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Who can buy farmland in the Falklands – restrictions to be imposed?

Monday, July 27th 2009 - 22:20 UTC
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A recent increase in the sale of Falklands farms to overseas buyers may lead to amendments to the Lands Non-residents Ordinance potentially to restrict who can buy farmland in the islands.

Councillor Mike Summers said, “Every sale of a farm to an overseas buyer has led to questions raised by the community with regard to the ordinance in respect of farmland.”

He qualified this saying the Falkland Islands Government did not want to see a reverse of the Shackleton Land Reform Process which in recent history led to the sale of large swathes of land owned by absentee landlords being subdivided and sold to Falkland Islands residents.

At the same time, he said, government did not want to interfere in the rights of farmers to dispose of farms for the best value. “There are complicated issues involved.”

Asked if there were concerns regarding Argentines taking the opportunity to purchase Falklands farms, Councillor Summers said the concern was that a large amount of public money had been invested in developing agriculture in the Falkland Islands and the population had been involved in discussing and developing those strategies. He said the worry was that if a farm was sold to an overseas buyer, that buyer would have had no involvement in those strategies and, for example, they might simply purchase the land and remove the stock perhaps for environmental reasons: Such moves, he said, could potentially lead to the original strategies to become non viable.

Most recently a large amount of public funds has been invested in the Falkland Islands Meat Company; for that company to be viable it must be provided with adequate stock for the company to function in such a way that it in turn provides support for the farming community.

At a recent meeting of Executive Council it was decided that those responsible for the Rural Development Strategy (RDS) would deal with the issue of Lands Non-residents Ordinance.

A time-line has been set and Councillor Summers says the RDS will examine the key issues and make recommendations whether there should be any restrictions on the sale of Falklands farmland and if there should be, how they would operate and to what extent.

By Lisa Johnston – SeAled PR - Stanley

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  • Veritas

    Your farmland is a national strategic resource to be sustainably managed to the benefit of your people.

    In my home state (the American Southwest), we have sales of public lands to fund education. Traditionally these lands are sold in the urban areas for commercial development. However, in the agricultural rural areas, these lands are leased on long term agreements to ranchers and farmers.

    Unfortunately, a new player has entered the public land lease/purchase market, the “environmentalists” or greens. These groups are often well funded and able to out-bid the agricultural interests. The end result is that productive lands sit idle in the name of “Saving the Planet”. One such offender is The Nature Conservancy. While they sound good on their website, and they sing the sirens song of “Earth First”, they are political terrorists who will seek to outlaw any use of your lands not consistent with their charter.

    They do not live among you and their leadership decisions will not be inclusive of your needs.

    You are blessed with a beautiful home, beware of who you invite to land ownership. If you are reading this, please share it with those making the decisions.

    Aug 09th, 2009 - 04:01 am 0
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