Agrofuels: Africa`s Green Gold Rush or Another Resource Curse?
blurb:isstoday17Dec 08
17 December 2008: Agrofuels: Africa’s Green Gold Rush or Another Resource Curse?
A convergence of global concerns about diminishing oil reserves, detrimental climate change and the financial meltdown, have created new business opportunities in Africa’s most fertile lands. The agrofuels phenomenon of large plantation-style conversion of land to grow crops for fuel is however a disturbing new trend impacting on countries around the region.In 2006, the agrofuels market was worth US$20.5 billion and it is projected to increase to US$80.9 billion by 2016. But while the market in selling fuel in the global North from food crops is projected to balloon, it will still only meet 2-3% of global energy needs at current rates, according to Mariam Mayet of the African Centre for Biosafety.
The use of biofuels from wood, dung and other biological materials has long been traditional practice in Africa. But with internationally set climate mitigation targets and scarce lands in Europe and other Northern countries, growing agrofuels in developing countries have presented an easy way to transition from fossil-fuel dependency to being green - meeting consumption demands by being cost efficient and without severely compromising on modern lifestyles. The impact of this latest imposition on African farmers led African civil society groups from 12 countries to call on their governments in late 2007 to declare a moratorium on agrofuel developments in their countries. Amongst the justifications listed were the threats to food and water security and the privatisation and illegal confiscation of land. In fact, a leaked World Bank report also confirms that the increase of agrofuels has caused a spiral in food prices across the world.
Latest testimonies present more startling findings. In South Africa, for example,agrofuel projects are guided by the Biofuels Industrial Strategy which promotes industrial production of crop plants for energy and excludes other biomass-based fuels such as biogas. The strategy is driven by the government agenda of job creation, mitigating the effects of climate change and producing renewable energy. Apart from the language of sustainable development such as the term of ‘intercropping’ being appropriated to now imply growing of maize and soya in summer and canola in winter, many of the proposed projects fail to deliver substantively on their claims. An undercurrent of the use of so-called marginal or underutilised land for agrofuel plantations in rural areas also creates an incorrect perception. This is because there are indeed a number of land uses including pastures, beekeeping, game reserves, food and other non-timber forest products that are conveniently ignored in the process of signing plantation deals with Northern countries.
The trends in Ethiopia are perhaps even starker. Environmental campaigner NegusuAklilu refers to the so-called miracle plant of Jatropha being used as an agrofuel as the ‘Trojan horse’, with hidden dangers lying just behind the veneer of a promise of investment and development. In a country of 80 million people and being a net food importer, the National Biofuel Strategy of substituting petroleum imports and exporting biofuel products through the promotion of plant-based biofuel production presents a bizarre conundrum. For starters, there is no evidence that marginal land will be used for the agrofuel development. To the contrary, farmlands and grazing lands are currently being used for projects. Furthermore, protected areas in Ethiopia’s dense forest regions are encroached and threatened. No Environmental Impact Assessments or consultation with communities have been conducted by the investment projects, and farmers have been leasing their land out, based on contract agreements signed just with peasant association chairpersons. Chemical sprays used in growing have already destroyed honeybees in the Babille Forest. The monopoly of price fixing has affected outgrowers. Lack of coordination in government agencies and lack of transparency in land acquisition processes have also been troubling. There is also no assurance of improving local energy security. Aklilu argues that there is really no guarantee for national interest to be served under the existing circumstances.
In Uganda, a country thatbasically depends on three sources of energy i.e. biomass 92.2%, fossil fuels 6% and hydro electric power 1.1%, biofuels fit in well with local policies that dictate the privatization of some land services, and for supporting the development of the private sector in relation to land sector activities. The Government, working through the Uganda Investment Authority and Uganda Land Commission, has repeatedly excised government land or granted leases to investors. A revealing case is the Kakira Sugar Works Limited, the largest of the three sugar industries, located in Jinja. Edward Nyakahuma of a local environmental organization states that the plant generates five megawatts of energy from the burning of Bagasse.
YoweriMuseveni, the president of Uganda faced intense opposition in April 2007 over proposals to allocate foreign firms the right to bulldoze 7100 hectares of protected forest. Fears are that chopping down so many trees will reduce local rainfall and further empty Lake Victoria, whose persistent low levels have caused major reduction in power supplies from Uganda Hydro Electric Power station. Other complexities are around the implications for biodiversity when natural forests are replaced by monocultures.
In neighbouring Tanzania, if anything, the priority should be producing biofuels for local consumption,AbdallahMkindi of the Tanzanian NGO Envirocare argues. But without a biofuels policy in the country and the hasty promotion of agrofuels that has resulted in land acquisition by both local and foreign investors, this prospect does not seem promising. It is believed that there are now over 40 companies that have shown an interest in agrofuels as registered with the Ministry of Energy. In plantations owned by Bioshape Tanzania Limited, natural vegetation of the area, which is mainly miombo woodlands and patches of coastal forests, will be wiped out. The blockage of wildlife migration routes due to the location of the plantation sites is also a contentious issue.Land grabbing is affecting village communities and pastoralists and impacting on livelihoods.
There is certainly a common thread that runs through each of the country stories which elude basic priorities of improving food security, enhancing energy security and mitigating climate change for and on the continent. Certainly a conversation about Africa’s place in using these schemes should be around prioritising the most greenhouse gas efficient use of biomass rather than the least efficient (liquid fuel). Furthermore,the high-fossil fuel intensity of current industrial farming models should be acknowledged and the emphasis should be on decarbonising dominant industrial agricultural practise, Mkindi contends. Though bioenergycan play a positive role in a future energy mix if we consider an alternative to the densely packed energy that fossil fuels provides. A revolution in new ways to live must be conceived out of decisionmaking that includes all people concerned. It must seriously consider local ownership and needs that are coherent with Africa’s own sustainable development goals, not simply those imported for marginal distant interests.
Trusha Reddy, Researcher, Corruption and Governance Programme, ISS
