The politics of agrofuels and mega-land and water deals: insights from the ProCana case, Mozambique

Abstract

This paper examines the politics of large-scale commercial biofuels production and mega-land -water deals, with special reference to the dynamics of changes in land/ water use and property rights and how these impact on the lives and livelihoods of the socio-economically marginalised rural sectors in the countryside. The main argument is that the assumption about existing, available marginal lands is fundamentally flawed. It is demonstrated by examining the ProCana sugar cane ethanol plantation in Gaza province in Mozambique.

Biocombustibles y agua. La transformación del espacio en Piura, Perú

“…En varias regiones del mundo los impactos de los biocombustibles en la tierra y el agua han sido motivo de estudio (Borras et al, 2011a(Borras et al, , 2011b(Borras et al, , 2012a(Borras et al, , 2012b(Borras et al, , 2013; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United 2 Los primeros se derivan de cultivos energéticos, los segundos de residuos agrícolas y los terceros de algas y fuentes de biomasa. El desarrollo de combustibles de segunda y tercera generación no ha tenido mucho eco en el Perú (Novoa y Mutschler, 2010).…”

“…En el Perú, el acaparamiento de tierras (land grabbing) está vinculado con proyectos de agroexportación y minerales (Bebbington, 2007(Bebbington, , 2013Borras et al, 2011aBorras et al, , 2011bBorras et al, , 2012aBorras et al, , 2012bBurneo, 2012;Bury, 2007;Del Castillo, 2006;Ploeg, 2006). Burneo (2013) analiza procesos de transformación territorial en Piura a propósito de la concentración y el uso de tierras de comunidades campesinas por industrias extractivas y empresas de biocombustibles.…”

Braving the Storm: How are Global Biofuel Policies Sustained Despite Being Contested? An Analysis of the Biofuel Discourses of the EU, Brazil and Mozambique

“…Interestingly, a recent trend towards a more cautious official discourse of Mozambique can be observed, influenced among others by the actions of individual actors like the new Mozambican agricultural minister José Pacheco (see Norfolk and Hanlon 2012: 13) and the failure of previous biofuel projects like ProCana (see Borras et al 2011). Coexisting with corporate developmentalists, this second coali-tion of cautious developmentalists maintains the arguments in support for biofuels and industrialisation, but also emphasises the need to balance biofuel promotion with ensuring food security and the rights of the Mozambican population.…”

Sustainable biofuel: A question of scale and aims

“…For example, territory -at each spatial scale -can be analysed to serve an objective such as the identification or evaluation of agricultural residue, residual biomass and/or other products for bioenergy production (Beccali et al, 2008;FerreiraLeitao, 2010;Goltsev et al, 2010;Mabee and Mirck, 2011;Tricase and Lombardi, 2009;Yan, 2008). Policies for biofuel development (Borras et al, 2011;Hultman et al, 2012) in rural areas are analysed to verify opportunities, through the development of biomass, to diversify economies and increase farmers' incomes (Mwakaje, 2012;Zolin, 2011). On the other hand, some recent studies question the scale of production (Carrosio, 2013;Cotula, 2012;Monteleone et al, 2009) and pay more attention to the local acceptance of biogas plants (Kortsch et al, 2015;Schumacher and Schultmann, 2017;Soland et al, 2013).…”