Land Inequality, Agrarian Development and Peace in Colombia : A Political Ecology View

Sammanfattning: One of the major problems that characterizes the Colombian countryside is the extreme concentration of land. When addressing the question of how land has been concentrated in Colombia, often the emphasis is placed on phenomena such as armed violence and drug-trafficking. While they have contributed, often the point that these factors have been embedded in broader dynamics of exploitation is missed. Through a case study of the Meta region and drawing on the analysis of policy documents, news reports, interviews and the review of literature, this study explores the problematic of land concentration in Colombia, and how it has evolved over the last decades, and in the context of the peace process. This research shows that land accumulation in Colombia has been generated through a continuous process of dispossession in which peasants have been disassociated from their land and means of production. This process has taken two main pathways: a gunpoint dispossession, characterized by the use of force and coercion, and a homogeneity dispossession, also violent but with less visible expressions. Both forms of dispossession have been facilitated by what has been called as inequality regime – i.e. the articulation of political and economic mechanisms that, together with powerful narratives, have favoured the accumulation of private capital. This configuration has been adjusting to the new post-agreement context. Today, capitalist exploitation projects in Colombia are justified not only in the name of development and security, but now also in the name of peace. This study shows the need of paying greater attention to everyday processes of accumulation in order to strategically address sustainability and development issues. In particular, the understanding of land concentration dynamics is crucial for discussing strategies and policies to effectively promote a more sustainable and just agri-food system in Colombia.