[03/10/2006] 'Land, Territory & Dignity Forum' reflects on activities in Porto Alegre

[03/10/2006] Land, Territory & Dignity Forum reports on their activities in Porto Alegre

Land titles for small farmers, guarantees for children who inherit farmland, and a sustainable agrarian reform that serves to develop rural areas. These are just a few of the questions that need to be addressed in the countryside.

Members of social movements fighting for the rights of rural people, women, youth, indigenous peoples and pastoral and fishing communities, prepared an overall analysis of the ‘Land, Territory and Dignity Forum’ held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUC-RS), city of Porto Algre (RS).

Lisiane Cunha, youth delegate of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG), stressed gender equity as the principle demand of participating women. She sited, for example, the fact that only 20% of rural land titles are held by women, even though 60 – 70% of these women work in crop/food production.

Participants also pointed to the need for global policies that grant inherited lands to women and the young. In the struggle, the women present committed themselves to strengthening women’s participation and working towards the upcoming Global March of Women.

According to Nivaldo Ramos Silva, forum participant and youth delegate of the Pastoral Land Commission (CPT), the lack of quality educational opportunities and the lack of incentives for local food production, which would allow young people to become independent of their parents, are two major problems that organized youth plan to change. Eighty percent of young men and women under 20 currently live in the ‘underdeveloped’ world, where they make less than $1,000 per capita per year.

Indigenous peoples and fishermen/women defend the right of traditional cultures and the need for social movements to resist the neoliberal model of privatization, domination and militarization. These same indigenous groups point to the need for governments and international organizations to consult indigenous peoples before deciding upon public policies related to their livelihoods.

Paul Nicholson, representing rural social movements in name of the International Via Campesina, addressed the responsibility of governments everywhere to urgently implement agrarian reform. The underlying principles of this agrarian reform should be sustainability and self-determination.

In closing, the UN Organization for Food and Agriculture and forum organizers insisted upon the creation of a functioning body that will guide the implementation of agrarian reform, as well as a fund that will serve to support small farmers.

In Portuguese –
The above article is available in its’ original form by visiting:
http://www.mst.org.br/informativos/minforma/ultimas1691.htm

In English -
The International Press Service (IPS) News Agency Reports:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32462