Globalizando a luta contra a aquisição transnacional de terras: a atuação da via campesina na esfera da governança global

Abstract

The land grabbing is a process of global accumulation of land that has intensified with the triple crisis of neoliberal capitalism of the 2000s and the growing environmental crisis that is a direct consequence of the unsustainable global capitalist mode of production. In the meantime, large-scale land speculation by various public and private actors has emerged as an alternative to the uncertainties of the international financial market and as a way out of failures in energy and food shortages. Its violent negative effects rooted in the expulsion of peasants from their lands and the threat to food and nutritional security of the most vulnerable populations also characterize this process. These contradictions have sparked the activism of Via Campesina - a transnational social movement formed in the early 1990s by peasant organizations in various parts of the world - that have been emphatically against the process of transnational land acquisition. The complexity of the phenomenon, as well as the multiplicity of actors involved with diverse interests, contributed to the agenda for global governance on agricultural land gaining ground in forums and international discussions. In the scope of the governance debate, two international regimes stand out: the Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment, Respects, Livelihoods, and Resources (PRAI) and the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in The Context of National Food Security (Voluntary Guidelines). This work characterizes the performance and position of the Via Campesina against the process of land grabbing, giving greater focus to the movement’s performance in the aforementioned global governance structures. For this, the work - based on a qualitative methodology - used primarily for extensive bibliographical review and documentary analysis, aiming to clarify the aforementioned objective.