In the spotlight 1
From Nyéléni to the People’s Summit: converging for change
“There is no single issue struggle because we don’t live single issue lives.” Audre Lorde
In 2025/26 social movements have several opportunities to converge and build our systemic alternatives to the intersecting crises we face today. These moments also give us an opportunity to mobilize against the entities grabbing our land and territories, oppressing our communities and dividing our movements with far right politics – transnational corporations, oligarchs and their nexus with authoritarian leaders. The 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum (that took place in September) , the People’s Summit towards COP 30 and ICARRD+20 (The Second International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development) bring together social movements who work for system change, from different starting points and different geographical and political realities but working towards common goals.
At all these spaces the question of how to counter the escalation in resource grabbing from neoliberal policies (as outlined in article “In the spotlight 2”) is central. One of the key answers to this question is the demand for agrarian reform and redistribution.
The climate justice movement fights the fossil fuel system which makes our world unlivable, while polluting and grabbing lands and seas from fishers and peasants. We fight the military-industrial complex which is responsible for untold suffering, for 5% of global emissions and for criminalising environmental defenders while sucking up trillions in public money that should be spent on public services or climate finance. We struggle against the financialization of nature – when supposed climate action becomes another route for banks and hedge funds to profit from destruction, while dispossessing Indigenous and rural peoples. We know that climate justice isn’t possible without economic justice – reparations for historical damage, debt relief. It is not possible without land reform, indigenous and peasant knowledge and tackling gross inequality. So we are sisters with other movements including the food sovereignty movement.
Food sovereignty offers a completely different framework to organise food production and consumption. It demands food as a human right, not as a commodity, focuses power back in the hands of rural and urban working classes many of whom are also food producers. It relocalises food systems and respects and builds traditional knowledge. The framework also politised agroecology – the science, practice and movement of ecological agriculture which has become one of the most ensuring examples of grassroots solutions across the globe.
In the 3rd Nyéléni Forum, movements deepened and broadened the framework to achieve systemic transformation, for example tackling false solutions; opposing food as a weapon of war as we can see with devastating effect in Gaza and adding crucial economic and climate justice aspects. Expanding and strengthening our alliances and collective struggles for emancipation, justice, autonomy and the right to self-determination is the call of these moments.
Grassroots movements of Indigenous Peoples, peasants, fishers, Black peoples, feminists, workers and migrants are the main protagonists in achieving climate justice and food sovereignty and resource redistribution.
It is peasants, fishers and Indigenous Peoples that are the first line of defence in fighting extractive projects on their lands. It is the waste pickers who struggle for a world without petroleum based plastics. It is grassroots feminists who have demanded economies for life and care, not for extraction. It is communities of black and indigenous peoples who give to the world their historical and traditional knowledge of medicine and food production. Putting land back in their hands means the real grassroots solutions can become a reality.
Organised peoples have historically brought about progressive change big and small. Today we face crumbling democracies, the rise of powerful oligarchs and corporations in collusion with the political class. Together from Nyéléni to the People’s Summit to ICARRD+20 we will face this challenge with hope and solidarity. With real, practical solutions that make the life of everyday people better.
In the spotlight 2
Agrarian reform and redistribution must be at the heart of climate policies
Placing land and territories under the control of small-scale food producers, Indigenous Peoples, and rural communities is one of the most effective strategies to advance climate justice. Secure and equitable tenure is directly linked to ecologically sound resource management of territories, sustainable food systems, social justice, peace and well-being. Without redistributive policies, the concentration of land and resources will continue to fuel ecological destruction and deepen inequality.
Land inequality plays a central yet under-recognized role in the triple environmental crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. Today, just 1% of farms control 70% of global farmland, while the majority of rural communities, Indigenous Peoples, and small-scale food providers face dispossession and violence. This not only undermines their human rights but also weakens their proven capacity to act as stewards of ecosystems. Territories under their governance consistently show lower deforestation rates, higher biodiversity, better water management and stronger climate resilience.
Since the 2008 financial crisis, land has increasingly been treated as a financial asset, leading to speculation, large-scale acquisitions, and displacement of communities. More recently, “green grabs” tied to carbon offsets and biodiversity markets have accelerated, with such schemes now representing 20% of large land deals. These initiatives, marketed as climate solutions, often dispossess communities and erode ecological stewardship. Meanwhile, corporate, industrial food systems – dependent on monocultures, fossil fuels, and agrochemicals – remain major drivers of greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and soil and water degradation.
In contrast, small-scale producers – who use only 35% of global cropland yet feed more than half the world’s population – practice diverse, agroecological farming systems that enhance resilience and reduce emissions. Their contribution is indispensable for climate adaptation, biodiversity conservation, and food sovereignty. However, their ability to continue this role depends on secure rights to land, water, and territories.
The question of who owns and controls land is thus inseparable from the challenge of building a just and sustainable future. Addressing land inequality through redistributive tenure policies is not only a human rights obligation of states but also a social and ecological necessity. Agrarian reform can stop and reverse land grabbing, curb inequality, strengthen community-based conservation, and enable just transitions toward agroecology and sustainable food systems.
Therefore, agrarian reform and redistributive tenure policies must be fundamental pillars of climate strategies. Promoting them through public policies empowers rural communities and Indigenous Peoples to govern and manage their territories in a self-determined way. Special emphasis needs to be put on measures to ensure the respect, protection and fulfilment of the rights of peasants and other small-scale food providers, Indigenous Peoples, and rural communities in the context of carbon and biodiversity markets. In sum, placing land under the control of rural people and communities and securing their existing tenure rights – in particular collective and customary rights – lays the foundation for just transitions to sustainable and equitable economic models and societies.