Referat af mřdet med CONTIERRA d.
14. august 2001
Oplćg ved koordinator, pĺ regionalkontoret i Coban, Erick González.
En lille redegřrelse af de forskellige
organisationer, som arbejder med jordproblemet.
FONTIERRA:
Land fund. Helps peasants who do not have access to land. Even though every
family gets money (Q 900 from the Government) to the community’s land it will
not pay the whole land and the community has to pay back in crops.
CONTIERRA:
Solves land conflicts. Does investigations to find the owner of a piece of land. Regulation of land.
PROTIERRA:
Land survey, land registration. Co-ordinating the land problems. Technical
work.
All three organisations are funded by the Government, but they are all
seriously lacking money. Denmark is the only foreign donor country, donates
money through UNDP.
A way to achieve better results with the land conflicts has been to
decentralise CONTIERRA to different regions. The office in Cobán is the second
headquarter, it is responsible for 5 regions: Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz,
Livingston, El Estor & Quiche(?)
These regions are among the most conflictive in Guatemala.
The office in Cobán has existed for 3 months and has 5 employees.
Consultation and negotiation seem to be easier with decentralisation
and local offices. All parts of the
conflict can then participate in solving the conflict. The past 3 months have
shown an increase in cases – 75 new ones have been reported. At present
CONTIERRA has about 260 cases in process. 60 cases (out of 300) have been
solved. Event though it is difficult to see straight results because the cases
are so complex. there has definitely been an increase in solved cases since the
decentralisation of offices, but simultaneously there has been an increase in
the number of new cases.
It is a very difficult process, and patience is one of the most
important ingredients in the process of making all parties satisfied. A huge
problem is that almost the entire indigenous population is in need of land, but
there are simply not enough resources to supply land to all.
To decide who should gain access to the resources, it is necessary to
gather all kinds of information: historical, geographical, anthropological etc.
CONTIERRA then makes an analysis in order to decide who will be able to make
the best profit from the land. However, every case starts with a request from a
comunidad that wants access to land. If the land then is privately owned, the
first step is to make both parties accept that this land is privately owned.
Then they find an agreement to buy the land of the finca owner. It is also the
job of CONTIERRA to judge how much land the comunidad needs.
Most comunidades do not come directly to CONTIERRA with their cases,
instead they come through a peasant organisation such as CUC or CONIC. CONTIERRA
feels overburdened with requests from these organisations.
It is very individual how long it takes to solve a case. Some of the
cases date 130-140 years back, and are thus very complex and hard to solve.
Some cases are very close to being solved, and then suddenly the process starts
to go backwards or nothing happens for a long time.
There are conflicts in which the landowner does not want to cooperate,
and then the case has to be taken through a legal process.
CONTIERRA as well as FONTIERRA are seriously underfunded; to a degree
that to solve all presently existing conflicts concerning land would last more
than 100 years!
Solving the conflict is a great challenge, and even between the regions
e.g. between Alta and Baja Verapaz there exist great differences, though the
regions generally are characterised by the big German landowners. The cases
that do not come out with any solution can result in a trial before the Supreme
Court.
Even though CONTIERRA now works more decentralised they do not reach all
people in the rural areas. They have not built up capacity themselves yet but
they train people in the office so they can be more capable at their job and
assist more people. Furthermore, they receive training from organisations like
PROPAZ and INTRAPAZ.
Rural education is not a part of CONTIERRA’s program, yet, but if it
were they would try to give people knowledge about their rights. Many people in
the area think that dialogue can solve the conflict in Guatemala.
CONTIERRA’s goal for the future is mediation through conciliation.
Whether they will reach it or not is hard to say. CONTIERRA evaluates the
program every year. It is difficult to evaluate on these often complex cases
which are quite sensitive, as well. CONTIERRA hopes that the amount of new cases
will decrease in the future.
In most cases the great landowners have been pleased to sell out land as
long as they got reasonable fair prices. Many of these landowners have taken
advantage of the fact that the state is financing the buying of the land, and
they have offered to sell land to overprices. However, now when they are aware
that FONTIERRA is lacking money, they are not so willing to sell anymore.
CONTIERRA is funded by the Guatemalan Government. However, this fact
does not mean that they are met with rejection among the population, and they
do not have a close collaboration with the FRG president, Alfonso Portillo.
The president of CONTIERRA is an ex-guillero. In the start, this caused
many finca owners to fear that he would favour less fortunate groups in
society. Nevertheless, he has been able to solve many conflicts and is now
being met with a considerably positive attitude.
Tierra Blanca, approximately 14 Caballeras (1 Caballera ~ 54 Hectar)
Problem: Doubt about ownership of land between a finca owner and the
comunidad. The finca owner claims property of the land and makes the comunidad
pay for renting the land. CONTIERRA made an investigation to find the ‘real’
owner and started a reconciliation process between the finca owner and the
comunidad.
The finca owner had a document on the land. However, there were three
comunidades living on the land, and the finca owner finally realised that he
could not claim all that land.
This and many other cases is directed at supporting the capacity of
peasants to buy/overtake land.