Threats, coercion and violence have been used to acquire land from families

“It is a crime against humanity to convert agriculturally productive land into land that is producing crops for the transformation into bio-fuels”.
Jean Ziegler, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food.

As a result of fluctuating oil prices, concerns over the future security of fossil fuels, and global pressures addressing climate change, policies for the use of renewable energies have developed.  Governments have placed agrofuel and diesel policies at the top of their agendas, with the objective of increasing their use in years to come.  Coupled with investment from international financial institutions, national and regional policies promote the development and expansion of monoculture production of agro-fuel crops.  In Guatemala, sugarcane, African palm and jatropha are the crops intended for agro-fuels production.  The production of agro-ethanol from sugarcane in Guatemala began in 1983 - agrodiesel from jatropha in 2007.  At the end of 2008, Guatemala was preparing itself for a large scale production of agrodiesel from African palm.

Although the situation affects Guatemala on the whole, the department of Petén suffers added consequences as it is home to the largest and most diverse protected area in the country.  It is a region rich in natural resources, all of which are increasingly exploited.  Additionally, Petén is a destination for many campesino families seeking land access; including families from other departments who have sold their land to companies dedicated to the production agrofuel crops.  Migration contributes to the deforestation and places additional pressure on Petén’s protected areas.

It is widely known that sugarcane and palm plantations have expanded in recent years, though official figures do not yet exist. Estimations regarding the current situation have been made by various investigators and social organizations. The municipality of Sayaxché, Southeast of the department of Petén, is most affected by this phenomenon.  It covers an area of 375 thousand hectares, and it has been calculated that between 40 and 45 thousand hectares have been sold to African palm and hydroelectric projects, displacing almost two thousand families.  There are a number of cases in central and Southern Sayaxché where entire communities have sold their land and other cases where a considerable percentage of community members have ceded to this pressure, tempting the remainder to do the same.  African palm plantations also occupy much of Sayaxché’s Northern territory, and are extending towards the municipalities of Poptún and San Luis, in the West -taking advantage of land close to the river Pasión.

Who’s buying?

• Palmas de Ixcán, is a subsidiary of Green Earth Fuels, United States transnational company, with national capital from the Arriola-Torrebiarte family and international capital from the Carlyle group and Goldman Sachs.  In addition to owning plantations in Quiché and Alta Verapaz, they have acquired around five thousand hectares in the San Román area (see box), La Soledad, Las Delicias, El Roto Viejo, El Roto Nuevo and Tierra Blanca, in Sayaxché.
• Hame S. A./Suprema S. A., receives capital from the Molina Botrán Group and owns large extensions of plantations, estimated at 33 thousand hectares, in the municipalities of Sayaxché and San Luis.
• Beltranena Orive owns plantations in La Cachimba an area on the border between the departments of Petén and Alta Verapaz.
• The Campollo Codina and Köng Groups also own plantations in Sayaxché.

Why Are They Selling?

The Social and Pastoral care branch of the Catholic Church, which, among other programs, works with communities in land legalization processes, became aware of a situation whereby families were receiving their land titles, and directly selling them off.  Observing this situation, the Association for Development and Progress in Petén (ADECOP Iitzam) organized a workshop to address this phenomenon, asking communities why they were selling.  The most frequent responses were: a) poor land productivity; b) economic necessity (with this in mind selling seemed an immediate money earning solution); and lastly c) pressure from economically powerful actors, including pressure from within communities by infiltrators or leaders “bought” by the same interested power.  Threats, coercion and violence have been used to acquire land from families, in Petén especially; similarly, Sums of money significantly higher than typical local prices have been offered.  Furthermore, the lack of community organization and awareness creates vulnerability to coercion and pressure to sell. There are those who attribute weakness in campesino productivity to an absence of adequate rural agrarian policies promoted by the Government.   As a result families do not attribute value to their land.  Others are of the opinion that deficient social infrastructure gives them no reason to stay.

Social, Economic, Cultural and Ecological Consequences

One of the major concerns resulting from the selling of land in Petén and other in areas, particularly the departments of the Northern Transversal Strip, is migration into the North, where principal protected areas are located.  The response from the State, according to Luis Solano, has been to carry out evictions.  In 2008, the National Council for Protected Areas (CONAP), together with state security forces, evicted 20 families that had settled in the area around Aguateca Cultural Monument, a protected area in Sayaxché, after having sold their land to an African palm company. A further 30 people voluntarily left the Dos Pilas Cultural Monument in the same area after CONAP’s intervention.  Meanwhile, the pressure is felt in the Mayan Biosphere Reserve, located in the North of the department, with evictions of new settlements reported in Sierra Lacandón and Laguna del Tigre National Parks.  According to the National Network for the Defence of Food Sovereignty (REDSAG), in a country with a long history of agrarian problems this situation can only generate more conflict.  Furthermore, in relation to land access, the Land Fund (FONTIERRA), a state body that facilitates land access by means of credits for families and communities, explains that in recent years land has become difficult to come by, and due to a shortfall in state land they find themselves competing with private interests in a milieu of rising prices and limited by their own long and bureaucratic process.

The shift towards monocrops destined for the production of agro-fuels brings with it, according to the Institute of Agrarian and Rural Studies (IDEAR), the loss of local campesino food production such as corn, beans etc….  This not only has economic costs but also social and cultural costs -l ike changes in family, community and ancestral traditions in production.  In 2008 the Inter American Development Bank (BID) observed a significant rise in food prices, and it has been documented that the global demand for agrofuels has contributed to this increase, as much in rural as urban areas.  With this rise it is predicted that poverty will become more widespread in countries like Guatemala.

Although companies claim that monocrops will generate employment and wealth for the economy, IDEAR points out that in the area of Polochic, Alta Verapaz, palm and sugarcane generates much less employment per manzana, compared with the campesino agricultural produce.  Furthermore, despite producing wealth at a national level, it does not filter down to a local level.  In some cases families remain on land they have sold in order to work in the new plantations often under hard, badly paid and frequently temporary working conditions.

Monocrops are a fuel source thought to mitigate the negative effects of climate change; yet according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FOA), when taking into account crop production methods and the process of transforming them into fuels, the mono-crops industry can in fact generate more greenhouse gases than fossil fuels.  There are also notable affects on the environment including the use of agrochemicals that contaminate the soil and water sources; deforestation, and the excessive use of water. Additionally, the areas dedicated to palm production have a threshold of between 20 and 30 years, from whence the land is rendered useless.     

Responses and Resistance

Criticisms have been made at the lack of Government intervention, and in certain cases, at state institutions which open doors to mono-crop companies.  According to Laura Hurtado from Action Aid Guatemala, companies access information from the Information Registry and FONTIERRA, facilitating their search and purchase of land and its regularization -a process that normally takes an average of two years, but in the case of such companies is reduced to six months36.  Various social organizations in Petén, such as the Social and Pastoral Care Branch of the Catholic Church, Ixmucané, ADECOP Iitzam, Alianza para la Vida y la Paz, and the Coordinator of Campesino-Indigenous Organizations in Petén are adjusting the way they work with communities in reaction to this new challenge.  They carry out workshops to raise awaeness, community organization and farming so that families learn to value fully and utilize their land, comprehending the negative consequences of selling.  Martín Jiménez of Alianza para la Vida y la Paz, is hopeful for the future because, as a result of these workshops, the sale of land has ceased in the village of Las Camelias and in three other communities.

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