"Secure access to land is recognized by all to be a cross-cutting requirement for alleviating hunger (...) and for achieving environmental sustainability, combating desertification and preventing resource conflicts."

In this interview Mr. Bruce Moore, Coordinator of the International Land Coalition (ILC) shares with the Network the recent outcomes of the Global Assembly of the ILC held in Bolivia in March 2005 and talks about ways in which the ILC is contribuiting to the achievement of Millennium Development Goal #1 of eradicating poverty and hunger.

In March 2005, the Global Assembly of the International Land Coalition was held for the first time outside of Rome, can you share with us the outcomes of this meeting?

The International Land Coalition’s 2005 Global Assembly of Members, held in Santa Cruz, Bolivia from 19-23 March 2005, brought together civil-society and intergovernmental organizations from 30 countries around the world under the theme “Land is Life”.

The working sessions of the Assembly were dedicated to sharing the lessons learnt by Land Coalition partners. This involved considering the different kinds and forms of land policies and action programmes that have been successful in different communities and countries. The Assembly focused on widening the understanding among all participants of the dynamic forces of social, political, technical, economic and legal factors in policy making. Among others, the debates included land rights, ancestral territories, resource conflicts, extractive industries, sustainable management of natural resources and the small-holder economy.

Upon finalisation of the Assembly a Declaration for Collective Action was subscribed by all the attendants to the meeting. This declaration highlights the priority themes that have emerged from the exchange between representatives of the Bolivian government, civil society groups including farmers and indigenous peoples´ associations, private sector and social movements. The Land Coalition in this document is called upon to serve as a facilitator to discuss on different ways land rights can be made secure for the poor while enhancing dialogue between local, national and international mechanisms to resolve land related issues.

"The Land Coalition must open up debate on the variety of ways and forms through which land rights can be made secure for the poor. Resolving existing land conflicts and preventing new ones rests on the ability to design land tenure systems that address the specific needs and conditions of individual countries. The Land Coalition should also strengthen and link local, national and international mechanisms to resolve land-related conflict."

How is the International Land Coalition helping to achieve MDG #1 of eradicating poverty and hunger?

Secure access to land is recognized by all to be a cross-cutting requirement for alleviating hunger.

Our mission is to work together with the rural poor to increase their secure access to natural resources, especially land, and enable them to participate directly in policy and decision-making processes that affect their livelihoods at local, national, regional and international levels.

Their right to land and water is basic to any lasting solution to alleviating their problems; without security of land tenure, poor rural people have no sustainable access to the natural resources, credit, improved technologies and support services needed to improve their productivity and incomes. Accordingly, the promotion and facilitation of agrarian reform has been chosen as the Coalition’ s central goal. But, our objective is not land per se, it is about empowering poor people to gain the means to a sustainable livelihood.

The strategic importance of land was particularly evident at our Assembly of Members in Santa Cruz. Our members from around the world shared their experience and saw, first hand, the significance of the land issue in Bolivia. The field visits in Bolivia provided the opportunity to meet government officials, citizen movements and leaders from business to share experiences and compare policies and programmes aimed at improving secure access to land and related productive assets by poor people.

What links exist between the ILC’s mission and the achievement of MDG #7 of ensuring environmental sustainability?

Here again, it is generally accepted that secure access to land is a cross-cutting requirement for achieving environmental sustainability, combating desertification and preventing resource conflicts. In other words, the real causes of resource degradation are rooted in imbalances of power, wealth, knowledge and access to resources.

However, the knowledge that land rights can break the cycle of poverty and the degradation of natural resources is not new: scientists and development practitioners increasingly recognize that the restoration of degraded lands and the protection of water, soils and forests require that the poor acquire secure access to land and the related productive services.

In this respect, there is growing international concern as to how the downward spiral of land desertification can be offset. Not surprisingly, land tenure always appears in first place, because secure property rights are understood to provide the incentives for poor people to invest in the long term productivity of the land. Without secure rights the poor take from the land what they can to meet their basic needs. With their limited resources, it is understandable that they will not invest if the benefits of improving the quality of the land can be claimed by others. Legally secure property rights changes their behaviour from users to investors.

How can the International Land Coalition work together with the International Alliance against Hunger and the UN system Network on Rural Development and Food Security to improve the land rights of the poor?

Due to the politically difficult issues and vested interests in land, discussion often turns to technical factors rather than on the need for a more equitable redistribution of land. Fortunately, signs of political will are appearing on the international agenda, at least at the UN level. We are proud to say that, for the third year running the Economic and Social Committee of the UN (ECOSOC), the highest level committee next to the General Assembly and the Security Council, and the place where most of the UN’s business takes place, has invited the Land Coalition to Co-chair their High-Level Ministerial Segment meeting held in New York.

Last year the Land Coalition, together with the President of Benin, co-chaired a Ministerial Roundtable on the links between access to land and credit under the theme “Turning Assets into Usable Capital.”

The President of Benin later invited the roundtable participants, under the leadership of the Land Coalition, to join a multi-stakeholder initiative in this country, through which partners from different sectors could examine new ways of working together to reduce poverty and increase poor households’ incomes by leveraging the capital value of land and property resources.

Under the umbrella of ECOSOC, the Committee for Sustainable Development (CSD) and the Land Coalition, together with its host IFAD, convened in April 2005 a workshop on Land, Water and Gender to provide heightened visibility on the imperative for women to gain secure access to these essential resources.

I will be chairing an ECOSOC Ministerial Roundtable at the UN headquarters on 30 June 2005 on the subject of Land and Conflict. The outcome of this session is expected to be considered in the preparations for the Millennium +5 Summit (14-16 September 2005) given the relevance of land to poverty and therefore to the UN goals of development, security and human rights for all citizens.

For more information on the activities of the International Land Coalition and the results of the Global Assembly, please visit their website at www.landcoalition.org.

For more information on the outcomes of the General Assembly, please visit http://www.landcoalition.org/events/05aom/index.htm.

To read the previous interview to Mr. Bruce Moore published in the December 2002 update of our website, please click here.