Tag: land grabs

Land grabs are not only plunging affected communities into poverty; it’s also bad for business. Shona Hawkes, Sustainable Food Advocacy Coordinator, is in Chiang Mai. Shona is joining hundreds of people from across Asia at the Land Deals Politics Initiative (LDPI) conference to better understand how, and why, land grabbing is happening — and more importantly, what can be done to stop it.

Illovo is the latest food and beverage company to adopt a zero tolerance land grabs policy. Will it follow through in practice? The company sources from countries where land tenure is complex. It can’t go it alone or cut corners. It’ll need to enlist the support of others to help, and recognise it’s just beginning a journey.

People often tell us that the bank response to their email about land grabs is confusing and full of jargon. Lately we’ve had a lot of questions about ANZ. Below is a recap of what ANZ has done, and not done, since Oxfam launched its Banking on Shaky Ground report in April.

Together, we’ve been campaigning for six months to have Australia’s Big 4 Banks change their policies to land grabs. In the past two weeks both NAB and Westpac have taken steps to reduce their risk of backing companies involved in land grabs. Now, the pressure is on the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and the ANZ Bank.

Westpac and National Australia Bank (NAB) have become the first of the big four banks to release a policy on land grabs — a significant step forward to stop unfair land deals that leave people around the world homeless and hungry.

Over the course of a year, Oxfam has spent hundreds of hours researching and documenting links between Australia’s big banks and multinational agriculture and timber businesses that are land grabbing in some of the world’s poorest communities. Since our report was issued both the NAB and Westpac have developed policies to better respond to the issue of land grabs.

Some pointers for those wanting to take action A number of Oxfam supporters with shareholdings in the big four banks have approached us for information about the upcoming series of big bank Annual General Meetings (AGMs) being held in the lead-up to Christmas. Below is a Q & A about these AGMs, and how bank […]

On 5 July we heard that Cambodia’s Phnom Penh Sugar – a company implicated in various human rights abuses including forced evictions, food shortages and child labour – has suddenly repaid its loan to ANZ. ANZ now claims that it has no responsibility to support justice for affected communities, despite financing a notorious sugar plantation […]

In response to the allegations made in Oxfam Australia’s report, Banking on Shaky Ground, the ANZ bank has responded with a disappointing series of feeble denials. In the face of specific and well substantiated allegations of support for companies that are land grabbing, providing inadequate compensation and employing child labour, the ANZ has replied saying […]

Is your bank involved in land grabbing in some of the poorest communities overseas? Oxfam’s report, Banking on Shaky Ground, details four case studies involving each of the big four banks; these outline personal stories of those affected by land grabs. We have stories from across the world, including nineteen-year-old Christophilda who lives in Turubu Bay […]

267,000 actions. 1100 photos. 60 countries. 1 ask: PepsiCo and Associated British Foods – make sure your sugar doesn’t lead to land grabs! In November we partnered with photo sharing app EyeEm to ask you to Stand for Land by taking a photo of your feet in your favourite place. By standing in solidarity with […]

After 250,000 people joined the call for Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Associated British Foods, three of the biggest players in the sugar industry to make sure the sugar in their food and drinks doesn’t lead to land grabs, Coca-Cola committed to take steps to stop land grabs in their supply chain. Now it’s time to push […]

“What are you doing with that 2 meter tall bottle of Pepsi?” asked the conductor at Sydney’s Central Station this morning. After Coca-Cola’s announcement that they are taking a zero tolerance approach to land grabs – we decided to deliver a message in a bottle to Pepsi-Co asking them to do the same. Oxfam research has […]

Last week was an exciting week with thousands of Australians taking part in Eat Local Feed Global while across the world campaigners visited the headquarters of global food giants to demand that they do more to prevent land grabs that are kicking poor farmers off their land in order to grow sugar for popular drinks. […]

Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Associated British Foods (ABF) have had varied reactions to Oxfam’s new report exposing land grabs and conflicts in their sugar supply chains, and their need to strengthen their policies as a result. ABF came back fighting. It says it has always been scrupulous in its approach to land ownership; that Oxfam’s call […]

Too often, the sugar in your favourite food and drinks is sourced by kicking farmers and their families off their land. This leaves people homeless and hungry. But you can change this. Tell Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Associated British Foods (ABF) to make sure their sugar doesn’t lead to land grabs. The truth behind sugar: anything […]

With your help, Oxfam has been campaigning since September on land grabs, as part of our GROW campaign to for food justice. We wanted the World Bank to take some urgently needed action to help end land grabs in many developing countries, which help keep one in eight people on our planet hungry. In the […]

Here’s a paradox for you: 870 million or 1 in 8 people are going hungry on our planet. But in the past decade, Oxfam research suggests global land deals have covered enough land to feed one billion people. So if there is – theoretically – enough land to feed the world’s hungry, where are we […]

The World Bank doesn’t know the environmental and social impact of the almost $20 billion it lends to private companies. A recent audit revealed that the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, the IFC, “knows very little” about the impacts of its financial market lending, which accounts for 40% of its portfolio. The IFC has […]

Like many Australians, you probably dream of owning your own piece of land one day. But whether renting or paying off a mortgage, most Australians feel relatively secure they won’t be kicked out of their own home without notice. For poor people in developing countries, this is not always the case. Families are being unfairly […]

Last month Oxfam launched a campaign calling on the World Bank to freeze their large land acquisitions for 6 months. Why? Because banks and private investors are buying up land in the developing world at an alarming rate, often resulting in people losing their homes and the land they grow their food on. Over the […]

GET OUT You’ve got two minutes to get your things and get out. Stop crying. There’s nothing you can do. Say goodbye to your home. It’s gone. Not what you would expect from an Oxfam campaign? Sadly, as banks and private investors scramble to buy land in the developing world, stories of poor farmers and […]

In recent years, wealthy investors from across the globe have invested heavily in cheap farmland in poor countries, often for commercial use. Join the campaign to stop land grabs and GROW justice.