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Writers Aminatta Forna, Kamila Shamsie, Paul Theroux and Henning Mankell have given support to a new Oxfam campaign to stop "land grabs" in developing countries.
The campaign seeks to get the World Bank to freeze temporarily its land deals to allow time for tighter controls to be put in place to ensure poor people don't lose out. "The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented scramble by foreign investors to buy land in developing countries—with an area the size of London changing hands every six days. However weak regulation has failed to protect the rights and needs of the people living on the land who are often evicted, sometimes violently, without consultation or compensation," Oxfam warns.
Vulnerable people are left homeless without land to grow food to eat or to make a living, the charity says.
Forna commented: "I've seen it myself in Sierra Leone, where my village found a way for me to protect their land but neighbouring villages have lost all theirs. Now they have no farm land and nowhere to collect firewood. Instead they have to work on the sugar plantation. And what's all the sugar cane for? Sugar for the people in the EU and biofuels for the same market."
People wishing to support the campaign can sign Oxfam's petition at: www.oxfam.org/landgrabs.