In Ecuador, land grabbing and the concentration of water in large basins are structural problems: properties less than one hectare represent a quarter of the total production units in the country but occupy 1% of the land, while properties greater than 100 hectares, which represent only 2% of the total, control 43% of the arable land.

The project aimed to gather the aspirations of associations and grassroots organizations regarding the fundamental principles that should contain a law regarding land ownership. It also intended to consolidate the processes of articulation of organizations, formulating a strong position in the face of land and natural resources policy.

Mani Tese, in collaboration with the CLPCP, supported the organization of the “Congress of the Landless, Without Water, Without Sea, Without Mangroves and Without Plateau”. It was the final event of a process started in February 2012 by civil society organizations, to learn about the territorial problems that are being experienced and that are caused by the presence of industries, mining companies, hydroelectric projects that are in some way violating the territory. The result of the debate, on the occasion of the Congress, was to identify the tools to consolidate the action of organizations around 3 macro-themes:

1. The struggle for the land and against the new forms of water concentration.
2. Extractivism and megaprojects.
3. Agro-industry, food sovereignty and buen vivir.

The need has emerged to strengthen the regional unity of local organizations, articulating with those of other regions that are experiencing the same difficulties. Only in this way will they be able to deal with the strong impacts caused by an economic model that is based on the expansion of agro business and mining. And only in this way will they be able to influence the formulation of Ecuadorian national policies on the theme of an integral agrarian reform, which responds to the principles of food sovereignty and redistributes land and water in favor of those who work and care for it. Consequently, it was also decided to organize a national congress expressly on agrarian reform to prepare shared proposals to be presented to the Government.