Bread or justice - Land restitution and investments in Montes de Maria, Colombia

• Published in: Land use policy 2020-02, Vol.91, p.104380, Article 104380
• Main Authors: Wiig, Henrik, García-Reyes, Paola
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agriculture; Agriculture investment; Army; Cassava; Colombia; Communists; Courts; Displaced persons; Internally displaced people; Investments; Justice; Land; Land property rights; Land restitution; Land use; Livestock industry; Money; Paramilitary groups; Property rights; Reparations; Restitution; Sales
• ISSN: 0264-8377; 1873-5754
• DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104380

•IDPs in the Montes de Maria region of Colombia sold land to investors after peace returned in mid-2000 now reclaim the land.•New land restitution law define such purchases illegal dubious, presuming absence of consent if price perceived too low compared to later, not moment, market prices.•Agricultural investors risk losing such acquired land and hence postpone investments in land improvement, marketing and animals until law expires in 2021. In 2011, Colombia started a legal land restitution process whereby government institutions help internally displaced people (IDPs) reclaim land dispossessed after 1991 through the violent conflict involving the communist guerilla, paramilitaries and the army. The designated land courts normally covers voluntary sales at the going market price at the time of dispossession, presuming buyers took advantage of the IDPs’ need for money and their low expectations of returning from their current sites of refuge. We study the rise and fall of a commercial cassava operation that started to buy land from IDPs openly in the Montes de María region on Colombia’s Caribbean coast after peace returned in 2007. After losing several land restitution court cases, the company shifted from dairy cattle that required high investments to the less demanding, but also less productive, buffalo to minimize losses in case of future successful restitution claims. The land restitution law will probably be extended beyond the initial 2021 limit due to slow progress, thereby perpetuating the insecure property rights situation that hinders investments in agriculture.