The WFAR will take place in Valencia, Spain, from the 5th to the 8th of December 2004.

The detailed definition of the WFAR Programme is attached below:

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The programme will comprise lectures, seminars and workshops. Spaces will also be available for self-organised activities related to Forum issues.

During the last century, agriculture occupied a central position in the national economic development of countries, and land policies endeavoured to favour the economic capacity of this production sector. Land was fundamental to the structure of social and political relations in rural society. Given the great weight of the latter within national political and social life, land policies were critical to strengthening the power base of political and social forces as well as to modifying them and to reducing social inequalities.

A number of agrarian reforms carried out during the 20th century will be studied: Mexico, USSR, Spain, Italy, Poland, Japan, China, Guatemala, Ecuador, Vietnam, Cuba, Algeria, Chile, Portugal amongst others.

Several agrarian reform processes are underway in various parts of the world: Brazil, Venezuela, Indonesia, Philippines, South Africa, etc. There are also a number of critical situations in Africa or Western Europe where access to land is becoming increasingly difficult for small family farmers.

To what extent and how can present day and future agrarian reforms impact the political, economic and social development of these countries, achieving the eradication of poverty and enabling food sovereignty?

The discussion on agrarian reform in the 21st century involves several aspects additional to land distribution. It is not only the landless peasants who have an interest in the establishment of more equitable mechanisms for access to land. It is also of interest to urban social sectors, to consumers, business people and family farmers in developed countries. All these groups see their survival or development threatened by the situation of millions of impoverished peasants, expelled from agriculture and condemned to extreme poverty. All are concerned by the disruption of ecological balance at the planetary level, as well as by a new type of conflict generated by the forms of access to land and territorial management.

Land is increasingly perceived as a complex, multifunctional space with an environmental dimension, natural resources, biodiversity reserves and climatic impacts. Rural economies repose increasingly on tourism activities which often involve conflicts of interest with the rights of the peasant population. The interactions between the countryside and the city take on new forms and the opinion of town dwellers about territorial management and methods to produce healthy food cannot be ignored. All this makes it essential to update agrarian reform policies.