“Around the world, the poorest of the poor are the landless in rural areas,
followed closely by the land-poor, those whose poor quality plots are too small to support a family. They make up the majority of the rural poor and hungry, and it is in rural areas where the worst poverty and hunger are found. … The World Bank is taking the lead in promoting, and in some cases financing, comprehensive reforms of land tenure, including titling, cadasters and land registries, land market facilitation, market-assisted or negotiated redistributive reforms, and credit, technical assistance and marketing support … While we applaud the fact that it is no longer taboo to propose land reform as a key element in sustainable development …, we have serious concerns about specific elements in the dominant reform packages being implemented today. We fear that reliance on land privatization and market forces may undercut the potential of land redistribution to contribute to poverty reduction and ecological sustainability .”