The intent of the present document is to increase and quicken awareness of the dramatic human, social and ethical problems caused by the phenomenon of the concentration and misappropriation of land. These problems affect the dignity of millions of persons and deprive the world of the possibility of peace. There is not a moment to lose. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, proclaimed by the Holy Father John Paul II in remembrance of our only Savior, Jesus Christ, is a challenging call to conversion, including in the social and political fields, that will re-establish the right of the poor and marginalized to enjoy the use of the land and its goods that the Lord has given to all and to each one of his sons and daughters. The agrarian structure of developing countries is often characterized by a two-tier form of distribution, with a small number of large landowners possessing most of the arable land while vast numbers of very small owners, tenants and settlers farm the remaining land, which is often of inferior quality.
Large holdings are still a feature of many such countries''land systems.
The historical origins of the process of land concentration vary from region to region. It is particularly relevant t our own reflections to note that in areas that came under colonial rule concentration of land in large holdings really started to develop in the second half o the 19th century through gradual private appropriation of the land, favored by laws which introduced serious distortions into the land market. The private appropriation of land not only led to the formation and consolidation of large holdings, but also had the diametrically opposite effect of fragmenting small holdings. Many developing countries have sought to modernize their economies as quickly as possible by basing themselves for the most part on the often unjustified belief that rapid industrialization can bring about an improvement in general economic well-being, even if agriculture suffers in the process. They have thus adopted policies protecting domestic industrial production and manipulating the exchange rates of the national currency to the disadavantage of agriculture, policies of taxing exports of farm produce and policies supporting the purchasing power of urban inhabitants based on the control of food prices or other forms of intervention that alter the market distribution mechanism and that have therefore often led to a lowering of exchange rates for agricultural, as against industrial, production.