Just Transition or Green Grabbing?

Large-scale commercial agriculture continues to replace agricultural practices of indigenous peoples (IPs), pastoralists, andsmallholder farmers worldwide. At the same time, large-scale land deals for wind parks and solar farms take place in the context ofglobal climate action. In addition, millions of hectares of land are required to meet the projected biological carbon removal in climatepledges and commitments. Such large-scale projects have detrimental impacts for indigenous peoples and local communities (IPLC).

These groups often rely on ecosystem-based approaches to agriculture such as agroecology that strengthen the resilience of foodsystems while supporting biodiversity, food security, nutrition and livelihoods. Given this they should be recognized and supported aspartners to mitigating and adapting to climate change and for protecting biodiversity. Secure land tenure rights are key to supporttheir food systems and livelihoods and to protect their land from increasing demand for climate mitigation. To avoid “green grabbing”but achieve a “just transition” the side event will raise awareness for the scale of the problem, present evidence about thecontribution of these communities in tackling climate change, highlight lessons learned from the “global land rush” and discuss therole of strengthening international frameworks and land tenure rights.

Objectives:

• Highlight that climate action, food security and land issues cannot be discussed in silos and initiate a dialogue between differentstakeholders with a key role for IP & LC;

• Show how IP & LC can contribute to mitigating and adapting to climate change;

• Demonstrate that secure tenure rights are a key factor for building sustainable local food systems, protecting biodiversity andprotecting land rights of IP & LC from the increased demand for land by climate actions;

• Provide policy recommendations on how to implement and improve safeguards to ensure that IP & LC are not adversely affectedby global climate action.

Speakers:

Joan Carling (Indigenous Peoples Rights International)

Hillary Cheruiyot (The Eastern Africa Farmers Federation)

Aurelie Lhumeau (International Fund for Agricultural Development)

Fanny Métrat (Farmer-Confédération Paysanne-Struggles for Land Forum)

Nikka Rivera (Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development)

Moderator:

Jann Lay (GIGA/Land Matrix Initiative)

Attendance:

The online registration tool is available at the International Land Coalition website.