Conference Report: Land Grabbing, Conflict, and Agrarian-Environmental Transformations: Perspectives From East and Southeast Asia, 5-6 June 2015, Chiang Mai University

Abstract

It was an extraordinarily emotional moment for an academic conference when the Cambodian human rights activist Hong Chinda1 informed the audience that her family had just been evicted from their land once again by the Cambodian authorities. This time, the incident happened during her absence, while she was attending the conference on Grabbing, Conflict and Agrarian-Environmental Transformations: Perspectives From East and Southeast Asia2 and only shortly before she addressed the 240 international participants of the conference in her speech. Hong Chinda's case is just one of the countless examples of conflict over land in the Southeast Asian region. Her testimony is a reminder of the importance of this conference, which was a follow-up to the related international academic conferences organized by the Land Deal Politics Initiative (LDPI) at University of Sussex (UK) in 2011 and at Cornell University (USA) in 2012. Established in 2010, the LDPI is a network of academic research institutions and individuals that aims to provide in-depth and systematic enquiry into the global land grab in order to have deeper, meaningful and productive debates around causes and implications (LDPI, n.d.).Academic interest in what is now globally known as land grab followed the sudden increase in large-scale, cross border land acquisitions in the Global South that began around 2007 (Hall, 2013, p. 95). A briefing of the international nongovernmental organization GRAIN, titled SEIZED! The 2008 Land Grab for Food and Financial Security, was reportedly one of the first publications highlighting the issue (GRAIN, 2008). While acknowledging that land grab is nothing new and has been ongoing for centuries (most noticeably since the colonial period), GRAIN claimed that the world food crisis and the bigger financial crisis triggered a new boom in investment in land for both outsourced food production and as a new source for profit (GRAIN, 2008). If the conference in Chiang Mai was to draw one single conclusion, it was that the problems over land are rapidly increasing rather than decreasing, offering a rather gloomy outlook.The report from GRAIN already identified China as one major global player involved in land grabbing. China had been outsourcing part of its food production well before the global financial crisis in 2008 as part of its general go abroad strategy (GRAIN, 2008). Unsurprisingly, China's influence also featured prominently at the conference in Chiang Mai where numerous case studies related to China's investment in mainland Southeast Asia were presented3. Prominent examples included country cases such as the Lao PDR and Cambodia where Chinese companies control a major share of agricultural land. Fewer studies were presented on Vietnam and Myanmar, with the latter representing one of the latest investment frontiers for foreign capital (again with China as top investor) - a topic that remains narrowly researched. Remarkable was the lack of contributions on Thailand, reflecting the criticism expressed by Thai activist Prue Odochao during his speech at the conference. He criticized that few Thai academics are committed to helping the thousands of rural communities in Thailand still under threat of eviction from land declared as forest area. This situation, according to Odochao, has not improved since the current military government took over power in a coup in May 2014. To remind the audience of the very dangerous life still faced by activists in Thailand, Prue Odochao reported the case of his friend, Pholachi Rakchongcharoen (also known as Billy) - a Karen human rights activist who went missing in April 2014 after trying to defend his community against Thai National Park authorities (Amnesty International, 2014).With over 80 papers presented at the 24 parallel panels, the conference covered a broad range of issues. Even so, the panels managed to stay focused and concise, providing much room for discussion due to strict time management. …