A campaign for fair land distribution in Spain.

On Thursday 28 April a group of Spanish organisations will present a new campaign for a fair and sustainable land policy to the Parliament Lower House.

These organisations consider that now is the best moment to put land on the political agenda and stimulate debate on the issues. Land must be seen as a fundamental topic in agrarian politics, environmental and rural development and planning and law at a territorial level.

This event will also present the recent study on The Structure of Land Ownership in Spain, written by Fernando Fernández and Carles Soler.

Time: 12:30, 28 of April 2016.

Place: Salón Ernest Lluch del Congreso de los Diputados

To know more on the event, view live streaming, or follow up on the campaign, view here.

Speakers:

Ángeles Santos, President of Plataforma Rural - Presentation and chair.
Fernando Fernández and Carles Soler, authors of the study on The Structure of land ownership in Spain - Conclusions.
Andoni García, Board of COAG. Land as a key factor in the defence of the social and sustainable agriculture model.
Isabel Vilalba,General Secretary of the Sindicato Labrego Galego – Competition for land use and Pressure on agrarian land and defence of the communal land.
Inmaculada Idañez, President of CERES - Barriers and suggestions on the women’s access to land.
Federico Pacheco, Coordinator of Soberanía Alimentaria SOC, Representative at the Commission of Vía Campesina, in Europe - Needs and possibilities to favour fair and distributive access to land.

This campaign proposes that land has to be for those whose work it. We must conserve the land, using it in a social and sustainable way. We want to halt the loss of peasantry, produce food for society and conserve the landscape. We want to stop speculation and land consolidation into the hand of a few and protect the farmland against competition from other uses. We need new policies of land to deal with these objectives.

For the last 10 years, small farmers have lost control of 17% of European land. In Spain, small farms have decreased from controlling 15% of land to just 7%. Besides, Spain is a country where structural injustice of land ownership persists from time immemorial. Such is the case that, 1097 estates possess twice the amount of land compared to the remaining 503 small estates put together.

Behind this unfair land distribution, there are lords that own huge land areas and every year receive large amounts from the CAP. It is necessary to get land back on the political agenda. Spain needs a land policy consistent with a new agrarian policy to favour and support a social and sustainable productive model, a model recognising land as public good, and supporting the production of healthy food in a sustainable way. We propose creative and innovative political solutions that connect rural and urban society.

Organizers:
Plataforma Rural
COAG (Coordinadora de Organizaciones Agrarias y Ganaderas)
SOC (Sindicato de Obreros del Campo)
SLG (Sindicato Labrego Galego)
EHNE Bizkaia y CERES (Confederación de Mujeres del Mundo Rural), junto a la Revista Soberanía Alimentaria, Biodiversidad y Culturas y la Fundación Mundubat.