Constructing landscapes of value: Capitalist investment for the acquisition of marginal or unused land—The case of Tanzania

Exner, Andreas; Bartels, Lara; Windhaber, Markus; Fritz, Steffen; See, Linda; Politti, Emilio; Hochleithner, Stephan

doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.10.002

Cited by 31 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Furthermore, the discrepancies between the hectares of acquired land reported in inventories and media reports, and the 'on the ground' implementation of land acquisitions have been widely documented (Edelman, 2013;Smalley and Corbera, 2012). This discrepancy has been attributed to the grossly overstated availability of so-called 'unused' land in many target countries (Exner et al, 2015), deviations between stated and real investment objectives or abilities by investors (McCarthy et al, 2012), as well as an over-reporting of acquired land areas by media sources, for example (Bräutigam and Zhang, 2013).…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

Friis

Nielsen

2016

Land Use Policy

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a b s t r a c tThe scholarly debate around 'global land grabbing' is advancing theoretically, methodologically and empirically. This study contributes to these ongoing efforts by investigating a set of 'small-scale land acquisitions' in the context of a recent boom in banana plantation investments in Luang Namtha Province, Laos. In relation to the actors, scales and processes involved, the banana acquisitions differ from the stategranted large-scale land acquisitions dominating the literature on 'land grabbing' in Laos. Starting from the experience of a rural village in Laos, where two Chinese banana investors leased land on six-year contracts in 2010, we trace the strategies employed by the investors to gain access to the land, the experience of the villagers in the process and the outcome of the acquisitions in terms of land use change. The findings reveal how the investors established networks of local middlemen who facilitate negotiations over land directly at the village level, thus enabling them to circumvent any formal involvement of government authorities. The informal acquisition process also ensured a rapid and successful implementation of the plantations with consequent land use change, including the destruction of field structures, plot borders and irrigation systems, as well as erosion and heavy chemical input. Drawing upon the literature on 'powers of exclusion' and 'control grabbing', the paper argues that despite the apparent small-scale and short-term nature of these leases, the forceful acquisition strategies pursued by the investors coupled with the rapid land use conversion and associated cultivation practices results in strong and longer-term alienation of land from the local communities involved. This implies the need to take these more informal forms of land acquisitions into account when designing policies to address the negative implications of land grabbing in Laos and elsewhere.

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Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

Friis

Nielsen

2016

Land Use Policy

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“…What was assumed to be unoccupied land suitable for biofuel plantations has often been found to be occupied and used, albeit sometimes in a low-intensive fashion (Olwiga et al 2015). In an extensive assessment of land statistics in Tanzania, Exner et al (2015) conclude that the terms "marginal land" and "unused land" are misleading and even manipulative. The terms emanate from either capitalistic-economic or statebureaucratic narratives, and obscure what are considered irrelevant user groups.…”

Section: Experiences From Commercial Projects and Aid: The Importancementioning

confidence: 99%

Preconditions for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Tanzania

Hansson

Fridahl

Anshelm

et al. 2019

Environ Dev Sustain

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Most mitigation scenarios compatible with a likely change of holding global warming well below 2 °C rely on negative emissions technologies (NETs). According to the integrated assessment models (IAMs) used to produce mitigation scenarios for the IPCC reports, the NET with the greatest potential to achieve negative emissions is bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS). Crucial questions arise about where the enormous quantities of biomass needed according to the IAM scenarios could feasibly be produced in a sustainable manner. Africa is attractive in the context of BECCS because of large areas that could contribute biomass energy and indications of substantial underground CO 2 storage capacities. However, estimates of large biomass availability in Africa are usually based on highly aggregated datasets, and only a few studies explore future challenges or barriers for BECCS in any detail. Based on previous research and literature, this paper analyses the preconditions for BECCS in Tanzania by studying what we argue are the applications of BECCS, or the components of the BECCS chain, that are most feasible in the country, namely (1) as applied to domestic sugarcane-based energy production (bioethanol), and (2) with Tanzania in a producer and re-growth role in an international BECCS chain, supplying biomass or biofuels for export to developed countries. The review reveals that a prerequisite for both options is either the existence of a functional market for emissions trading and selling, making negative emissions a viable commercial investment, or sustained investment through aid programmes. Also, historically, an important barrier to the development of production capacity of liquid biofuels for export purposes has been given by ethical dilemmas following in the wake of demand for land to facilitate production of biomass, such as sugarcane and jatropha. In these cases, conflicts over access to land and mismanagement have been more of a rule than an exception. Increased production volumes of solid biomass for export to operations that demand bioenergy, be it with or without a CCS component, is likely to give rise to similar conflicts. While BECCS may well play an important role in reducing emissions in countries with high capacity to act combined with existing large point sources of biogenic CO 2 emissions, it seems prudent to proceed with utmost caution when implicating BECCS deployment in least developed countries, like Tanzania.The paper argues that negative BECCS-related emissions from Tanzania should not be assumed in global climate mitigation scenarios.

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“…Despite the fact that biofuel imports from developing countries are relatively modest at the moment, EU biofuel policy has had clear negative impacts on those countries already (Diop et al 2013). Also, discourse on 'unused land' and 'wasteland' (which is supposedly freely available to grow biofuel crops on without competing with food production) and 'win-win situations' has so far kept interest in biofuel imports from developing countries alive -a discourse set within unequal power relations and underlain with a great diversity in vested interests (Baka 2014;Borras and Franco 2012;Levidow 2012;Exner et al 2015). Yet many of those developing countries are characterised by similar adverse conditions and constraints to RI that we highlighted for the case of the Hassan project.…”

Section: Biodiesel Production In Hassan As An Innovation Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

Limits to responsible innovation

Hoop

Pols

Romijn

2016

Journal of Responsible Innovation

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Responsible Innovation (RI) is a young field of research that has nevertheless had remarkable successes in dissemination within academic and political circles. However, there is relatively little awareness of its limits, blind spots and situations in which it cannot be used for actual innovation trajectories. Without such awareness, there is a risk that RI may get hollowed out and turned into a tool for 'greenwashing'. To examine RI's limits, we present a case study on biofuel innovation in Hassan, South India. This case study demonstrates that there are important barriers that may make it difficult to conduct innovation according to RI values. In particular, we highlight the following factors that emerge from our case study and need more attention in order to be included and adequately theorised in the RI literature: material barriers to innovation, engagement with abandoning or reducing existing practices as a consequence of innovation, power differences and dependencies, (un)clear demarcation of responsibilities, strategic behaviour and, lastly, different, diverging and even contradictory interests. We demonstrate that such factors may obstruct the possibility to innovate in a responsible way, leading us to our core observation that RI should be about innovating responsibly -or not innovating at all. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Constructing landscapes of value: Capitalist investment for the acquisition of marginal or unused land—The case of Tanzania

Cited by 31 publications

References 17 publications

Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

Small-scale land acquisitions, large-scale implications: Exploring the case of Chinese banana investments in Northern Laos

Preconditions for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Tanzania

Limits to responsible innovation

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