Terre de Liens, a Tool for Collective Access to Land en

Terre de Liens is a French association,
born in the end of the 1990s. At the
beginning, it brought together some
organic and biodynamic peasants, as
well as RELIER, a popular education
initiative. Terre the Liens was born from
the recognition that:
- We need peasants to renew the classic
agricultural model, inventing new
ways of farming that are ecologically
responsible and based on solidarity.
- For the most part, such peasants are not
able to have access to land without
becoming
indebted
for
many
generations. Therefore, it is necessary
to find collective and fair ways to
acquire land.
- Neither private actors (farmers, private
owners, real estate agencies…), nor
public actors (the state – represented
in France by the SAFER -, public
entity, natural parks, conservation
agencies…) are successfully stopping
or slowing down land speculation, soil
degradation and the concentration of
land ownership.
First goal of the association is to offer
legal assistance to people who want to
set up collective land projects. Many
projects,
like
“Societé
civile
immobilière” or “Groupement foncier
agricole”, are supported. But such local
initiatives have certain limits. They can
dissolve after a while and they lack
flexibility and solidity. This can make it
difficult to find replacement for the
“share holders” who retire.
In 2006, Terre de Liens created a
financial tool called « La Foncière ». Its
function is to collect savings at the
national scale to buy farms that are
would otherwise be given up. Once
bought, land and buildings are taken out
from the speculative market and rented
to incoming peasants – who will work in
a local, diversified manner, respecting
the environment. More then 12 million
euros have been collected over the last 4
years: by the end of 2010 “La Foncière”
will own 50 farms. At the same time, the
association keeps on informing and
advising groups about collective access
to land.
Nowadays, Terre de Liens has over 1000
members, 4500 share holders and ca. 20
associations or local groups. It has
contributed to giving media coverage to
the land issue in France. Given to its
importance, the association starts to be
recognized on the administrative level –
certain municipal governments, for
instance, have contacted Terre de Liens
for advice on how to create natural areas
and preserve water while creating
organic farms. Terre de Liens allows
integrating of various groups in the
future of land that surrounds them and
27
generates encounters among peasants,
consumers, public officials…
In September 2010 the foundation
« Terre de Liens » will be created: It will
be a new tool, that will enable collecting
both farms and money.
« Terre de liens proposes to change the
relationship towards land, agriculture,
food and nature by developing the
relationship towards land property.
“We believe that land is a common good
that cannot be managed and distributed
according to market rules. We believe
that land cannot be reduced to a tool for
human activities and that territory is
more than decoration for our lives. Land
is directly related to our humanity. Land
creates the possibility of weaving
solidarity where identities and ties are
formed and where the interdependencies
with our environments are revealed. We
are facing the crisis of how the world is
interpreted– of the church, parties, trade
unions. Land/territory has become a
central space in this mediation between
individual and society. We believe that
modernity lies in the quality of the
relationships that we will manage to
build among human groups and their
territory – in terms of ecological
balance,
richness
and
resource
distribution,
identity
and
social
connection.
« We are persuaded that each right goes
with a duty. The “common and
intergenerational” character of land
implicates soil and property rights and
duties that must be established and
assumed collectively.
“ We believe in collective action, in the
force of sharing our means and we
believe that cooperation is a more
trustable engine than competition.”
Marco