This session is for the Thematic panel on the TCS 9 /Theme: Land, Agriculture, Food Sovereignty,Agro-Ecology Energy and Natural Resources.

A number of interested organisations have come forward to organise this thematic panel  together. This will set the tone for many self organised activities at the WSF and also will help shape the Statement issued at the Square of Statemnt on 19th.  The following articulation already defines the above theme:

The accumulation, dispossession, conversion, and annexation of land and other natural resources have been exacerbated by neoliberal policies and practices. This has not only put millions of people`s lives and livelihoods at risk but also contributed to environmental degradation and climate change. We are witnessing the growing extinction of traditional livelihoods based mostly on agriculture, fishing, gathering, and hunting, which are under threat from a variety of land grab-related consequences. These include land loss, diminishing access to resources, damaged ecosystems, deforestation, and a lack of alternative food security measures. Land and food politics are inextricably linked. Therefore, food sovereignty and democratic control over land and other resources are frequently intertwined. The food sovereignty movement is a process that seeks to resist political forces that seek to control all parts of food production systems and bring the entire food production cycle, from seeds to inputs to land and other essentials, under centralised and more privatised control.

World Social Forum 2024

Statement from the Thematic Panel on Land, Agriculture, Food-sovereignty-Agro-Ecology, Energy and Natural resources

We the following participants /organisations attended the Thematic Panel on Land, Agriculture, Food-sovereignty-Agro-Ecology, Energy and Natural resources  at the World Social Forum  on the 17^th of February 2024 in Kathmandu, Nepal to discern and deliberate on issues that are pertinent to life and livelihood in our present context.

We discerned

We live in a context where life and all that contributes to life are being commoditized and monetized for the sake of profit. This includes (Ann,Jal, Jangal, Jameen) Food, water, forests, land and bio-diversity.

This economic model that is based on the principle of profit for a few has created deep inequality and has increased the precarity of life for millions on this planet. It has put their lives and livelihoods at risk and has also contributed to climate change.

Moreover, it is resulting in the large-scale extinction of traditional livelihoods that have been mostly based on agriculture, fishing, gathering and hunting.

 Resource grabbing caused by a powerful nexus of private corporations and individuals combined with state power, both violent and by implementation of policies that are anti-people and anti-poor, has led to diminishing access to resources, damaged eco-systems and deforestation.

The lack of access to resources including the democratic control over land and water resources has resulted in a loss of food sovereignty and a resultant rise in hunger and malnutrition and even forced migration.

Further, the rise of agro-business on the one hand, combined with the industrialization of food, has led to both the loss of control over food sovereignty on the one hand and the rise of unhealthy and dangerous processed foods on the other.

 We recognize

That capitalism commodifies everything and is increasingly and rapidly commodifying life, including seeds for a profit-making mechanism. This has removed control over a vast array of seeds and plant and animal life away from communities and placed them in the hands of businesses, thereby threatening food sovereignty.

That there is an uncontrolled urbanization process that is not only displacing millions and disappearing villages but is also destroying agricultural and forest lands.

That there is a continual process of eviction of forest dwellers and those who have been traditionally depended on forests for livelihood. We recognize that agrarian reforms and forest reforms are inexorably linked.

 We call for

A protection of Jal, Jangal, Jameen as belonging to the people and not to corporate or private interests.

That we make as central to our visions indigenous perspectives on food, water, forests and land (Ann, Jal, Jangal, Jameen)

An immediate addressing of the root causes of our land, water and forest crisis and to seek for solutions that lie in people’s wisdom and not in market mechanisms.

A recognition of the feminization of farming and the invaluable role women play in production and reproduction. Concretely this means that we call for agricultural land deeds to be placed in women’s names.

Agrarian reforms and forest reforms, especially in some South Asian countries, where it has not been reformed since 1927.

Signatory organisations

1.    World Council of Churches

2.    Ekta Parisha

3.    All India Union of Forest Working People

4.    SAPPROS Nepal

5.    World Communion of Reformed Churches

6.    India Peace Center

7.    PWCDF (People World Commision Drought and Flood

8.    Tarun Bharat Sangh

9.    Jal Biradiri

10.  CNI SBSS (Social Service)

11.  Faith Justice Network

12. Pax Romana-International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) Asia Pacific.  ……………..

13.  ……………………………

14.  ………………………….

(More signatures are collected on paper and will be updated here soon)