France – Land

By Daniel Morris | 19. April 2018

1. The State’s Obligation to Protect Human Rights

The National Framework

13. The Role of Public Agencies

The Agence Française de Développement (AFD) [page 28]

… The owners of projects with the highest social and environmental risks are asked to implement grievance management mechanisms to deal with alerts, questions, recommendations and requests from all interested parties at any time. In parallel, the AFD and PROPARCO define the structure and organization of specific grievance management mechanisms in the environmental and social fields. These mechanisms will enable third parties affected by AFD- or PROPARCO-funded projects to lodge complaints for environmental and/or social reasons (pollution, destruction of natural resources, human rights, land grabbing, forced displacement, etc.). These initiatives took effect in 2016 …

15. Economic Sectors and Human Rights

The agricultural and food sector [page 32]

The strategic importance of national food security and economic opportunities in the agricultural sector have led a number of countries and businesses to invest (and support investment) in agrifood production. Given this large-scale investment, which often involves large-scale land purchases, the international community has sought to implement guidelines and directives to regulate these projects. Two major initiatives have been launched:

  • The Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security (also known as the VGGT), adopted by the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) in May 2012

…

France supports and is politically, technically and financially committed to adopting and implementing these texts. Working with actors involved in French cooperation efforts, it developed the Guide to Ex-Ante Analysis of Agricultural Investment Projects that Affect Land and Property Rights to facilitate the enforcement of these principles …

Actions Underway

  • Partner States are encouraged to apply the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land (VGGT) and the Principles for Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI).
  • Recommendations in the Guide to Ex-Ante Analysis of Agricultural Investment Projects that Affect Land and Property Rights are being integrated into the AFD’s due diligence procedures in the land, social and environmental fields.