the construction of hospitals, schools, avenues and other infrastructures in their communities.

On the other hand, Brazil has been redistributing lands for 20 years. Only in the last ten years, 600.000 families have settled in rural areas. Furthermore, small farmers have been able to accede to credit facilities, technical assistance and training, and education. President Lula knows that there are still four million rural families without lands who will be difficult to be rewarded because of several national and multinational interests. This situation not only affects Brazil but also many countries where it is more important to have eucalyptus plantations to produce paper than to provide food to their people, just to give an example.

If governments give to multinational corporations the little sovereignty they still keep, we will not be able to say that the overwhelming migration towards the "Promised Lands" of North America and Europe was not foreseeable. 

Beyond the economic value of the land, for many native villages the land represents the basis of their identity; it is their home, their ancestors' home, their pharmacy, and their place of work and relaxation. When we talk about people without land, we talk about people without past, present, and future.

It will not be enough to distribute lands; it will be also necessary to change the rules in foreign trade. In that regard, the last Doha Round held in Hong Kong expressed the need to postpone the accomplishment of the commitment to achieve the Objectives for the Millennium.

It is the civil society's task to condemn the lost of their government's sovereignty and to demand people's welfare. In other words, governments should promote a fair share-out of land so that people can live with dignity.

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