“Land, Territory and Dignity” Forum

Social Movements/NGOs/CSOs parallel event to the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development(ICARRD)
Porto Alegre, March 6-9, 2006

Date and venue
Objectives of the Forum
Programme
Working groups: Central Themes of the Forum
Registration forms and documents

1. Date and venue

The Forum "Land, Territory and Dignity" will take place from 6 - 9 March in Porto Alegre/Brazil. The Forum will be held at the PUC University building facilities. Accommodation and local transport will be organized by IPC for delegates, other invites will be self-financed and organised. Simultaneous translation into Spanish, English, Portuguese and French will be provided.

2. Objectives of the Forum

# Giving an expression to the real struggles of social movements for natural resources, land, water, seeds, fishing grounds, forests.
# Presenting our proposals from the perspective of food sovereignty on issues related to Agrarian Reform and Rural Development.
# Making visible the repression and violence in the countryside and presenting strategies of resistance against criminalization of our struggles.
# Questioning the current development model.

3. Programme

Plenary Sessions: Two evenings, open to all participants to the Forum and to ICARRD, will be dedicated to big plenary sessions, held at Tesourinha, with 3-5 speakers each; must include WOMEN speakers.

1. Strategies for Occupation and Recovery of Land and Territories: (MST, indigenous representative, FSPI-Indonesia, Zimbabwe?).

2. Resistance to Repression, Criminalization and Counter-Agrarian Reform (Colombia or Paraguay-resistance to repression; South Asia; Counter-agrarian-reform-Nicaragua; South Korea-counter-agrarian reform; Privatization of fisheries-Chile).

March: on March 8 the Forum will join in the afternoon the Rural Women’s March. The whole Forum’s programme on March 8 should focus on gender aspects of the topics of the day.

Rally: on March 9 there is going to be a big rally to the conference venue while the Forum’s final statement is being read to the governments.

Party: on March 9 in the evening there is going to be a big party at Tesourinha.

4. Working groups: Central Themes of the Forum

Each working group will produce a summary of the current situation for their issues, a proposed plan of joint actions, and one or two paragraphs for a final declaration. Participants will work with a methodology based in a few plenary sessions to allow active participation in workshops on the central themes. Based on the conclusions of the workings groups a final declaration of the Forum will be drafted and then submitted to the Intergovernmental Conference.

Self-organized workshops:
On March 6 in the afternoon and 7 in the morning there will be the possibility to self-organize workshops which will run parallel to the Forum’s working groups. The number of slots will depend on the number of rooms available at the venue. More information on how to register a self-organized workshop will follow

1. Principles and Recommendations for a Genuine, Integral and Original Agrarian Reform based on Food Sovereignty (and reform of access to other resources: water, forests, fishing areas, biodiversity, etc.), also based on the human rights to food, access to productive resources and to territory, and to the self-determination of indigenous peoples, and which is respectful of our cultural, social and historical diversity, and which takes into account the good and bad lessons of past and on-going reforms, and that is an agrarian favor in favor of an "agriculture with farmers," of "fisheries with fisherfolk," of "forests with forest people," etc.

2. The Concepts of Land vs. Territory, and other resources (water, forests, fisheries, etc.): cosmovision of agrarian reform, indigenous peoples' and others, collective rights, traditional law, multiple use and access rights (i.e. when pastoralists, farmers and forest all share use rights in traditional systems), self-determination and autonomies. How can we develop a "territory perspective" for the agrarian question that is respectful of the visions and needs of diverse actors: peasant and family farm communities and organizations, indigenous peoples, nomadic pastoralists, artisanal fisherfolk, forest peoples, rural workers, migrants, colonists (people moved into new territories sometimes as a result of government programs), and others?

3. Strategies and Tactics for Occupation, Recovery and/or Defense of Land, Territories, Forests, Fishing Grounds, Housing, etc.: exchange of experiences, strategies, tactics, training for occupations, models of production, and marketing of products from occupations, cooperation among members of occupations, alliances, legal strategies, solidarity with occupations, and lessons, principles and recommendations for our diversity of circumstances.

4. Gender, Generations and Youth: women and youth in access to and management of resources, and the role of gender and age in our organizations that are involved in the struggle for, and/or defense of, land, territory and natural resources. And, how can we give gender and generational perspectives to the other central themes?

5. Resistance to Privatization, Counter Agrarian Reforms and the Neoliberal Policies of Access to Land and Other Resources of the World Bank, Governments and Other Actors: land administration, cadastre, delimitation, titling and individual parcelization, de-collectivization, land markets for buying-selling and renting, land banks, the end of land distribution, the recovery of land reform areas by former landlords, and reconcentration; and the privatization of land, water, forests, life, knowledge, biodiversity, fishing areas, oceans, intellectual property, credit, extension, marketing, health care, education, road-building, etc., and the dismantling of support for peasant agriculture and for the marketing of their products.

6. Resistance to the Dominant Model of Production and Development: process of neoliberal globalization and the transformation and insertion of agriculture, forestry and fishing into the integrated chains of transnational corporations (production under contract, export monoculture, plantations, industrial fishing, forestry and farming, biofuels, biotechnology and GMOs, nanotechnology, etc.), the displacement of local populations by agribusiness and monoculture, megaprojects (dams, airports, ports, canals, highways, etc.), "nature reserves," tourism projects, "reconstruction" after natural disasters and wars, "green neoliberalisms" (ecotourism, biopiracy, payment for environmental services, etc.), and the trade policies that promote exodus and displacement from rural areas (WTO, FTAs, CAP, Farm Bill, Capital Flows, etc.), And as a product of these displacements, the situation and demands of rural workers and migrants.

7. Resistance to Repression, Militarization, Military Occupation, "War on Terrorism," and Criminalization of movements (attempts to label our movements as "criminal," to de-legitimize and repress legitimate struggle): experiences, tactics to defend ourselves, ways to make these issues more visible, and plan of struggle.

5.Registration forms and documents

Registration form (english)

Registration form (spanish)

Registration form (french)

IPC-IOA Issue Paper