# UN Experts Warn of Unprecedented Global Concentration of Land and Water Ownership

> NEW YORK — A United Nations working group presented a report to the General Assembly warning that armed conflict, corporate acquisitions, conservation schemes, and legal gaps are driving global land concentration to historically unprecedented levels, displacing rural populations worldwide. The...

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- Published: 2026-10-22T18:51:00+11:00
- Updated: 2026-10-22T18:05:05+11:00
- Author: PressClubAi
- Source: UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR)
- Source URL: http://ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/10/many-forms-dispossession-driving-record-concentration-ownership-land-water
- Source context: UN agency source, Primary source
- Source note: Official UN human rights office material; may include rights assessments, statements, and advocacy positions.
- Categories: , environment, Human Rights
- Tags: Agriculture, Food Security, human rights, Land Rights, United Nations

## Story

NEW YORK — A United Nations working group presented a report to the General Assembly warning that armed conflict, corporate acquisitions, conservation schemes, and legal gaps are driving global land concentration to historically unprecedented levels, displacing rural populations worldwide.

The findings, delivered by the UN Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, indicate that peasants, fishers, pastoralists, and Indigenous Peoples are increasingly losing access to their territories. Shalmali Guttal, the Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group, stated that emerging mechanisms are compounding traditional drivers of dispossession.

According to the report, dispossession is driven by a mix of direct and subtle mechanisms. These include corporate land acquisitions, industrial aquaculture, tourism projects encroaching on fishing grounds, and carbon projects initiated without community consent. Other factors include the gradual buyout of small-to-medium farms, digital land registries that bypass customary claims, and legal frameworks that categorize pastures and water sources as vacant land.

The report highlighted the impact of armed conflicts and occupations in areas such as Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, and the West Bank, where farmland and food production infrastructure have been confiscated, emptied, or destroyed. The experts noted that the effects of these disruptions often outlast the active conflicts.

Global data cited in the report shows that the largest 0.1 percent of farms now operate more than half of the world's agricultural land. High levels of concentration were also noted in developed regions: in the United States, 4.4 percent of farms controlled 61 percent of agricultural land in 2022, while in the European Union, 3.1 percent held 52.2 percent in 2013.

The findings also revealed significant gender disparities, noting that fewer than 15 percent of rural women hold secure land rights. Men remain more likely to have secure rights to farmland, leaving women vulnerable when conservation, carbon, or aquaculture projects overlap with land they use without formal ownership titles.

Emphasizing that territories encompass land, water, coastal seas, fisheries, forests, and pastures, the Working Group warned of broader threats to food security. Small-scale fisheries currently supply nearly two-thirds of global catches destined for direct human consumption.

To address the issue under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), the Working Group called on governments to enact agrarian reforms. Recommendations include capping land accumulation, redistributing land to marginalized and landless groups, providing restitution to displaced populations, and recognizing customary and collective tenure alongside private property.

## Links

- [Source](http://ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/10/many-forms-dispossession-driving-record-concentration-ownership-land-water)