Professor Marja Spierenburg in the House of Representatives of The Netherlands
On 15 June 2022 Professor Anthropology of Sustainability and Livelihood Marja Spierenburg was one of the invited speakers at the round table in the House of Representatives of The Netherlands. The topic was land rights and property rights and the relationship between Dutch - or by the Netherlands financed and supported - investments in land, among others through the Rijksdienst voor Ondernemerschap (RVO) and the violations of land rights in Low and Middle-Income countries.
Three rounds of discussion
The roundtable discussions were organised by and for the House of Parliament's Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Committee. The discussions consisted of three rounds, the first with civil society organisations, the second with scientists - in which Prof. Marja Spierenburg participated together with Prof. Han van Dijk (WUR), Prof. Annelies Zoomers (UU and WOTRO) and Dr. Ward Anseeuw (CIRAD). The last round was a discussion with corporations.
Spierenburg: "Annelies Zoomers urged the committee to invest 1% of all the money that the government spends on land investments in research through local observatories where Dutch researchers and NGOs work together. That seems like a very good plan.'
Watch the Roundtable (in Dutch)
Position paper
The position paper of Marja Spierenburg and the other professors can be found on the website of the House of Representatives of The Netherlands.