The World Bank is financing a land titling, or “regularization” program in the Brazilian State of Piauí, where large areas of land have been grabbed from local communities and illegally occupied by agribusiness. Local communities, including communities of descendants of runaway slaves (quilombolas) as well as indigenous peoples, are being violently displaced from their traditional lands and face contamination of water and soils, increasing violence against community leaders, deforestation and loss of biodiversity. Through a 120 million USD loan, the World Bank thus supports a land titling program that risks sanctifying these land grabs and paving the way for a new rush of 'legalized' land grabbing, with more catastrophic social and environmental consequences. As the World Bank hosts its annual Land and Poverty Conference in Washington D.C., from 19-23 March 2018, Brazilian social organizations and their international partners and supporters are calling for the Bank to suspend its support for the land titling program in Piauí and to respond to the demands of affected communities. The World Bank project contains no concrete safeguards to ensure that it actually secures people’s tenure rights against dispossession by local agribusiness and speculators, and to guarantee that it does not formalize the dispossession of communities in the context described above. As such, the project does not close the gaps of the state of Piauí’s law on land regularization and is not in line with the UN Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests (Tenure Guidelines). The Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office intervened on December 18, 2017 by issuing a formal recommendation to the World Bank to suspend the land program and to adopt measures to remedy the violations of the land rights of traditional peoples and communities that have already occurred. [1] The World Bank has yet to respond. We call upon the World Bank to: Comply with the recommendations contained in the Brazilian Public Prosecutor’s Office’s letter by immediately suspending the project “Piauí: Pillars of Growth and Social Inclusion” and the land regularization/titling process in Piauí. Respond to the demand of affected communities – which is supported by the Public Prosecutor’s Office – to establish a dialogue round table with the objective of assessing the effects of the World Bank-financed land regularization program in Piauí, in order to prevent and remedy violations and to put in place mechanisms, which guarantee local communities control over their territories as well as effective remedies, including the restitution of community lands. The round table should involve representatives of the affected communities, the agrarian court of the state judiciary (Vara Agrária da Justiça Estadual), the Land Institute of Piauí (Instituto de Terras do Piauí, INTERPI), the state and federal offices of the Public Prosecutor, the State Parliament of Piauí, FAO and support groups from civil society. This dialogue round table should be convened by FAO as the leading UN agency for the implementation of the Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests. To publicly disclose how the land titling/regularization project in Piauí and any other loans, projects and operations the World Bank is involved with, are in compliance with the Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests. [1] www.fian.org/fileadmin/media/publications_2017/Letters_and_statements/Recomendac__a__o_MPF.pdf. This statement is endorsed by the following organizations and networks: Ação Acadêmica para o Desenvolvimento das Comunidades Rurais, Moçambique ActionAid Brazil ActionAid USA Amazon Watch Articulação Nacional das Pescadoras, Brazil Articulação Piauiense dos Povos Impactados pelo MATOPIBA, Brazil Associação dos Advogados dos Trabalhadores Rurais, Brazil Associação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil Campanha Nacional em Defesa do Cerrado, Brazil Caritas Piauí, Brazil Centro de agricultura alternativa do Norte de Minas Gerais, Bazil Centro Internazionale Crocevia, Italy Coletivo das Comunidades de Fundo e Fecho de Pasto, Brazil Comissão de Povos Originários Populações e Comunidades Tradicionais do Fama 2018, Brazil Comissão Nacional de Fortalecimento de Reservas Extrativistas e dos Povos Extrativistas Costeiros e Marinhos, Brazil Comissão Pastoral da Terra (CPT), Brazil Community Alliance for Global Justice, USA Conselho Indigenista Missionário (Cimi), Brazil Conselho Pastoral dos Pescadores, Brazil Coordenação Nacional da Articulação das Comunidades Negras Rurais Quilombolas, Brazil Development and Peace - Caritas Canada Eco Ruralis, Romania Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria Family Farm Defenders, USA Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (FASE), Brazil FIAN Belgium FIAN BRASIL FIAN Germany FIAN International FIAN Sweden Focus on the Global South Friends of the Earth US Global Exchange, USA GRAIN Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, USA Grassroots International, USA HEKS/EPER, Switzerland Housing and Land Rights Network – Habitat International Coalition Inclusive Development International, USA Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, USA Instituto Mais Democracia, Brazil Instituto Sociedade Proteção e Natureza, Brazil International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), USA Just Foreign Policy, USA La Via Campesina Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns, USA Masifundise, South Africa Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST), Brazil Movimento Interegional das Quebradeiras de Coco Babaçu, Brazil Movimento Trabalhadores Camponeses, Brazil Movimentos dos Pescadores e Pescadoras Artesanais, Brazil National Family Farm Coalition, USA Observatório das Nacionalidades, Brazil Presbyterian Ministry at the United Nations, Presbyterian Church, USA Rede Pantaneira, Brazil Rede Social de Justiça e Direitos Humanos, Brazil Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food Solidarity Sweden - Latin America (SAL) Terra Nuova, Italy Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE), Brazil US Food Sovereignty Alliance (USFSA) WhyHunger, USA World Forum of Fisher Peoples Source: FIAN international