Land Reform at a Crossroads

WEBINAR & DISCUSSION convened by IPES-Food and the IPC Working Group on Land, Forests, Water and Territories

At this webinar on 30 June 2025, experts discussed Land Reform at a Crossroads.

Thank you for participating!

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Speakers

• Melissa Leach (Cambridge Conservation Initiative & IPES-Food panelist)
• Shirley Anny Abreu do Nascimento (Director of the Land Governance Department, Government of Brazil)
• Jose Luis Quiroga Pacheco (Director of Social Planning of Rural Property and Productive Use of Land, Government of Colombia)
• Terries Ndove (Deputy Director General, Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Government of South Africa)
• Benjamin Davis (Director of the Rural Transformation and Gender Equality Division, FAO)
• Massa Koné (Convergence Malienne Contre l’Accaparement des Terres (CMAT) & Convergence des Luttes pour la Terre et l’Eau – Afrique de l’Ouest)
• Nury Martinez (FENSUAGRO & La Via Campesina)

What was discussed

Tackling land inequality

Land reform is back on the global agenda — and the next 12 months offer real opportunities to drive transformative change.

Securing access to land for farmers and communities is essential for global food access and climate resilience. Yet a new wave of land pressures is intensifying. Alongside long-standing land grabs, vast areas of farmland are now being appropriated for carbon offset schemes and other forms of “green grabbing,” while industrial agriculture continues to push out smallholders. We are living through a global land squeeze.

Nearly 15 years after the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT), land inequality remains a critical and growing problem. Across the world, the people who feed us and steward ecosystems are being displaced, deepening poverty, hunger, and ecological breakdown.

But momentum for action is growing – and the coming year offers unprecedented opportunities to bring land back to the centre of the global agenda. Land tenure has become a cross-cutting priority for the CBD and UNCCD. COP30 in Brazil will feature prominently discussions on land (including forests, carbon storage, and nature-based solutions). And in February 2026, the Government of Colombia will host the Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development (ICARRD+20), with over 100 countries expected to participate.

This webinar discussed

• The state of land inequality: What is the state of land inequality globally, and what are the latest threats and opportunities?
• Pathways to reform: What reforms are needed to address land inequality and ensure that peasant and rural communities have access to and control over land, water, and territory? 
• ICARRD+20 and beyond: What concrete topics or reforms should be pushed onto the ICARRD+20 agenda? What can be done on the road to ICARRD+20 to build support for the conference and to ensure ambitious outcomes and implementation?

The webinar builds on IPES-Food’s landmark report Land Squeeze.

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