Dear Father Francis,

May the peace of God and the harmony of the universe always be with you.

We write to you from Peru, lay and religious from various regions of the country, both urban and rural. In March, with the support of Fr Juan Goicochea and Fr Gian Paolo Pezzi of the Comboni Missionaries, we undertook four trainings on “Land Grabbing”, occurring in many parts of the world perpetrated by various entities, particularly transnational corporations and foreign governments. The trainings were held in Chincha in the outskirts of Lima, in San Ramón in the Peruvian rainforest , in Tambogrande in the area of  Piura and in Bambamarca in the province of Cajamarca, where a lot of blood is currently been shed in conflicts taking place as a result of land issues in conjunction with mining activities.

Deeply concerned by the threat that land grabbing represents, and convinced of the importance of working to prevent and counteract it, we write to you today Pope Francis, as members of the universal body of the Church that we all form together and as brothers and sisters in faith who seek to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. 

Around a hundred of us lay and religious participated in the trainings. Some of us are already directly involved in communities affected by land grabbing in Peru. Lay participants included members of various civil society initiatives, pastoral animators and animators of local faith communities, there were among others also religious in formation, priests and nuns, leaders of indigenous people’s communities, representatives of farmers’ movements, professors from colleges and universities, and mayors. At the end of the training days we expressed our availability to transfer the knowledge acquired in our own local communities, parishes and organizations, thereby committing ourselves to becoming “multipliers”.

In Chincha, the most important realization for us was that the land grabbing phenomenon is already taking place and it is happening while farmers are not aware of their rights. Laws are ambiguous and the authorities remain indifferent.

In san Ramón, in the department of Junín, our hearts were touched as we heard what we felt is an urgent and deep call from the land telling us: rescue me for the sake of future life and for future generations! The earth is a gift of God and it is the will of God that it continue to be a home for all.

In Tambogrande, department of Piura, foreign companies exploit their financial leverage and have become the main beneficiaries of the district preexisting resources. It is very worrying to us that we see owners of large forest and desert areas transforming vast agricultural lands into vast monocultures for export. This destroys the ecological balance and robs the land of its primary function: providing food to the community of Piura, especially Tambogrande. For the moment farmers continue living on their land but we suspect they could be evicted at any time. With no food, no land, no ecology and no water there is NO LIFE!

In Bambamarca -Cajamarca, in the Province of Hualgayoc– we held the last training. This region is home to the mega mining project Conga, belonging to the company Yanacocha, which represents the roots of bloody conflicts between farmers and mining companies and causes tensions in the very Church itself. The mega mining project Conga jeopardizes life and the environment in three provinces and threatens the existence of over 20 lagoons, 700 mountain springs, 203 Has of grassland, 5 micro-watersheds, 120 drinking water systems, 60 irrigation channels and the entire biological diversity of the region, leaving over 1 and a half million inhabitants of Cajamarca without water. 

During the last day of the trainings we learnt about the numerous research documents on the land grabbing phenomenon that have already been produced; the efforts by many non-governmental organizations to counteract it; the laws that are so often very well made and respectful of all stakeholders and of interests at stake; the self-defense actions to protect the land and the rights of farmers and indigenous people. Notwithstanding all this, as you and many members of the relevant Councils around you know well, the phenomenon continues and is increasingly expanding. We believe that this is happening because there is no coordination among all the efforts nor does a voice of a “moral authority” exist and take the initiative of researching, promoting and supporting a global strategy bringing together all existing efforts into one action plan. We feel this is an urgent matter and hence we asked ourselves and we dare to ask you Pope Francis, to take the initiative of designing this strategy and calling upon all stakeholders involved for their collaboration.

Land grabbing does not only threaten the efforts aimed at reducing poverty in the world, ensuring just access to water, food and livelihoods, regulating the overindulgence of genetically modified organisms (GMO), regulating the destructive extractive industry and protecting the human rights of farmers and indigenous people; just to name a few of the aspects of this problem. Land grabbing is also threatening the coexistence of people in many regions, just relations among countries and world Peace.

Furthermore land grabbing is a threat to the children of our communities and all the generations that are yet to be born. In fact land grabbing is gradually leading to the cultural genocide of indigenous people whose age-old customs and even spirituality are already being impacted. Counteracting this grabbing or theft of land is an urgent imperative for the century in which we are living. If it continues at the current pace and scale, there will remain no avcailable, uncontaminated, fertile and accessible land for those brothers and sisters who are yet to be born!

Holy Father, in our daily lives and in our local communities we witness each day the marginalization, social injustice, as well as the neglect that many of our brothers and sisters are victims of as a result of the destructive actions and attempts by a few to perpetuate a power hegemony and use of natural resources that benefit only a handful. It is in these existential and concrete peripheries that we continue our walk of life, evangelization and accompaniment in the light of the testimony that Jesus, the Prince of Peace, left us.   

We beg you Pope Francis, Father and brother of ours, to listen to our testimony and our cry of help for the protection of our Earth and all of its children. We ask you to consider our ambitious proposal of taking the initiative to research, promote and support a global strategy bringing together all existing efforts into one action plan and calling upon all stakeholders involved for their collaboration.

In the hope of counting on your support and blessing, we thank you for your consideration and pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to enlighten you with wisdom and strength so that you may continue supporting all of us Christians in moving us closer to Christ. We are happy to have a Pope like you.

Sincerely,

On behalf of the participants and of the organizers: Lucero Schmid, JPIC team coordinator, Janet Calancha Ayala, JPIC team member, Asmeret Aregay Abreha, Comboni  missionary, Juan Goicochea, mccj  JPIC Coordinator – Peru, Gian Paolo Pablo Pezzi, mccj JPIC (VIVAT International) – United States.