The Agrarian Rentier Political Economy: Land Concentration and Food Insecurity in Colombia

Richani, Nazih

doi:10.1353/lar.2012.0025

Cited by 36 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Nevertheless, outside investors also see opportunities to obtain and capitalize land (Marx 1991). Investors in illegal land markets expect rent or profits on the capital they used for forest clearing, in which formal land tenure is never intended (Richani 2012). Formal tenure is less important than the rules and mechanisms used to manage and obtain economic benefits from land (Ostrom and Nagendra 2006).…”

Section: Fragmentation Inside the Aatb's Protected Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Opening access to the areas also increases speculation for commercializing land and motives actors to expand the agricultural frontier established in 2018 (see roads map in the SP) (Salgar andCárdenas 2017, UNOCDC 2017). Land speculation has been a key feature of the capitalism accumulation model in Colombia (Richani 2012), but what differs now is the magnitude of speculation and the collective impact of FARC withdrawal with the unstable initial implementation of the peace agreement. The deeply rooted history of land grabbing and poor institutional protections on forests generate a disturbance pattern inside PAs with patches that are on average three times larger than during the wartime stage.…”

Section: Fragmentation Inside the Aatb's Protected Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The end of gunpoint conservation: forest disturbance after the Colombian peace agreement

Murillo-Sandoval

Dexter

Hoek

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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In November 2016, after 52 years of armed conflict, the Colombian government and the primary rebel group, the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) reached a peace agreement. The agreement incorporated three changes to institutions governing forest land occupation and use: (a) the demobilization of FARC from forested places, (2) the future distribution of legal land titles and new road construction into forests, and (3) the eradication of illicit crops. However, we document unprecedented rates of forest disturbance in the months following the peace agreement in biodiversity hotspots across the country. Are the declaration of peace and the increased rates of forest disturbance related? Here, we present the first systematic assessment of the impact of the Colombian peace agreement on forest disturbance. Focusing on the Andes-Amazon Transition Belt (AATB), we used automated satellite image disturbance detection methods and ethnographic data to quantify and interpret forest cover change from 2010 to 2018 that span wartime, peace negotiation, and post-peace agreement stages. Our findings indicate that during the post-peace agreement period (2017-2018), the area of forest disturbance increased by 50% (about 238 000 ha) across the AATB in comparison with the four-year peace negotiation stage (2013-2016); these changes reflect the end of FARC-led gunpoint conservation in the region. Forest disturbance also spread deeper into the Amazon watershed and increased in area by 187% within the AATB's protected areas. We find that following the peace agreement and the withdrawal of FARC, key actors (viz. drug cartels, large landowners, campesinos and dissidents) with expectations of favorable land tenure policies swept into the region; this led to increases in large-scale cattle ranching, coca cultivation dispersal, and speculative illegal land markets each of which contributed to the widespread forest disturbance that we mapped. The rapid increase in forest disturbance occurred despite the interest of the international community in promoting forest conservation initiatives in the AATB and Colombia's existing conservation and land titling frameworks for public lands. Our findings underscore the need for conservation strategies sensitive to rapid institutional and demographic changes in the course of the peace agreement to prevent forests from becoming an unexpected casualty of premature and unstable peace.

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Section: Fragmentation Inside the Aatb's Protected Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fragmentation Inside the Aatb's Protected Areasmentioning

confidence: 99%

The end of gunpoint conservation: forest disturbance after the Colombian peace agreement

Murillo-Sandoval

Dexter

Hoek

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Liberalisation has favoured the supply of cheap food to the growing urban middle class, but has been accompanied by a lack of social, economic, and political recognition of peasants and reinforced their marginalisation in favour of a neo-liberal model of development (Petras and Veltmeyer, 2002;Forero, 2003;Forero, 2010). Market-led agrarian reforms (Borras, 2003;De Los Rios, 2011) have reinforced an inequitable and inefficient land distribution and use, whereby shrinkage of land dedicated to food production contributes to the increasing need of Colombia for food imports (Richani, 2012). Eighty per cent of the holdings in Colombia are smallholdings, with peaks in the Andean regions, and 80% of the agricultural land is possessed by 10% of land owners (Perez and Perez, 2002).…”

Section: Trade Liberalisation In Colombia: Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Colombian agriculture under multiple exposures: a review and research agenda

Feola

Vanegas

Bamón

2014

Climate and Development

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We adopt the multiple exposures framework to review the existing literature on the impacts of climate change, trade liberalisation, and violent conflict on Colombian agriculture. These stressors act simultaneously but policies address them separately, overlooking the root causes of vulnerability. We find that the expected impacts of the single stressors have been relatively well documented, but that limited research has been dedicated to the observed effects of these three stressors and to their interactions. We propose a research agenda in three themes: trade-offs; social mechanisms; and governance. This agenda can inform not only agricultural adaptation but the debate on alternative agricultural development models.Resumen: En este artículo se utilizó el marco de exposición múltiple para revisar la literatura existente sobre el impacto que el cambio climático, la liberalización del comercio y los conflictos violentos tienen sobren la agricultura en Colombia. A pesar de que hay evidencia de que estos tres estresores actúan simultáneamente los discursos políticos respectivos tienden a proceder de forma separada. Asimismo, como estos discursos están dominados por un énfasis principalmente técnico, los procesos sociales, políticos y económicos que sustentan los sectores o unidades agrícolas vulnerables son generalmente desestimados. Esto se traduce en políticas de desarrollo rural y ambiental que no reconocen las complejidades propias de las dinámicas socio-ecológicas. En este artículo se sintetizaron los conocimientos existentes y se identificaron puntos clave, como por ejemplo cultivos, departamentos o sistemas de unidades agrícolas que parecen estar simultáneamente expuestos a los tres estresores previamente mencionados. Se mostró que los impactos tanto observados como esperados generados individualmente por cada estresor han sido relativamente bien documentados en la literatura existente, mientras que escasa literatura se ha desarrollado sobre las formas en que estos estresores interacciones entre si. Finalmente se identificaron tres importantes temas que, bajo un marco de exposición múltiple, deben ser incluidos en una agenda de investigación agrícola en Colombia: compensaciones mutuas, mecanismos sociales y gobernanza. De esta forma, la agenda agrícola podría no sólo informar sobre medidas de adaptación para la agricultura, si no que proponer una reconsideración de modelos alternativos para el desarrollo agrícola a la luz de un conocimiento profundo de la dinámica de los diversos sistemas agrícolas colombianos. Palabras clave: Agricutura, Colombia, Cambio climatico, Liberalización del comercio, Conflicto, Exposición multiple. Feola, G., Agudelo Vanegas, L.A., Contesse Bamón, B.P., 2014. Colombian agriculture under multiple exposures: a review and research agenda. Climate and Development 1-15.

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“…Though land was widely commodified by the twentieth century, and land markets became the principal means of acquiring land, the property relations on large estates were often not significantly changed. This is because the general pattern of land appropriation came to be characterized by a logic of portfolio diversification (Bicalho and Hoefle 1989;Richani 2012). That is, land is acquired by individuals who have accumulated wealth from various economic activities, usually commerce or other urban endeavors, and who seek to invest in land as a speculative investment, or as a store of wealth in the context of high inflation.…”

Section: The Primacy Of Property Relationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agrarian Structure and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Bringing the Latifundio “Back In”

Carlson

2019

Lat. American Res. Rev.

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Latin American scholars in the twentieth century often pointed to the agrarian question and the dominance of the large latifundio estates as the key to explaining their countries' underdevelopment. Yet, in more recent years, the emphasis on agrarian structures has declined and the latifundio is no longer seen as a relevant factor to economic development. In its place have emerged explanations that emphasize international trade relations, institutions, or the capacity of local states. This study makes a case for bringing the latifundio "back in" to explanations of underdevelopment in Latin America, and points to the persistence of particular property relations, low-intensity land use, and low-risk productive strategies throughout the region as barriers to development. Agricultural census data and various other sources on land use suggest that large latifundio estates are still a relevant factor throughout the region, and I argue that they continue to represent a significant barrier for the deepening of industrialization.Intelectuales latinoamericanos en el siglo veinte frecuentemente señalaban a la cuestión agraria y la dominación latifundiária como la clave para explicar el subdesarrollo de sus países. Sin embargo, en años recientes el énfasis en estructuras agrarias ha disminuido, y el latifundio ya no es visto como un factor relevante para el desarrollo económico. En su lugar, han surgido explicaciones que enfatizan el comercio internacional, las instituciones nacionales y la capacidad del estado de promover el desarrollo. El presente estudio argumenta que debemos volver a poner énfasis en el latifundio como explicación para el subdesarrollo en América Latina. Se señala la persistencia de ciertas relaciones de propiedad, el bajo uso de la tierra, y estrategias productivas extensivas a lo largo de la región como barreras al desarrollo económico. Datos estadísticos de censos agrarios y otras fuentes sobre el uso de la tierra sugieren que el problema del latifundio es todavía un factor relevante en la región, y continúa representando una barrera importante para la profundización de la industrialización.

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The Agrarian Rentier Political Economy: Land Concentration and Food Insecurity in Colombia

Cited by 36 publications

References 24 publications

The end of gunpoint conservation: forest disturbance after the Colombian peace agreement

The end of gunpoint conservation: forest disturbance after the Colombian peace agreement

Colombian agriculture under multiple exposures: a review and research agenda

Agrarian Structure and Underdevelopment in Latin America: Bringing the Latifundio “Back In”

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