VIDEO: Land Grabs in Brazil

Land grabs, the theft of land from Indigenous peoples and small-scale farmers, are a global issue. But they are a particularly important issue in Brazil. There, a small number of major landowners control the vast majority of rural land, and use violence and intimidation to grab more.

Maria Luísa Mendonça, director of Grassroots International partner Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos (The Network for Social Justice and Human Rights), talks about the issue of land grabs in Brazil and the role of US financial institutions in driving land purchase for agribusiness and destruction of the Brazilian Cerrado and Amazon. Later, Luiz Zarreff, of our partner the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (The Landless Workers Movement, MST) talks about the impact of land grabbing on small scale farmers, agrarian reform and rural conflicts. They also share about how people in the US are organizing to hold these financial institutions and corporations accountable through the US campaign to Stop Land Grabs.

Grassroots International joined the Friends of the MST and others to host this webinar. Consider supporting movements in Brazil with a donation.