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Fred Pearce - The Landgrabbers Review By:
Mil
Publisher: Eden Project Books/Transworld Publishers
Published: 24 May 2012
Non Fiction
Hardcover
Rating: 4/5
Purchase: Hardcover or Kindle edition UK/US
Right now, an unprecedented land grab is taking place around the world. Every day,
parcels of land - the size of Wales and larger-are being gobbled up across the plains
of Africa, paddy fields of South-east Asia, jungles of the Amazon and prairies of Eastern Europe.
The raiders are the ultra-rich Gulf oil sheikhdoms, Russian oligarchs, Chinese entrepreneurs,
jumpy governments worried about food security in an ever more populated world, and financial
speculators looking for the next big investment opportunity.
The victims are subsistence farmers around the world, whose title to the land they work is
uncertain and whose power to prevent their governments selling it from beneath them very small.
Following the trail from the boardrooms and ministries to the victims themselves, The
Landgrabbers lifts the lid on the most profound ethical, environmental, economic and
social issue in the world today.
Purchase: Hardcover or Kindle edition UK/US
Rating: 4/5
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When it comes big million dollar
corporations upsetting locals, I think I can safely say we have all been on
that side of the fence. Whether the local plant has increased traffic on your
daily route, created more noise pollution, maybe its just a little sore on the
eyes to look at. Whatever the gripe may be, it pales in comparison to the real
damage being done out there. In The Landgrabbers, Fred Pearce has documented
many cases of rich men from all corners of the world acquiring huge areas of
land at very little cost to be utilised for their own specific needs.
While that may sound like run of the mill foreign investment, Pearce uncovers
the hard hitting truth about the crooked deals in place to protect wealthy
investors at the expense of the locals who in many cases lived on and off
the land that was handed over to the highest bidder. With no human compassion
in sight, locals are tossed aside, with force if necessary and the once rich,
lush, vibrant land is stripped of every resource.
If you have reached this point in reading and await the part about international
laws protecting the locals you will be disappointed. In fact, in the event of a
drought or famine which has locals starving and thirsty, the laws dictate the
supplies available will go to the foreign investors before anybody else. Africa,
South America, Asia, Australia all suffer as the land grabbing shows no signs
of slowing down regardless of the damage being done to the environment. Farmers
are bought out for measly sums, or upon refusal just simply forced out. Animals
habitats are bulldozed or they are simply hunted and killed with no remorse.
Rivers are running dry as investors increase the size of their operations and
it simply cannot be sustained.
With a lack of transparency, land grabbers are not only getting away with breaking
promises as well as laws they also escape with big chunks of profit. Pearce shines
the spotlight on this issue in great detail with many shocking revelations. As he
includes in The Landgrabbers, journalists in Tanzania investigating such
organisations have been thrown in prison so the truths are not revealed to the
masses. Luckily, he made it back from his travels across the world and managed
to document everything in this book.
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The views expressed here are those of the authors and not
necessarily
those of Dubcnn as an organisation.
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Thank you to Eden Project Books/Transworld Publishers for providing a review copy.
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