Food Sovereignty Meeting on Land Issues at Firenze 10+10 (Access to Land and Land Tenure). In frame of the European Social Forum, Firenze 10+10, held in Firenze, Italy on 8-11. November 2012, the Nyeleni Europe Movement for Food Sovereignty, the European Coordination La Via Campesina, Manitese, A.I.A.B. and Cospe organised the first follow up meeting for the Axis 4 - Reclaiming the Right to our Commons. With more then 70 participants, the discussion in Firenze focused land issues divided to the following three topics:
1. EXPERIENCES ON LAND GRABBING IN EUROPE - presented by representatives from Eastern Europe, Norway and Italy
2. POSITIVE EXPERIENCES ON ACCESS TO LAND - presentations from the Reclaim the Fields Movement, representative of Terre de Lien, France, representatives of Italy and Austria
3. INTRODUCING THE VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON THE RESPONSIBLE GOVERNANCE OF TENURE OF LAND, FISHERIES AND FORESTS IN THE CONTEXT OF NATIONAL FOOD SECURITY
Linked to the Nyeleni Europe Action Plan, the main issues are:
1. REJECT: Land Grabbing:
- EU framework pressures for foreign and national investments within member states,
- Linked to intra national inequalities,
- Fight back the de-agrarianisation of our societies,
- Own land as commons
2. TRANSFORM: Access to Land concrete proposal:
- land squatting and land occupation,
- mobilise public land for food purpose (fighting against the sale of public land),
- multi stakeholder dynamics and synergies (expand and diverse networks),
- internet toolkit about existing experiences regarding access to land (obstacles, key enabling policy factors),
- agrarian reform of CAP
3. BUILD: LAUNCHING AGRARIAN REFORMS (Policy level)
- Local (issues around repossess and protect vulnerable land; address role of local officials facilitating LG; propose laws to insure good land will go to people that will have good use of it—for food production!).
- National (monitoring and punishing or preventing foreign corporations; problem of inaccessibility of small scale and future farmers to institutional support).
- International (EU policy framework consolidates underway land grabbing; CAP reform based on different starting point, i.e. the needs of small-scale farmers; VG implementation).
