Agriculture: Brazilian Cerrado

Harvard’s most publicly damaging land grabs have occurred in the region of the Brazilian Cerrado.

Q+A

How much land did Harvard acquire in the Cerrado between 2008 and 2016?

Nearly 300,000 hectares invested across three shadow holding corporations based in Brazil. Much of this land has not even seen any use—it’s clear that Harvard bought this land to speculate on its value.

Who has been affected?

Much of the land in Brazil that has been claimed by agroindustrial companies were previously public lands—this process, called grilagem in Portuguese, is often done illegally. “For generations, the land has been home to local communities, such as in the case of the lowland areas, or used collectively by these communities for hunting, grazing, collecting fire- wood, and harvesting fruit and medicinal plants” (GRAIN).

Unsorted Q+As

How have pesticides hurt local communities of the Baixão Fechado community? (does this deserve its own page? How will this resource be used to advocate for communities)

What are the holding corporations that Harvard has owned or sold off in Brazil?

Who are Insolo, investor holding group?

Who are Granflor group? - Timber

How were Harvard’s land purchases through Granflor in the state of Bahia illegal?

Who are Gordian Bioenergy?

What are the legal mechanisms by which Harvard’s land grabs can be stopped, both within Brazil, under international law, and in the US?

Approach

Research

Why are we doing research and what are we going to do with it?

Not frontline research, gather existing information, identify where there are gaps in research, get in relationship with frontline groups, talk to community organizers in those communities, open line of communication

Information stored wtihin HMC vs. the community

What is the lines of communication between community + Harvard? Collective statement

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