Documents - Livelihoods and Culture
Understanding land grabbing, land rights in the 21st Century
It is critical for farmers and advocates of land rights as well as the general public to understand how and why land grabbing is happening to make a more effective, strategic campaigning to address and stop it. In this special, double edition of Focus Policy Review, this is one of the main themes discussed. As the lead article underscores, “land grabbing...have almost always been framed within the themes of economic investment, human rights, and governance. Underpinning these themes is the issue of power...” because land grabbing is a political issue with economic goals. We need to know the basics about land grabbing—the who, what, where, and how—in order to grasp the complexities of the issue. (source: focusweb.org/)
My Home My Land
My Home, My Land is a graphic representation of much of the Oakland Institute's work on land grabs. Illustrated by the Institute's Intern Scholar, Abner Hauge, this publication dismantles the many myths promoted by so-called donor countries, development agencies, and corporations about the positive effects of foreign direct investments through large-scale land acquisitions. (The Oakland Institute, 2015)
Chapter 1: Context and Challenges (Grassroots Leadership and Popular Education in Indonesia)
LifeMosaic and The Samdhana Institute are serialising a new book: Grassroots Leadership and Popular Education in Indonesia. Chapter 1: Context and Challenges provides an overview of the unprecedented challenges faced by communities, social movements and ecosystems in Indonesia and around the world. These include: a global rush for increasingly scarce resources; the risks of breaching multiple planetary boundaries which have enabled human life on Earth; increasing inequality; and an enormous loss of biological and cultural diversity; an Indonesian context where progress for community rights is being held back by large-scale land acquisition and growing agrarian conflict; top-down models for social or environmental transformation, critiqued by interviewees and workshop participants in the course of this research; the influence of the doctrine that states that There is No Alternative to neo-liberal economics and globalisation. Yet this chapter ends on a positive note, showing how, despite such challenges, there are alternatives that are being created around the world. (The Samdhana Institute / LifeMosaic, 2015)
Grassroots Leadership and Popular Education in Indonesia: Introduction and Summary
Grassroots Leadership and Popular Education in Indonesia is a new publication by LifeMosaic and The Samdhana Institute. The book sets out to analyse and recommend ways to support grassroots leadership development and popular education in order to strengthen movements for social and environmental change – in Indonesia and around the world. The book is for grassroots leaders, activists, educators and movement builders in Indonesia and beyond, for all those participating in systemic change towards a more equitable and sustainable future, with the hope that in these pages there is a spark that gives you energy on your journey. Please read this Introduction and Summary, the first chapter of the book to be serialised. (The Samdhana Institute / LifeMosaic, 2015)
The Right to Self-Determination and Development of Indigenous Peoples
The world is becoming crowded, and there is a scramble for resources in the name of "sustainable development”. Pressure is being put upon indigenous peoples and on their land and resources that they have inherited from their ancestors and are obliged to pass it on to the next generation for their collective survival. This comic provides a simplified overview of the problems faced by indigenous peoples, their rights and their contributions to sustainable development based on their distinct lifestyles and values (AIPP, 2014).