West African parliamentarians are determined to improve governance of the land rush

Parliamentarians from the Pan-African Parliament, the Inter-parliamentary Committee of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) and members of the national Assembly of Benin met on 4-5 October in Cotonou in Benin at a conference organised with the support of AWEPA in order to discuss and adopt a declaration on the land rush taking place on the continent and in West Africa. The presentations delivered by representatives of international organisations, small farmers’ organisations, civil society, research institutions and government departments helped to fuel the debate and thinking on this increasingly problematic phenomenon.
 

The land rush in Africa has been a growing concern over the past few years due to the combined effects of three main factors. The first factor is increased investment by third countries seeking to ensure their food security, as they do not benefit from favourable growing conditions in their own countries (lack of land and an unsuitable climate). The second main factor is the increase in speculative investment caused by rising agricultural raw material prices on the world markets. Finally, the third factor is land increasingly being used to produce biofuels. Although the true scale of the land rush is a topic of debate, one of the main aims of the conference was to find out why African countries are more affected than countries in other parts of the world.

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