Rhythms of Ruin: Public Land Sale, Greed, and the Devastating Dance of Destruction

Land grab increased in the 1970s in Brazil, leading to an estimated thirty two percent of undesignated public forests being appropriated for private use by 2020, with the Amazonas State for example having twenty-one percent or four thousand, four hundred and twenty-five square miles of land described as private between 2014 and 2020.

Land grab accelerated in Chile in the 1970s also, with the nation’s central-south region having experienced significant land use changes, as forest plantation through private investors expanded, ranging from 18 percent per decade in north central Chile to 246 percent in the Maule and Biobio regions.

Land grab has been taking place in Australia in the past 15 years, with as much as 40 million hectares of land changing hands through large-scale acquisition by private interests, while banks such as the Australia and New Zealand Business Group, the Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank, and Westpac spearhead the process.

Apart from Brazil, Chile, and Australia, many nations have had private interests grab public land, such as New Zealand, Canada, Portugal, and others, the entire process ending in controversy.

The Brazilian Amazon has 49.8 million hectares of public forests not allocated by federal or state governments, a fact easily exploited by private interests for soybean farming and cattle ranching, especially as Brazilians consume around 34.37 kg of beef per capita annually, accounting for around 12 percent of world beef consumption in 2017.

Australia has around 23 percent of its area considered as Crown Land, an expanse representing about 26 million hectares, including unallocated public land, places subject to reservation, dedication, or leasing.

Chile’s land area is covered by forests to the tune of 22 percent, totalling around 16.2 million hectares, with roughly 47 percent seen as private forest, covered by investors in the sheep farming, hydrocarbons, and biofuels sectors.

Through the sale of public land, the wealthiest one percent in Australia own around quarter of the country’s property investments, representing a significant proportion of land ownership, the same situation applying to Chile, with one percent owning almost half of the nation's wealth, as well as Brazil, where the top one percent of landowners control roughly 50 percent of agricultural land.

Land-based ecosystems absorbed around 30 percent of the carbon emissions from activities such as the burning of fossil fuel, but when nations sell public lands, they could become prone to increased deforestation and reduced capacity to absorb carbon, a factor that made experts project that up to 250 million people could be displaced by 2050 as a result of climate change-induced desertification.

Public lands harbor unique ecosystems and biodiversity spots, helping to store 80 percent of terrestrial biodiversity, but when governments transfer these lands to private interests, this could lead to mining, logging, or the loss of biodiversity hotspots through a 1.2 million square kilometers increase in urban land cover by 2050.

Public lands prevent private landowners from using them as means of economic gains, but when authorities sell them, they not only foster financial advantages, they also become vulnerable to environmental degradation, a reason why 95 percent of earth's soil is on course to be degraded by 2050, with 24 billion tons of fertile soil lost per year due to unsustainable agricultural activities.

Apart from the wealthiest one percent owning more than fifty percent of public lands when sold by governments the world over, the process increases deforestation, degrades the environment on a large scale, and worsens climate change through rising rates of greenhouse gas emissions.

Land reform laws, community-led initiatives, and local and global monitoring could be measures used to track and prevent the abuse of public lands.

What to Eat

Vegan food from Chile, Credit, Betterfoodguru