Biodiversity
And Land Reforms-
A Neglected Linkage
By S.Faizi
27 March,
2008
Countercurrents.org
Agricultural biodiversity was a key item on the agenda of the just concluded meeting in Rome of the scientific and technical advisory body (SBSTTA) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and yet this meeting too sidestepped the critical issue of reforming the agricultural land tenure as a means to enhance agrobiodiversity. Indeed land reforms, wherever undertaken with the necessary political will, have shown to have a triple environmental impact: improving the genetic and species base of crops, significantly mitigating rural poverty and reducing pressure on natural habitats.
Both the feudal concentration and the fast growing commercial acquisition of farmland play a significant role in the erosion of agrobiodiversity, just as the apartheid’s appropriation of farmlands. Large holdings cultivate an extremely limited number of species if not outright monocultures, more often than not cash crops meant for the export market. Small holdings on the other hand have a wide range of crops, mainly food crops for self and to meet local needs. Besides, the small holdings have a significantly higher productivity per unit as each of these holdings command the devoted attention of an entire family. The prevailing systemic denial of farmland to the landless and land-poor entrenches poverty on the one hand and on the other leaves these marginalized communities to increase the pressure on natural habitats for livelihood, in addition to contribution of the large holdings in narrowing the agrobiodiversity base.
Kerala
state of India is a good example of the biodiversity-land reform linkage
where the state had a comprehensive land reform project in the early
70s supported by a farmland redistribution law, and this has been
central to what has come to be called the Kerala model of development
characterized by high social indices upon fairly low investment (but
now increasingly under threat). Although the state has one of the
highest population densities in the world, its small holdings maintain
a high diversity of crops. Further, when the population pressure had
prompted a migration to the upland forests in the 70s, its intensity
was considerably reduced by the land reforms. However, such a reform
will be unthinkable in most other parts of India or the rest of south
Asia even today, as the resistance to change will be fierce.
The staggering 65 per cent of Japan’s- a high population density
country- terrestrial area under forest cover owes it largely to the
forced land reforms in the post world war two period, although the
original intention of the occupying Americans was to wither the feudal
support base of the king. Nicaragua’s land reforms initiated
by President Daniel Ortega in the 80s -shelved later with the change
in government- were followed by a reduction in forest encroachments.
Cuba’s small holdings were central to shaping its success in
expanding agrobiodiversity and reducing the use of agrochemicals in
the post Soviet period. On the other hand, apartheid’s appropriation
of farmlands created the twin crises of accelerating rural poverty
and biodiversity degradation in southern Africa. The land reform move
initiated by the Soviet sponsored government in Afghanistan was at
the core of the feudal resistance which was strategically utilized
by the US to generate self perpetuating violence of formidable proportion.
Had the land reforms been allowed to happen, the destiny of Afghanistan
would have been starkly different- the ecology of its vastly degraded
semi-aridlands too.
The recent establishment of the National Land Reform Council in India for promoting a new land reform policy demonstrate the government’s recognition of the urgency of addressing the expanding land deprivation among the rural poor, though I doubt if such a half hearted move can bring about any tangible results. In addition to the feudal land tenure structure, there is the new and growing threat of corporate take over of farmlands abetted by governments at various levels. No meaningful reform to provide access to land for the huge mass of landless poor can come about without the necessary political support, and that support is clearly lacking in all the mainstream political parties in the country today. An equitable redistribution of the farmlands will not only enhance the livelihood security of one third of the citizens but also strengthen the nation’s ecological security.
Unfortunately
land tenure reform as a vital tool in biodiversity conservation has
been kept off the agenda of the CBD process, and is yet to be given
its rightful place in the biodiversity discourse itself. Few biodiversity-related
studies mention this as an issue to be addressed. One exception is
the Global Biodiversity Strategy (World Resources Institute et al)
released on the eve of the Earth Summit. ILO had also done some empirical
studies on the impact of land reforms on agrobiodiversity in the early
90s. The ubiquitous World Bank speaks about it too, but for them land
reforms mean market-driven commercial accumulation of land which can
only accentuate the biodiversity crisis. It is my fervent hope that
this critical biodiversity issue, which will scare many a government
supported by feudal political formations, will soon find its way to
the CBD agenda.
******
SBSTTA= Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological
Affairs (of the Convention on Biological Diversity).
Author intro: ecologist specializing in international environmental policy.
( Adds for correspondence: S.Faizi, Ecologist, R2 Saundarya Apartments, Nandavanam, Trivandrum, India. 695033 [email protected] )
