ACTION AID GUATEMALA

PLANTATIONS FOR AGRO FUELS
AND LOSS OF LANDS FOR THE PRODUCTION
OF FOOD IN GUATEMALA
Guatemala, August 2008.
RDC004573
Research and report: Laura Hurtado
Photographs: Laura Hurtado
Maps: Francisco Rodas
Plantations for agro fuels
and loss of lands for the production of food in Guatemala
ActionAid Guatemala
Guatemala, August 2008
2
RDC004574
Contents
Introduction/ 4
1. The expansion of plantations for the production of agro fuels/ 6
2. Concentration of the production of agro fuels in a few economic groups/ 10
3. The concentration of agrarian property/ 12
4. The case of the San Roman farm/ 14
5. The case of Fray Bartolomé Las Casas township/ 16
6. Plantations for agro fuels in the Polochic Valley/ 19
7. Methods used by agro-industrial entrepreneurs to get land/ 21
8. The State and international financial institutions that support plantations/ 22
9. The change in the use of land and loss of forests and biodiversity/ 24
10. The reduction of land for food production/ 26
Conclusions/ 28
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RDC004575
Introduction
The current food crisis has placed the issue of access to food at the core of world
concerns and discussions; and, as a result, the elemental right to food and life. Several
analysis have accurately stated that the current availability crisis and increased prices of
food are the result of multiple factors, among which the following can be highlighted: the
high price of oil and the consequent increases in energy-related costs, transportation,
fertilizers and other agricultural resources; the reduction in harvests in some countries
that export grains, which are now changing the use of their lands to the production of
agro fuels1; and the reduction of lands that used to be destined to the production of food
increasing those destined to the production of agricultural fuels; and the increased
demand for grains and food worldwide, triggered mainly due to the high consumption by
large population groups in the so-called “emerging” countries, such as Brazil, India and
China2. Food has become a commodity quoted in the stock exchange, and is the object of
national and international financial capital, which volatility is increased in the framework
of the climate change and the increasingly frequent “natural” disasters.
The issue of this investigation, in the case of Guatemala, is the loss of lands previously
destined to the production of food, due to the expansion of plantations destined for the
production of agro fuels, especially African palm and sugar cane. This loss of lands
destined to the production of food entails a considerable reduction in the national
production of basic grains and food, production that has been weakened systematically
due to the neo-liberal policies of past years. In the last decade, Guatemala, which used to
be a self-sufficient country in terms of food, has become a country that depends on the
importation of yellow corn, rice, wheat and soy from the United States, subject more and
more to the conditions of international food prices and dependant on availability of food
at international level3.
In addition to the loss of lands by a significant amount of peasant families, is, at the same
time the loss of remaining forests and degradation of diverse natural resources in those
areas, which contribute significantly to fulfil the basic needs of this population through
their integrated productive systems, beyond cultivated foods. In other words, the loss of
agricultural lands for the production of food occurs hand in hand with the change of the
use of the soil in large areas that, so far, were kept as forests and wetlands, providing the
local population with diverse renewable natural resources that constituted a part of their
total income.
In this investigation, we use the term “agro fuels”, selecting the option adopted by the
Social World Forum on Food Sovereignty (Mali, 2007), rejecting the association that the
term “bio fuels” attempts to do with life (“bio”) and the idea of the “sustainability” of the
1
Currently, the United States earmarks 10% of the world production of corn, for the production of ethanol.
See: Maluf, Renato S. Elevaçao nos preços dos alimentos e o sistema alimentar global. In: Observatory
of Public Policies for Agriculture. No. 18, April 2008. www.ufrrj.br/cpda
3
According to FAOSTAT data, from 1990 – 2005, the national production of wheat decreased 80.4 %;
beans’ production, 25.9 %; rice production, 22.7 % and corn production, 22.2 %.
2
4
RDC004576
processes associated to them. In our country, the setting up of mono-product plantations
for the production of agro fuels, far from contributing to the sustainability of the life of
Guatemalans and their natural resources, is becoming a new threat for the lives of
thousands of peasant families and communities, and for the food and nutritional security
of the Guatemalan population.
Agro-industrial companies focused on the production of bio diesel and ethanol have been
focusing their efforts for the past five years, in using “suitable” land – according to
technical criteria – for cultivating African palm and sugar cane. In their expansion
process, they are monopolizing lands that are property of large, medium and small
owners in important zones of the country. The production of ethanol from sugar cane
started in 1983. On the other hand, companies focused on cultivating and processing the
fruit of the African palm, are getting ready to start producing bio diesel at a large scale by
the end of 2008. The State and international financial entities, through their policies,
have facilitated and supported these purposes, without taking into account the
implications this modern occupation entails, not only in terms of the agrarian structure,
but also in regard to the population’s right to food, and the future possibilities for human
development in the country.
Upon addressing this issue, we have faced the lack of national statistics, maps, images
and updated data that show the results of these recent and current phenomena.
Nevertheless, based on available information, data from municipal authorities, interviews
to qualified stakeholders, recent investigations and first-hand information collected in the
field, we decided to perform this study with the objective of drawing the attention to this
phenomenon of great proportions and deep implications for the future of the country.
Despite the aforementioned limitations, we make some soundly-supported comparisons
and considerations, although still of an indicative character. We expect that specialized
institutions and entities assume the challenge of generating specific, updated information
as detailed as required, to derive from its analysis public policies that address such threats
and the food crisis already existing among us. As Renato Maluf, President of the
CONSEA4 of Brazil, states: “Several answers to the current crisis are possible, except
that of ignoring its seriousness and depth”.
4
National Council of Food and Nutritional Security of Brazil.
5
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1. The expansion of plantations for the production of agro fuels
National statistics still do not reflect the most significant phenomenon that is occurring in
the Guatemalan agro in the past five years. The unprecedented expansion of monoproduct plantations destined to the production of agricultural fuels, mainly African palm
and sugar cane, are changing at an accelerated pace the physiognomy of the Guatemalan
agricultural field5. Neither the IV Agricultural Census (NSI6, 2003) nor the last
published Agricultural Survey (NSI, 2007) reflect the dramatic change in the use of the
soil that has become evident since 2003 in the lower lands of the north, especially in the
municipalities of Ixcan (department of Quiche), Sayaxche and San Luis (Peten), Chisec,
Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, Chahal and Panzos (Alta Verapaz) and El Estor (Izabal)7.
The plantations of these products had been previously established in the southern coast of
the country, but since 2003, encouraged by the boom of the global market of agro fuels,
observing an accelerated expansion both in the southern coast and in new areas in the
northern region of the country.
5
Press sources have diffused the investments that some entrepreneurs, the Guatemalan government and the
government of the United States are making for setting up plantations of other agricultural products
destined to the production of agricultural fuels, such as pine nuts (Jatropa Curcas). The entrepreneur
Ricardo Asturias has already set up a pine nut nursery in 700 hectares, with an investment of 75 million
Quetzales, in order to establish, by 2009, a 50,000 hectare-plantation of this product. This same
entrepreneur is already producing now 3,000 gallons of bio diesel a day. The production of pine nuts could
extend to 200,000 hectares, through the association with small producers, articulated as a cluster for the
exportation of agricultural fuel to Mexico and the United States. USAID, through the Fundaserve
Foundation, and in alliance with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Livestock (MAGA for its name in
Spanish) will provide funding for this project, as well as setting up an oil and bio diesel processing plant.
Prensa Libre, July 14th, 2008.
6
National Statistics Institute
7
The IV Agricultural Census (NSI, 2003) highlights the departments of Escuintla, Izabal, Quetzaltenango,
San Marcos Suchitepequez and Retalhuleu, as those that concentrate more surface destined to the
production of African palm; and the departments of Escuintla, Suchitepequez, Santa Rosa and Retalhuleu
as the departments that concentrate more surface destined to the production of sugar cane. The 2007
Agricultural Survey does not document the phenomenon either, despite that it was already in place; nor
does it predict its development.
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Map 1. Municipalities where monocultures of African palm and sugar cane are being expanded.
According to the National Statistics Institute, until 2003, 49 large farmsteads were
dedicated to the production of African palm, with a total surface of 31,185 hectares8,
rendering a production of 7,040,225 quintals9, basically destined to the production of
essential oils and fats for the food and soap industry. The 2007 Agricultural Survey
established that the number of large farmsteads destined to this product had increased to
1,049 for that year and the surface cultivated with African palm had extended to 65,340
hectares10, which means that the latter has duplicated in just four years and the production
has increased 2.5 times. Calculations made by the author in June 2008, result in an
estimate of 83,385 hectares planted or in process of being planted with African palm,
destined to the production of bio diesel. Estimates published by mid July 2008, foresee
that by 2010 the area planted with African palm could reach 100,000 hectares.11
Graph 1. Area planted with African palm, in hectares.
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
2003
2007
2008
2010
Source: Elaborated by the author.
8
The IV Agricultural Census reports 44,358 manzanas (1 manzana = 1.43115 hectares), equivalent to 693
caballerías (1 caballería = 95 acres).
9
1 quintal = 46 kilograms or 100 pounds
10
Equivalent to 92,947 manzanas or 1,452 caballerías.
11
el Periódico, July 15th, 2008.
7
RDC004579
On the other hand, the sugar cane production, traditionally concentrated in the southern
coast, is also showing a considerable expansion, both in terms of an increase in the
Guatemalan sugar quota as a supplier of the United States12, as well as for the growing
demand of ethanol in the international market. In 2003, the national production of sugar
cane comprised a total extension of 188,775 hectares13. The department of Escuintla
alone, concentrated 87% of the production, with a total of 154,620 hectares, followed by
Suchitepequez with 8.25% of the production and a planted extension of 20,970 hectares.
In 2003, these two departments concentrated over 95% of the national production. By
2007, the Agricultural Survey estimated that the sugar cane production had increased by
1.55%, increasing, at national level, the surface destined to this product to 260,896
hectares, which means that in these same four years, sugar cane producers included
72,000 hectares more for the production of this product. The production of ethanol from
sugar cane in 2006 was of 49 million litres, taking the 19th place in the production of
ethanol at world level14.
Graph 2. Area planted with sugar cane, in hectares.
300,000
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0
2003
2007
2008
Source: Elaborated by the author.
The following Table 1 summarizes available15 information and estimates of the author
made as of June 2008, of the surface planted with African palm and sugar cane between
2003-2008.
12
Guatemala is the third supplier of sugar for the United States, following the Dominican Republic and
Brazil.
13
Equivalent to 268,508 manzanas. or 4,195 caballerías.
14
REBRIP. Agrocombustíveis e a agricultura familiar e camponesa. Subsídios ao debate. Rio de Janeiro,
2008.
15
NSI. 2003 Agricultural Census, 2007 Agricultural Survey
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RDC004580
Table 1. Surface cultivated with African palm and sugar cane, 2003-2008
Total cultivated area per product (in manzanas)
African palm
Sugar cane
2003 Agricultural Census
44,358
268,508
2007 Agricultural Survey
92,947
370,926
Additional area in the Polochic valley
1,422
7,680
2007 (1)
Additional area in Izabal
n.d.
n.d.
Additional area in Fray Bartolomé (3)
3,555
n.d.
Additional area in Ixcán (4)
5,688
n.d.
Additional area in Sayaxché (5)
14,976
5,000
Estimated Total as of 2008
118,588
383,606
Estimated total as of 2008, expressed in
1,853
5,994
cab.
(1) Information from INDESA and IUSI Office in Panzós.
(2) Information from PADESA and IUSI Office in Fray Bartolomé Las Casas.
(3) Information from Palmas del Ixcán, El Periódico July 1st, 2008.
(4) Estimated information based on a tour and field interviews.
On February 2007, after having practically concluded the occupation of the Polochic
valley in the department of Alta Verapaz, by the owners of the “Chabil Utzaj”, S.A.
Sugar Refinery, the sugar sector seemed to be reaching its limit. On that date, Armando
Boesche, the CEO of the Association of Sugar Producers of Guatemala, stated to the
press that there was no more available land. Nevertheless, a subsequent additional
expansion has been observed also in the municipalities of Sayaxché and Ixcán, and the
possibility of setting up sugar cane plantations in the municipality of Fray Bartolomé Las
Casas.
On the other hand, agro-industrial entrepreneurs dedicated to the cultivation of African
palm in 2007, were confident of their fast growth, realising the possibility of still
expanding to lands, big or small, owned by private persons in the lower lands in the
north. Eduardo Castillo, director of oils of the Professional Association of Food
Manufacturers, declared to the press: “We still have not found a limit of lands to plant
African palm; nevertheless, we could still reach that extreme in approximately ten
years”16.
Thus, we are witnessing the accelerated occupation by agro-industrial entrepreneurs
dedicated to the production of agro fuels, of lands suitable for its production, in detriment
of significant extensions of land that used to be destined to peasants’ production, to the
production of food in general and remaining forests. This expansion of plantations is
representing, in terms of the agrarian structure of the country, the vertiginous progress in
the process of concentration and re-concentration of agrarian property, processes
diametrically opposed to the spirit and wording of the Accord on Socio-economic
Aspects and Agrarian Situation, subscribed within the framework of the Peace Accords in
199617, aimed at the democratization of tenancy of land and favouring peasants’ access to
land and natural resources.
16
17
el Períodico, July 13th, 2008.
The Accord on Socio-economic Aspects and the Agrarian Situation
9
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2. Concentration of the production of agro fuels in a few economic groups
The production and processing, both of the African palm and sugar cane, are highly
concentrated in very few companies and corporations (see Table 2). The cultivation of
African palm is concentrated mainly in six great producers, which have plantations in
expansion and plants for processing essential oils and edible fats. Until recently, the
production of African palm was destined only for the production of essential oils and fats
for the food industry, both for the national market, and mainly for exporting it to El
Salvador and the United States. It is after the boom of agro fuels in the global market,
within the framework of the energy crisis, that the entrepreneurs of this sector prepared to
expand their plantations and set up and start operating bio diesel processing plants.
Table 2. Main producers of African palm
Company or
agricultural
entrepreneur
Group HAME/
REPSA
Hugo Armando Molina
Espinoza
INDESA/ PADESA
Juan Maegli
AGROCARIBE/
Extractora del
Atlántico
Torrebiarte Group and
Arriola Fuxet
Palmas del Ixcán
Geographic location of their
plantations
Escuintla
Coatepeque (Quetzaltenango),
Ocós (San Marcos),
Sayaxché (Petén)
El Estor (Izabal), Panzós, Chisec,
Fray Bartolomé Las Casas and
Chahal (Alta Verapaz)
Finca Berlín, Morales (Izabal)
Acapetahua, Acacoyagua,
Mazatán, Mapastepec and Villa
Comaltitlán, in the region of
Soconusco and Chiapas (Mexico)
Ixcán (Quiché), Rubelsanto and
Playitas, Chisec; y Lachúa, Cobán
(Alta Verapaz)
Commercial
brand of
edible oil
Alliances at national,
Central or Latin
American level and transnational corporations
Olmeca
Capullo
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Kong Group
Sayaxché (Petén)
Agroforestadora
Raudales “La
Cachimba”
Beltranena Orive
Pineda Rossell
Campollo
Source: Inforpress Central America and el Periódico.
Ideal
•
•
•
Unilever, El Salvador
Ignacio González,
Costa Rica
Propalma, Mexico
Green Earth Fuel
Palmas del Ixcán
Green Earth Fuel
Carlyle Group,
Riverstone Holdings
& Goldman Sachs
AGROCARIBE
Private Natural
Reserves in Ixcán
Colombian producer
Agrobosques
Cementos Progreso
On the other hand, the sugar cane industry is concentrated in fifteen sugar refineries,
some of which have, in turn, concentrated in larger corporations that extend their radio of
operations to other productive sectors and geographically to Central and South America.
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The main sugar refinery at national level is “Pantaleón”, which has been implementing an
ongoing process not only of expansion but also of concentration within the same sector.
In 1984, it assumed the management and control of the operations of the “Concepcion”
Sugar Refinery. In 1988, it acquired the “Monte Rosa” sugar refinery, the second most
important in Nicaragua, enabling it to position as one of the most important in Central
America. In the year 2000, these three companies (Monte Rosa-Concepción-Pantaleón)
integrated as subsidiaries of the corporation known as Pantaleón Sugar Holdings,
absorbing “El Baúl” sugar refinery afterwards, as well as the production of “Tierra
Buena”. In 2005, this same corporation made an alliance with the Manuelita Group from
Colombia and UNIALCO from Brazil, to build a plant for producing sugar and
processing ethanol in Vale do Pará, Brasil18.
Table 3. Guatemalan Sugar Refineries
Ingenio
Location (municipality, department)
Pantaleón*
Concepción
El Baúl
Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla
Escuintla
Magdalena*
Santa Ana
Palo Gordo*
Escuintla
Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla
San Antonio, Suchitepéquez
Los Tarros
La Unión
Madre Tierra
Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla
Santa Lucía Cotzumalguapa, Escuintla
Mazatenango, Suchitepéquez
San Diego
Trinidad
Guadalupe
Chabil Utzaj
Escuintla
Escuintla
Escuintla
(in construction)
Panzós and La Tinta, Alta Verapaz
El Estor, Izabal
Retalhuleu
El Pilar
Owners /
corporation
Pantaleón Sugar
Holdings
Alliances at Central and
South American level
• Monte Rosa sugar
refinery, Nicaragua
• Manuelita Group,
Colombia
• UNICALCO, Vale do
Pará, Brasil
Leal
Botrán
De la Hoz,
Bonifasi,
Abascal
Aparicio Bros.
Campollo
Codina
Fraterno Vila
Widmann**
Campollo
Weissemberg
Santa Teresa
Villa Canales, Guatemala
Escamilla
La Sonrisa
Cuilapa, Santa Rosa
Pivaral
Source: ASAZGUA, el Periódico and Business Strategy Magazine.
(*) Ethanol producers and exporters.
(**) The Widmann Group is also a shareholder of the Madre Tierra and Concepción sugar refineries.
18
Strategy & Business. Guatemala, 2007.
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3. The concentration of agrarian property
Linked to the expansion of these plantations of mono-products for agro fuels, the
processes of concentration, as well as re-concentration of agrarian property occurs, are
worsening the issue of access to land for peasants, either in property or in leasing19.
The process of concentration of agrarian property refers to the concentration of
peasant parcels and/or small and medium agricultural workers and stockbreeders, in
larger lands destined to setting up mono-product plantations.
This model of
monopolization of land is mainly observed in the municipalities of Ixcán, Chisec, Fray
Bartolomé de Las Casas and Sayaxché. In these municipalities, palm companies are
buying land from individual owners and communities, which members are co-owners in
pro indiviso. Most of these small owners are peasant families who had access to land
within the framework of Colonization Programs promoted by the Guatemalan State in the
60s and the 70s; or groups of families who were displaced due to the repression and
violence that prevailed during the internal armed conflict. All these owners were able to
regularize the tenancy of their land and received property deeds after the signing of the
Firm and Long-Lasting Peace in 1996.
On the other hand, the process of reconcentration of agrarian property refers to the
concentration of old estates, extensive in themselves, into even larger properties. These
are large farmsteads that were created through a long historical process of private
appropriation, which are currently being purchased by agro-industrial entrepreneurs with
national and trans-national capital, for expanding their plantations. This process takes
place, for example, in the valley of the Polochic River, in the municipalities of La Tinta
and Panzós (Alta Verapaz) and El Estor (Izabal), where the “Chabil Utzaj” S.A. sugar
refinery has purchased almost all of the old farms, with variable extensions from two to
30 caballerías (between 90 to 1,350 hectares), to set up sugar cane plantations in them20.
This sugar refinery expected to concentrate 5,400 hectares in this region alone. Likewise,
the African palm producers are re-concentrating large livestock estates and private
unproductive lands in the municipalities of Chisec, Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas and
Chahal, in the Franja Transversal del Norte (Northern Transversal Strip).
Agro-industrial entrepreneurs seek, first, to acquire privately owned lands to ensure
optimum conditions for their investment. Nevertheless, when land owners refuse to sell,
leasing contracts are entered into, under variable conditions. Through these contracts,
agro-industrial entrepreneurs ensure dominion over the land for long periods of time,
which coincide with the life span of the plantation. Thus, for example, in the case of the
African palm, leasing contracts are signed for 25 years, period that coincides with the life
span of the plant, and the costs of an eventual breach of contract are so burdensome for
land owners that it could translate into the loss of lands by small owners.
19
Hurtado, Laura. Dinámicas agrarias y reproducción campesina en la globalización (Agrarian Dynamics
and Peasant Reproduction in Globalization). Guatemala, F&G Editors, 2008. To be printed.
20
This process, in the case of the Polochic Valley, has been documented in detail by Hurtado, L. 2008. Op.
Cit.
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The models and mechanisms implemented by agro-industrial entrepreneurs for
purchasing land in the process of concentration and re-concentration of agrarian property
are diverse and have a significant impact both in the perception of peasants who used to
own land, and its immediate economic impact. The following examples show differences
observed in this regard, among different regions of expansion of plantations for agro
fuels.
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4. The case of the San Román farm
One dramatic case of concentration of agrarian property in the hands of agro-industrial
entrepreneurs dedicated to planting African palm, is the case of the San Román farm,
located at the south western end of the municipality of Sayaxché, in the department of
Petén. This farm, with an extension of approximately 90,000 hectares, was occupied
during the internal armed conflict by Q’eqchi’ populations from different locations in the
department of Alta Verapaz. Many of the first settlers were survivors of the Panzós
Massacre, that took place on May 1978, who fled in order to save their lives. Others
joined them at different times, being forced by the repression and violence conditions, or
seeking a piece of land to survive. In 1983, the farm was awarded to the Ministry of
National Defence, through Government Agreement 91-83. In 1995, due to the
biodiversity that it sheltered in some of its areas, it was declared a Biological Reserve
through Decree 64-95 of the Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, locating at the
centre of this same zone, the core zone under the management category of “Wildlife
Refuge”21.
Through the years, 34 communities settled there, out of which 14 were acknowledged as
internally displaced persons due to the internal armed conflict, and they started
performing the proceedings required for legalizing awarded lands, through the National
Council of Displaced Persons of Guatemala (CONDEG for its name in Spanish). The first
step for file their lawsuit was to demand the de-ascribing of the farm from the Ministry of
Defence, which was achieved on December 1998. After long and intense advocacy
efforts developed by the interested communities and the CONDEG, through
Governmental Agreement 880-98, the San Román farm returned to the national
patrimony, while most of its extension was to be managed by the National Institute for
Agrarian Transformation (INTA for its name in Spanish). Four polygons (Pozo Uno,
Pozo Dos, Caribe Rubeltzul and Las Pozas), with a total extension of approximately six
caballerías22, were ascribed once again to the Ministry of Defence.
Returned as a national farm, in 1999, the San Román farm was transferred to the Fund for
Lands, an entity that substituted the INTA after the signing of the Peace. This entity
started working to regularize lands located in the Buffer Zone in favour of peasant
communities, for which it received significant funding from the Inter American Bank for
Development through the Proselva23 project. The latter subcontracted the private
21
The category of “Wildlife Refuge” is included within the Type III Category defined by Governmental
Agreement 759-90 or Regulations of the Law for Protected Areas: “These are relatively large areas,
generally covered by forests. They may contain zones fit for the sustainable production of forestales
products, water, forraje, wild flora and fauna, without affecting negatively and permanently the diverse
eco-systems within the area. These are areas that might have been altered by human intervention, but still
maintain a good portion of natural landscape.”
22
One caballería = 95 acres.
23
The Proselva Project was implemented from 1999 through 2001, with a budget of USD 1,209,080
financed by the IBD. It entailed the regularization of land for a total of 4,500 families settled in the
Protected Areas in the South of Petén and the sustainable management of the buffer zones in those areas.
Check: www.catie.ac.cr and Roger Hamilton, Gente en Petén: Una fórmula para preservar la paz y el
14
RDC004586
company Albora, S.A. to perform technical measurement and deed recording tasks. At
the end of the process in 2001, the Fund for Lands had delivered individual (family)
deeds to 2,113 beneficiary families. Only three (3) communities had to be relocated
outside of the core zone of the protected area, mobilization that was performed with the
accompaniment of CONDEG. On the other hand, the Interamerican Institute for
Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) invested a considerable amount of resources for
carrying out several studies aimed at providing technical assistance to the new owners, to
make their productive processes feasible, but these were just proposals in writing that did
not translate into action.
Immediately after delivering the first deeds to the owners, an intense purchase-sale of
parcels started. It was reported then to the Fund for Lands that the purchasers were
present at the events where deeds were delivered to the beneficiaries, to offer them
money in exchange for the deeds of their parcels. The lack of fulfilment of commitments
set forth not only in the Peace Accords but also in the Law of the Fund for Lands, which
had to accompany the regularization phase of tenancy of land, plunged the new owners
into abandonment and, in many cases, contributed to their decision to sell the land. This
process was also encouraged by the disposition of releasing the State tutelage over
awarded lands, disposition that was included in the content of the Law for the Fund for
Lands, promoted by the World Bank24, and due to the individual (family) manner in
which deeds for lands were formulated. It is estimated that, as of June 2008, 60% of the
farms had been concentrated by the African palm entrepreneurs.
ecosistema (People in Petén: A Formula for Preserving the Peace and the Ecosystem). IBD America.
www.iadb.org/idbamerica/archives.
24
This disposition referred to the prohibition of selling awarded lands for a period of 10 years, which was
enforced until 1962, through the Law of the Institute for Agrarian Transformation or Decree 1551, and was
suppressed by the Law of the Fund for Lands in 1999.
15
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5. The case of Fray Bartolomé Las Casas township
The company Palmas del Polochic/INDESA, which was already dedicated to the
production of essential oils and edible fats through the company Grasas y Aceites S.A.
(GRASA), and had a processing plant in Escuintla under the commercial brand of
“Capullo”, concluded its expansion in the municipalities of El Estor and Panzós, until it
reached 6,000 hectares. In 2006, it planned the expansion of its plantations and setting up
a new processing plant in the municipality of Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, in the northern
area of the department of Alta Verapaz. Technical studies showed that the Fray
Bartolomé Las Casas township was the suitable place for setting up the plantation,
according to its climate, geographic characteristics and soil composition. In addition,
they considered the fact that the highway that connects the municipality with the Santo
Tomás de Castilla Port in the Atlantic coast would soon be paved, and the existence of
basic infrastructure, which made it advisable to set up the processing plant in that
location.
After classifying the lands within the township as suitable and not suitable for cultivating
African plan, with the support of one of the original parcel owners, the company
summoned the parcel owners to propose the purchase of their parcels. This would be the
preferential option of the company. Since some of the parcel owners refused to sell their
land, the company is now offering the alternative of leasing the land for 25 years,
implementing three different models, which are still enforced (see table 4). Most of the
owners of parcels of half or one caballería (22.5 to 45 hectares) have invariably preferred
the first option, which represents a fixed annual income of Q.27,806.63 and Q.21,049.88
for the owners of parcels of half a caballería and around Q.55,613.25 and Q.42,099.75 to
the owners of parcels of one caballería, income that is –for now- higher or equal to the
average income resulting from their production, which represents an appealing immediate
income, despite future risks due to the loss of purchasing power, increased prices, and the
degradation of the soil by the end of the leasing period.
16
RDC004588
Table 4. Land leasing options offered by PADESA
in Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, 2008 (figures in USD)
Option
Term of the
lease
Option 1
25 years
Option 2
25 years
Option 3
25 years
Annual
amount per
hectare
(phase 1)
150
(fixed
amount)
125
(years 1-5)
150
(years 1-3)
+ bonus
Annual
amount per
hectare
(phase 2)
Amount per
hectare
phase 3)
Total annual
amount per
45-hectare
parcel
-
-
6,750
150
(years 6-10)
175
(years 1125)
-
5,625
6,750
7,875
125
(years 4-25)
+ bonus +
additional
amount for
productivity
and average
price
Total amount
by the end of
the period,
45-hectare
parcel
168,750
180,000
variable
Source: PADESA, 2008.
The lack of juridical certainty on some of these parcels has not hindered the sale-purchase
process. During the time it takes to regularize the parcel the company intends to
purchase, it signs a “sale-purchase commitment” with the land owner. The company
makes an advance payment of Q.25,000 to the parcel owner and he/she commits, on his
part, to ensure that the parcel will be duly registered under his/her name in three years. In
case of nonfeasance, the parcel owner shall reimburse the palm company twice as much
as the deposit he/she received. Usually, the risks for the company are related to the lack
of interest or nonfeasance of the owner in completing all the documents required by the
Fund for Lands to regularize the parcel. Nevertheless, the company states that the highest
latent risk could come from the political collapse of FONTIERRAS25.
As of June 2008, the company PADESA had already achieved its goal for the year with
2,500 negotiated hectares and in process of planting in Chisec, Fray Bartolomé Las Casas
and Chahal. As of that date, it had a total of 6% of suitable lands acquired through
purchase, 52% had been leased by its owners and the remaining 42% were in process of
planting by the owners as independent producers, under an agreement to deliver the
product to the processing plant of PADESA. To ensure adequate yield and product
quality in the last case, the company provides technical assistance and a technological
package to independent producers. (See Map 2).
25
The Fund for Lands has been reducing activities and overall investment. The Sub-directorate of Access
to Land suppressed the component of purchase of lands in a collective manner in 2008, replacing it with
the Land Leasing Program.
17
RDC004589
Map 2. Fray Bartolomé Las Casas Township and plantations of Chisec and Chahal.
Progress in sale-purchase and leasing for African palm plantations, as of June 200826
On May 2007, the nursery of the company was set up in the Yalcobé farm, hiring mainly
women from neighbouring villages and the municipal capital of Fray Bartolomé Las
Casas. Plants are distributed from this nursery to the plantations owned by PADESA, as
well as to farms of independent producers who have signed an agreement with the
company. In order to sell or lease farms, farm owners have carried out evictions to
former tenant farmers who used to work for the farm. As of June 2008, the former owner
of the Yalcobé farm had foreseen to evict eight families of former tenant farmers who
were still in the farm.
26
Tierras NO APTAS PARA PALMA (descartadas) – Lands NOT SUITABLE FOR PALM (discarded);
Tierras APTAS PARA PALMA con propietarios indecisos o problemas para arrendar o comprar – Lands
SUITABLE FOR PALM with undecided owners or problems for leasing or parchase; Tierras APTAS
PARA PALMA arrendadas por PADESA o de siembra de terceros – Lands SUITABLE FOR PALM leased
by PADESA or planted by third parties; Tierras APTAS PARA PALMA propiedad de PADESA – Lands
SUITABLE FOR PALM owned by PADESA.
18
RDC004590
6. Plantations for agro fuels in the Polochic Valley
The re-concentration of land for planting sugar cane and African palm in the valley of the
Polochic River, in the municipalities of La Tinta and Panzós, Alta Verapaz, has been
documented, not only by the press, but also by recent academic studies27. Farm owners
in this zone, like the ones in Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, have started to “reorganise” their
farms before selling them to agro-industrial companies (“Chabil Utzaj” S.A. Sugar
Refinery and Palmas de Desarrollo S.A., PADESA). In most of the cases, the reconcentration process has entailed the eviction of former tenant farmers from those lands
and the suppression of important areas previously destined to the production of basic
grains and food in general, either produced by peasants within the farm, which was for
internal purposes. In many cases, former tenant farmers have negotiated small extensions
of land in return for payment of fringe benefits and adequate wages by farm owners. But
many other peasants who used to lease parcels for the cultivation of their basic grains,
will not be able to do so anymore. Map 2 illustrates progress of sugar cane and African
palm plantations in the valley as of June 2007. As of 2008, the occupation of the valley
with these mono-products has been completed.
27
El periódico and Hurtado, Laura. Op. Cit. 2008.
19
RDC004591
Map 3. Re-concentration of agrarian property in the Polochic Valley,
for sugar cane and African palm plantation
Source: From Hurtado, L., 2008.
Lago de Izabal – Izabal Lake; Reserva de biosfera Sierra de las Minas – Sierra de las Minas
Biosphere Reserve; Lugares poblados – Populated locations; Límite departamental – Department
Limit; Carretera asfaltada – Paved Highway; Carretera de terracería – Dirt road; Río Polochic –
Polochic River; Cultivo de caña de azúcar – Cultivation of sugar cane; Cultivo palma africana –
Cultivation of African palm; Reserva de vida silvestre Bocas del Polochic – Wildlife Reserve
Bocas del Polochic.
20
RDC004592
7. Methods used by agro-industrial entrepreneurs to get land
The methods used by producers of African palm and sugar canes to acquire and
concentrate land vary.
In Petén, purchasing entrepreneurs have implemented
mechanisms that range from the offering of immediate money at prices higher than the
local price of land, to threats, coercion, and violence. The usual appearance of buyers has
been one of armed persons who drive crew cab pick-ups. Moreover, the gradual purchase
of parcels has been quite frequent, in an enfolding process, closing access paths and
access to water sources for peasants, until they are able to surround the owner who is not
willing to sell, to “choke” him and force him/her to sell his/her land.
In Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, the sale and purchase takes place in a different manner.
The company producing African palm has sought to persuade small owners through a
native parcel owner with an influence over them. In case owners do not agree to the sale,
the entrepreneur offers different leasing options. In all of the cases, the price paid by the
company – both in the case of purchase and leasing – is immediately appealing for some
peasants. Up to now, the consequences of total dependence of peasants and inhabitants in
job offers and income are not evident to them: the loss of currency value, increased
prices of basic foodstuff, nor the degradation conditions of the soil upon the termination
of the contract. It should also be highlighted that the total annual income for a peasant
family is made up by the result of all of its economic activities: agricultural, livestock,
handcrafts, trade and extraction.
In the valley of the Polochic River, agro-industrial entrepreneurs purchase land from
large estate farmers, the latter are those who are in charge of evicting former tenant
farmers or redefining the terms of their relation disguising them as fringe benefits and/or
transferring small extensions of marginal land to the large farms.
Some initiatives of conversations among agro-industrial entrepreneurs of palm have
occurred in relation to the growing demand for land and the variations of its price in the
regions. Land purchasers in the department of Petén are a little more reluctant to this
approach, which coincides with the more aggressive and violent methods used to force
the purchase. It is also evident that a certain “informal” distribution of the territory
among the companies dedicated to cultivation of African palm, has taken place. Thus,
for example, the Santa Isabel River would be “the limit” between the companies HAME
and PADESA. The latter is making progress, on its part, in alliance with individual
producers, towards lands located in the municipalities of Chahal and Chisec, while the
trans-national Green Earth Fuel would do so from the municipality of Coban towards
Ixcán.
21
RDC004593
8. The State and international financial institutions that support plantations
As other investigations28 have shown, the process of regularization of tenancy of land
undertaken by the Fund for Lands in the lower lands of the north, has favoured and
accelerated the sale-purchase of recently regularized parcels (See Map 4). The Law of
the Fund for Lands, formulated according to the guidelines of the World Bank that
expressly sought to “create and/or make the land market more dynamic”, eliminated the
dispositions related to the 10-year tutelage of the State on the lands delivered to families
and peasants’ groups. At the beginning of the process of purchase of the land, farm
owners and agricultural entrepreneurs would attend the events where deeds were
delivered by the agrarian entity, to approach the new owners and convince them to sell
their parcels. In the cases where the purchase is made over the rights within a coownership (lands registered in favour of a group of families integrated in communities),
usually when making the transfer of rights and registering it in the General Real Estate
Registry, the proceedings for releasing tutelage have not been completed pursuant to the
legal procedures29.
At the present time, due to the increased demand for lands, entrepreneurs have hired
specific staff to carry out the proceedings for the regularization of the parcels that are of
interest to them, before the Fund for Lands. The efficiency and promptness with which
State entities have responded to the demand of the entrepreneurs, have no comparison
with the response they gave to peasants’ demands in more than three decades. It should
be highlighted that most of the land owners that are being regularized were not able to get
property deeds for over 30 years. After the signing of Peace in 1996, the process
implemented by the Fund for Lands and several non-governmental organizations that
accompanied and supported demanding communities, lasted an average of two and a half
years until getting deeds for the land, in favour of beneficiaries. The duration of
proceedings that are currently carried out by palm producers is of six months (See Table
5). The staff in charge of this function within the company used to work for
FONTIERRAS, and accompanied entrepreneurs in their first visits to the area. At the
beginning of 2008, in order to speed up the process even further, the manager of
FONTIERRAS ordered the staff of this entity to prioritize parcels being negotiated by said
company30.
In other words, the agrarian entity of the State knows the dynamic that has been imposed
in the areas where the program for regularization of land tenancy has been implemented;
not implying that it has adopted policies that enable peasants who benefit from this
program to keep their lands and make them productive. On the contrary, they have made
the process even easier for agro-industrial companies to perform the purchase-sale
transactions in the least time possible. In addition, it has exonerated the company from
performing the Survey on Capacity and Use of Land (ECUT for its name in Spanish), one
of the previous requirements for awarding lands. Coincidentally, Fray Bartolomé Las
28
Hurtado, Laura. Op. Cit. 2008
Juridical Department of the Fund for Lands.
30
Interviews held in June 2008.
29
22
RDC004594
Casas has been declared a “Municipality in Cadastral Process”, which entails the
concentration of staff, technical personnel and financial investment in the Office of the
Registry of Cadastral Information in that municipality, facilitating the localization,
location and regularization of lots that are of interest for the palm company.
Table 5. Steps in the proceedings for regularization of lands in Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, 2008
Legal step
Location and application
Performing studies
Pre-requisites
Stock of documents to
make up the file
Application Letter
Real and physical
Socio-economical
Capacity and Use of
Land (ECUT for its
name in Spanish)
Who performs it
PADESA or individual
owner
FONTIERRAS
FONTIERRAS
Exonerated
Elaboration and registry
FONTIERRAS
of deeds
Registering in the
FONTIERRAS
GRER
Average time for
proceedings
Source: FONTIERRAS, Fray Bartolomé Las Casas, June 2008.
Time
3 months
1.5 months
1.5-2 months
6 months
Map 4. Area of regularization of land and potential land for palm plantation.
23
RDC004595
9. The change in the use of land and loss of forests and biodiversity
During the tours performed throughout the areas where plantations for agro fuels are
being established, the drastic change in the use of soil is evident. As a result of the
expansion of mono-products, companies are eliminating the remaining forests, moving
land, turning away rivers, have drained and dried up swamps, lagoons and other water
sources in these zones. These alterations represent a higher fragmentation or else the total
elimination of eco-systems and the loss of biodiversity in those areas. Satellite images
from March 2004 – year in which the highest number of fires in the protected areas and
the natural patrimony in the department of Petén occurred -, the CEMEC (for its name in
Spanish) highlighted that the main source of heat came from the burning at ground level
performed in the south of the department to set up African palm plantations.
Nevertheless, neither the Environment Ministry (MENR) nor the National Council on
Protected Areas (CONAP) have demanded agro-industrial companies to carry out
environmental impact studies nor to request permits for changing the use of the soil31.
Despite the lack of updated information and images, map 5 elaborated as an example,
superimposing forest coverage reported in 2006 (UVG) over the San Román farm in
Sayaxché, where 60% of land is destined to African palm, enables observing the loss of
forest coverage, and thus, loss of biodiversity.
31
For the case of the valley of the Polochic River, the Nature Defenders’ Foundation (Fundación
Defensores de la Naturaleza), environmental entity co-managing the Sierra de las Minas and the Wildlife
Reserve called Bocas del Polochic. In the case of African palm plantations in the northern lands, the
regional office of the National Forest Institute (INAB for its name in Spanish) was consulted, and they
stated that they are only processing one request for the change of use in the municipality of Cobàn. As of
June 2008, the company PADESA had not negotiated any license for changing the use of the soil.
24
RDC004596
Map 5. Finca San Román. Areas foremerly destined to production of food
and remaining forests being lost by palm plantation
25
RDC004597
10. The reduction of land for food production
The extension of mono-product plantations for the production of agro fuels entails, in
addition to the loss of forest coverage, fragmentation of eco-systems and loss of
biodiversity, a considerable loss of the area previously destined to food production.
In the areas where agro-industrial companies purchase land that has been recently
regularized by the Fund for Lands, either through acquisition or leasing, the loss of lands
for the production of food occurs due to the loss of lands by small and medium
agricultural owners, who will stop producing their family sustenance, as well as different
products destined for the internal market. These small and medium owners have
generally leased fractions of their parcels to other peasant families who have no land, or
without enough land for the production of basic grains. Thus, upon accounting for the
loss of areas destined to the peasants’ production of food, it will also be necessary to
account for a sector of peasants who lease land in parcels from other small and medium
owners. Upon losing their land, these peasant families lose, simultaneously, the access to
other resources from the forest, such as firewood, timber-yielding and non timberyielding products, cynegetic species, medicinal plants, and other resources they drew on
within their parcels, according to their particular productive systems.
When agro-industrial entrepreneurs acquire old large estates or pre-existing farms, either
through sale-purchase or leasing or other models of integration into productive chains,
the loss of areas for the production of foods occurs in a two-fold manner. On one hand,
most of these farms used to destine a variable area for the production of basic grains
(rice, sorghum, corn and beans), dairy products and meat for the internal market, as used
to occur in the farms in the valley of the Polochic River or in some farms of the northern
transversal strip. But, on the other hand, in order to negotiate the farms, their owners
have had to end labour relations with their workers (former tenant farmers), most of the
times forcing them to evict the farm, without having the possibility of access to a small
parcel for their self-consumption production, as they used to do so in the farm. Even in
the cases in which former tenant farmers manage to keep one or two manzanas32 as
payment of fringe benefits by the owner of the farm, a higher significant number of
peasants that used to go to farm and lease similar extensions of land for their selfconsumption production will no longer be able to have that possibility.
Thus, a double loss of food production occurs: the suppression of farms’ production
destined to the internal market and the loss of land destined to peasants’ production,
where the latter, at the same time, face an impoverishment situation, upon having to
uproot from their usual place of residence, to re-locate in a more precarious manner, in a
different place.
32
One manzana equals 1.43115 hectares.
26
RDC004598
Map 6. ParcelamientoFray Bartolomé Las Casas. Areas foremerly destined to production of food
and remaining forests being lost by palm plantation
27
RDC004599
Conclusions
1.
The production of bio diesel and ethanol from the cultivation of African palm
and sugar cane, promoted by the increased worldwide demand for agro fuels, is
monopolizing lands in Guatemala at an accelerated process of concentration and
re-concentration of agrarian property, contrary to the spirit and wording of the
Peace Accords, signed on December 1996. Through the Accord on Socioeconomic Aspects and the Agrarian Situation, the Guatemalan state committed to
promoting democratization of tenancy of land and access to land by peasants.
2.
The process of acquisition of lands by agro-industrial entrepreneurs for the
production of agro fuels, is verified not only through the process of
concentration, but also through the process of re-concentration of agrarian
property. The first refers to the concentration of small and medium properties,
mainly owned by peasant families, in larger estates. Re-concentration refers to
unifying farms that already were extensive large estates in the past, into even
larger estates, never seen before in the country.
3.
The expansion of mono-products for the production of agro fuels takes place
hand in hand with the loss of areas for food production. This loss of lands that
used to be destined to food production occurs not only through the sale of parcels
by peasant families, but also through the sale of old farms (large estates) that
used to be destined – totally or partially – to the production of foods for the
internal market (corn, sorghum, rice, meat, dairy products, among others).
4.
After selling their land, peasant families start depending absolutely on monetary
income. This change in their economies entails serious consequences for their
food and nutritional security, since, in the past, their income was integrated by
the sum of the product of a series of economic activities carried out in the parcel:
agricultural, livestock, handcrafts, trade and extraction.
5.
The owners of parcels in areas impacted by the expansion of plantations of
African palm, especially in the department of Petén and the northern transversal
strip, generally lease variable extensions of land to other peasant families living
in the region, who do not own land, who do not own enough land, or which, due
to the characteristics or location of the land, does not enable them to have two
harvests per year. These leased lands are no longer available. This implies that
the population who does not have access to land, after the sale of peasant parcels,
is not exclusively reduced to owners who have sold their land, but it also
includes those who stop having access to land through leasing. The same
situation occurs in those cases in which farms used to lease small parcels to
peasants from neighbouring communities and their own tenant farmers.
28
RDC004600
6.
The expansion of mono-products is translating, simultaneously, into the change
in the use of the soil in large extensions of land, the elimination of remaining
forests, movement of land, drying up water sources and wetlands, with the
subsequent fragmentation or elimination of ecosystems and loss of biodiversity.
7.
For now, the economic impacts of the expansion of mono-products are perceived
in a differentiated manner by peasants who are losing access to land. Unlike the
sale of land, the leasing of land –for now- represents a monetary extraordinary
and immediate income that is perceived as long-lasting. Nevertheless, the
consequences of dependence on this income, throughout time, will be felt in
terms of: increase in the prices of basic products, loss of purchasing power,
degradation of soil and water sources, loss of access to other natural resources,
the offer of local employment, salaries and labour conditions.
8.
The role played by the State in this process of commoditisation and
concentration of agrarian property in the hands of agro-industrial entrepreneurs,
on one hand; and the loss of access to land by peasants, supported by policies
and financing from international financial entities, has facilitated this situation.
The State and international financial entities have aligned their institutional
policies and resources with the interests of agro-industrial companies.
9.
The setting up and expansion of plantations for the production of agro fuels,
promoted by agro-industrial entrepreneurs and supported by the Guatemalan
state and international financial institutions are carried out in detriment of
peasant family economies, placing at risk the food and nutritional security of this
population and violating their right to food.
29
RDC004601