Climate Crises: Defending the land

The Chieftaincy Institution in Ghana: Causers and Arbitrators of Conflicts in Industrial Jatropha Investments

“…The conflict issues are very diverse and location dependent, and natural resources conflicts are on the increase, especially in raw material production and natural resource-dependent economies, as has been documented by other studies [43,46,49]. Land, being the medium of production, has predominantly been the focus of these conflicts in most countries [45,50]. Even though the conflict issues associated with large-scale land acquisitions for industrial Jatropha cultivation that have been described in this study have existed even in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial eras, these experiences are being exacerbated by the increased pressure on land due to population increase.…”

“…Large-scale land acquisitions increase the land use intensity and decrease the size of plots per head available to locals. Large-scale land acquisitions around communities that have been surrounded by fallow lands for centuries may therefore trigger a feeling of insecurity, because of real or perceived current or intergenerational threats of landlessness [39,50].…”

“…As forests, fallow lands, pasture and active agricultural lands are expropriated for industrial Jatropha cultivation, local communities are squeezed onto smaller and less fertile parcels of land and compelled to rely on a smaller resource base for food and income. In most of these large-scale land acquisitions, those very much affected are the non-indigenous farmers, who have very little representation and rights to land in these communities [50]. Already, the land issue in Ghana is bedeviled with social and gender imbalances largely reinforced by its tribo-patriarchal identity and political history [3].…”