Link: http://www.landaccessforum.org/

The goal of the WFAL 2016 had been to organize a world forum in 2016 to address the major issues linked to unequal access to land, and natural resources (see The Call). Finally, the global assembly took place in Valencia, Spain (31^stMarch, 1-2 April 2016) with more than 400 participants from 70 countries from today at the Global Forum on Access to Land and Natural Resources.

Ten years after the World Forum on Agrarian Reforms (Valencia, Spain, 2004) and the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2006) the trends seemed unchanged if not worse. (see Antecedents and The findings are bleak).

Making a precise assessment of the situation had been imperative. An evaluation of the short and long terms consequences had been essential. It could not must ignore none of the great economic, social, political and environmental prejudices due to the ongoing processes. It was the condition to identify responses able to solve the problems.

Implementing such an analysis had been possible according to the signatories of the WFAL 2016 Call, if citizens from every continent and the organizations in charge of representing or guaranteeing their interest could effectively debate into a structured and contradictory process: farmer and other civil society organizations, governmental organizations, independent or public research institutes.

The WFAL 2016 Call aimed at creating the conditions necessary for such a debate, with the guarantee that each one’s point of view and analysis had been taken into consideration by all, towards the invention of the most constructive proposals.