Resource nationalism and community engagement in extractive resource governance: insights from Tanzania

Abstract

Resource nationalism has dominated resource governance politics across Africa. Resource-rich states have sought to both relegitimise extraction and secure more economic benefits. However, there is a paucity of studies on the consequences of resource nationalism for community participation in resource-governance and decision-making processes. Drawing on three cases of community resistance and negotiation in three different eras, this paper compares two waves of resource nationalism, i.e. the second and third waves, to show whether and how resource nationalism promotes community participation. While presenting itself as pro-participatory governance, resource nationalism reproduces structural constraints on meaningful community engagement in extractive resource governance.

Beyond environmentalism: The geopolitical chess game behind Indonesia’s mineral export bans and renewable energy transition

“…This paper will also explain how Indonesia is changing its role in global politics through concrete steps, such as implementing a ban on nickel and bauxite exports. This action not only reflects a progressive national policy, but is also a real step in realizing resource nationalism (Poncian 2021, Tritto 2023. The implementation of this policy is also a concrete example that is relevant to global and national geopolitical dynamics.…”

Resource Nationalism and Community Benefits

“…The main reason why it has become an area of interest is because governments aim to maximize benefits from endowed natural resources. Thus, to maximize state revenue, many governments have amended mining laws to increase taxes, royalties, levies and fees (Poncian, 2021). However, some scholars argue that resource nationalism measures mainly focus on increasing government revenue from large-scale mining (LSM), while ignoring the benefits to the host local communities (Kinyondo & Huggins, 2019).…”

“…In the July of 2017, the Tanzania national assembly passed a series of mining legislations that aimed to protect the country's natural resources and create employment opportunities among Tanzanians (Poncian, 2021). Moreover, these resource nationalist measures aimed to strengthen the contribution of the mining sector to the national GDP, as well as increase benefits to local communities.…”

“…Some studies (Holden, 2013;Hameau et al, 2019) show that countries like Botswana, Austria, China, Canada, Norway, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore experienced better rates of economic growth due to strong institutions, among other things. Since the 2017 resource nationalist reforms in Tanzania intended to strengthen institutions, the application of this theory was found to be ideal for this study because the introduced changes in the mining sector are associated with regulated mining laws and regulations (Poncian, 2021). Generally, the enactment of these reforms brought higher expectations in communities in the management of natural resources.…”