Dynamics in land tenure, local power and the peasant economy: the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Dynamics in land tenure, local power and the peasant economy: the case of south- east Petén, Guatemala

Markus Zander, GI Z/ Pastoral Social del VAP Jochen Dürr, GI Z/ I DEAR-CONGCOOP

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Introduction

 Guatemala historically marked by strong social

inequalities and conflicts related to land distribution: GINI-efficient land 0.84

 Civil war from 1960 to 1996; Peace Accords don‘t

resolve social inequalities

 In Petén from 1960 on government-induced

colonization process: from 26,000 inhabitants to 600,000 today.

 Land distribution: up to 45 ha for small scale

farmers, up to 675 ha for large investors. Regularization process still not finished

 Today internal migration exceeds migration from

• ther departments

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 Campesino farmers

 83% of farms in 2003  Subsistence economy

with swidden agriculture

 Main production for sale: maize and black beans  Average family income through cash crops: about 2600

$ US/ year

Agricultural production

 Cattle farming

 17% of farms in 2003  Extensive production on large extensions (average

1.2 cattle/ ha) with very low profit margins

 Often for status reasons or speculation  Strong inequalities also within livestock sector

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Present land situation

 Economy highly dependent on agriculture:  47% of mestizo and 72% of indigenous

households live primarily from agriculture

 Only about 35 % of campesino families still hold

parcels of their own, 65% don’t.

 Land scarcity. Reasons:  natural population growth,  migration from other departments  displacement of small scale agriculture through

cattle farming and large scale plantation farming.

5 MR2 MR3 MR4 MR5 MR6 MR7 MR8 Poptún total

18 12 40 43 35 36 44 25 7 6 16 8 15 18 14 11

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Poptún Municipality

MR2 MR3a MR3b MR4a MR4b MR5a MR5b Dolores total 53 33 29 37 43 65 18 37 10 19 7 20 26 11 8 12 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Dolores Municipality

MR2 MR3 MR4 MR5 MR6 MR7 MR8 MR9 MR10 San Luis total

41 26 31 60 30 42 17 38 27 31 13 10 18 28 9 6 8 18 5 10

10 20 30 40 50 60

San Luis Municipality

average ha/family (for all families) average ha/family (for land owning families)

Available land per family in campesino communities, per micro- region of south-eastern Petén

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Expansion of oil palm plantations in Petén

Area of oil palm production

From 20,700 ha in productive stage in 2007, to 44,300 ha in 2010. Additional areas apt for oil palm: 37,540 ha

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Expansion of cattle farm ing in south- east Petén:

30% of campesino families in area sold their land

• 63,495 ha land lost

for small farmers

• 2326 families left

landless, or up to 15% of actual rural population.

<15% sold 15%-24,9% sold 25%-34,9% sold 35%-44,9% sold 45%-54,9% sold >54,9% sold

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Change of land use in South-eastern Petén

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31% 15% 15% 11% 8% 6% 6% 9%

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Reasons for sale

Why do campesino families sell their land?

False assum ptions about availability of land:

• No m ore “free” land

available

• Land prices have

m ultiplied by factor 1 0 and m ore since 1 9 9 6

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End of civil war and improvement of road infrastructure

 Better security situation for transport and

investment

 Road access to nearly all villages  Travel times considerably shortened

 Improvement of investment climate for production, especially for export to other departments

Factors boosting land concentration 1

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Cadastral process with “market – assisted land reform”

 Titling and cadastral process creates judicial

security for individual properties and incentivates land transactions

 Existing mecanisms to resolve conflicts about

land ownership in regularization process not adapted to strong economical and power disparities, favour rich and powerful

 World-Bank advocated “land-reform” fails to

reach majority of landless farmers and doesn’t provide adequate conditions for beneficiaries

Factors boosting land concentration 2

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Drug-trafficking

 Drug trafficking related activities create high

financial returns in Guatemala, which are re- invested in land for speculation purposes and territorial control.

 Petén offers ideal conditions because of large

extensions, low population density and lack of state control.

 Narco-ganaderos don’t hesitate to threaten with

• r apply violence to meet their aims.

 General climate of fear and impunity leaves

campesino families without government support in case of threats Factors boosting land concentration 3

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Consequences of land concentration 1

 Campesino families who sold their land in their majority are

not able to buy new parcels, stay landless and with few alternatives to agricultural work

 Most stay in their communities to rent land from

neighbours: land scarcity and intra-communal conflicts

 Depletion of natural ressources like soil, water and forest

through overuse

 Occupation of land in

Nature Reserves, rising conflicts and state repression

 Migration to urban centers

in Petén and to country capital

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Consequences of land concentration 2

 Growing unskilled and unemployed labour force which

cannot be acommodated by labour needs of cattle ranching and plantation farming

Em ploym ent generation on regional level ( including agricultural production) per ha: Corn and bean: 2 8 m an days/ ha Cattle Farm ing: 8 m an days/ ha The conversion of 6 3 ,4 9 5 ha of m ilpa land into pastures in SE Petén lead to a loss of approxim ately 4 0 0 0 jobs in agriculture in the last years

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Consequences of land concentration 3

 Food security

Local production (SE Petén) contributes with 38,909 metric tons (mt) of corn and 15,909 mt of beans to consumption at national level.

Loss through conversion: 24 thousand mt of maize, and 4 thousand mt of beans.

 Regional economy:

Value added/ ha: cattle: $US 165, corn: $US 244, beans: $US 265

Land concentration and conversion of milpa land in pastures create annual losses of $US 5.5 million for local economy

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Recommendations

 Improvement of structural conditions for small

scale farmers (credits, tecnical assistance adapted to local needs)

 Support for campesino organisational efforts  Training of cattle farmers in more intensive and

less area-consuming breeding methods

 Adaptation of cadastral process to Guatemala’s

reality and the needs of campesino and indigenous population

 Implementation af agrarian legislation and courts  Government must garantee security for small

farmers against violent and powerful actors

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What can be done by international

• rganisations?

 Pressure on Guatemalan government and

congressmen to approve and implement legislation in favour of campesino population

 Support for human rights and campesino

• rganizations against repression by state and non

state actors

 Support for organisations and institutions in fight

against impunity

 Awareness raising campains in consumer countries

about social and ecological consequences of Oil Palm and agrofuel monocultures in producing countries

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Thank you!