Hands on the Land

What is it about?

“Hands on the Land” addressed the challenges of small scale food producers, their families and communities: limited, threatened and sometimes destroyed access and control over land, water, seeds and other natural resources. It launched a collective campaign, involving 16 partners: peasant and social movements, development and environmental NGOs, human rights organisations and research activists. It raised awareness on the use and governance of land, water and other natural resources and its impacts on food sovereignty. “Hands on the Land” produced evidence-based research and material. Its advocacy and education work included public events, meetings and trainings.

Find out more

What changes does this project inspire?

“Hands on the Land” had a signficant advocacy success: the European Parliament’s committee for agriculture launched its own special investigation and “initiative report” on small farmers’ access to land in the EU (in 2016): “State of play of farmland concentration in the EU: how to facilitate the access to land for farmers?”

This is was result of the project’s numerous meetings with Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from different political groups and countries, an effective lobby note and the project’s own report: ‘Land grabbing and human rights: the involvement of European corporate and financial entities in land grabbing outside the European Union’, which had been requested by the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights.