26^th November 2014

 

The seminar will address issue related to conflicts and large-scale land acquisitions with contributions from:

 

Laura Fregolent, Università Iuav di Venezia

“Conflicts, landscape and renewable energies”

 

Matilde Carabellese, University of Naples

“Land grab: the case of soya and Argentina”

 

Filiberto Altobelli, Istituto Nazionale di Economia Agraria

“Food security and Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment: international debate and policy initiatives”

 

Filiberto Altobelli

> Bio

Filiberto Altobelli’s research focuses on economic and environmental sustainability and development of methodologies for the assessment of phenomena and processes in the agro-environment context. His major research focus is water use and water management in agriculture sector.

> Abstract

Food security and Principles for Responsible Agricultural Investment: international debate and policy initiatives

“With the growth in world population and changes in income levels and life-styles, world demand for food is set to increase steadily. More investment in agriculture is vital particularly for developing countries. At the same time, the upward trend in food prices in recent years has made agriculture an attractive sector for investment. As agricultural investments take place in developing countries, the need has emerged for globally agreed guidelines or principles to ensure investments in agriculture support sustainable development and are carried out in a responsible manner that does not impact negatively on people, their livelihoods and natural resources”(FAO 2013). This contribution intended to deepen and share these issues through the experience matured by the INEA Committee Food Security/Responsible Agricultural Investments - CFS/RAI.

 

 

Laura Fregolent

> Bio

Laura Fregolent (July 25th 1966), architect, PhD in "Sciences and Methods for the city and the territory of Europe", is Associate professor of Urban Planning at the Università Iuav di Venezia. Her researches studies are focused in two main areas: processes of sprawl and interactions between planning tools and principles of sustainable development; relationship between territorial transformations and social dynamics. In these two research fields she analyzes the structural characteristics of urban and territorial transformations and studied the possible uses of plans and policies in a sustainable way and how the use of land influenced the insurgence of social movements and the participation practices.

> Abstract

 Conflicts, landscape and renewable energies

The present contribution addresses the protests and conflicts in terms of landscape and renewable energy production in the Veneto region as well as in the national context. The contribution draws on the recent editing of the “dell'Atlante del malessere territoriale del Veneto”.

 

 

Matilde Carabellese

> Bio

Matilde Carabellese holds a II level University Master Degree in Euro-

Mediterranean Culture and Policies (2007) and a PhD in Development

Geography (2014) both from the University of Naples “l’Orientale”. For her

PhD thesis, she examined the phenomenon of “land grabbing”, focusing on

the expansion of genetically modified soy production into the Chaco Province

of Argentina. Her main research interests are in the fields of political and

environmental geography with particular attention to natural resource

governance, land issues, informal waste collectors and Romani politics.

She also works as an independent research consultant for non-profit

organisations (Occhio del Riciclone, Fondazione Frammartino) and private

companies (Think tank srl).

> Abstract

Land grab: the case of soya and Argentina

The contribution will present some reflections on the intensification of GMO

soy cultivation into the Chaco Province of Argentina, in the context of the

global land rush.

The growing production of the so-called “flex crops” (maize, oil palm,

soybean, and sugarcane), is considered one the main drivers of land grabbing.

Among these crops, soy became a strategic commodity, as a feedstock for

biodiesel and as the largest source of animal feed in the world. The European

livestock sector, for example, is highly dependent on the soy produced in

Latin America, especially from Argentina. The rapid land use changes caused

by the accelerating demand for land for soybean cultivation are particularly

evident in the northern Provinces of Argentina. Here, the expansion of soy

has many implications, leading to new forms of land control and land access,

but also provoking fraudulent sales of public lands, deforestation and

transformation of (supposedly) ‘marginal lands’

 

admission to the Seminar is free of charge, registration is required at: http://goo.gl/iDEU1p

a detailed programme of the seminar is enclosed.