Land Appropriation for Biofuels in Tanzania: Whose Sustainable Development?

Abstract

Biofuels are premised to promote sustainable development by addressing two related global problems: climate change and poverty alleviation in developing countries. It is argued that biofuels could balance conservation and sustainable development by combating climate change while also creating job opportunities to improve local communities’ livelihoods. Certainly, developing countries, including Tanzania, have in recent years promoted investments in biofuels production. Nonetheless, based on findings gathered through qualitative methods in Kisarawe district, Pwani region, this paper maintains that land acquisition for biofuels is best explained by David Harvey’s (2003) concept of accumulation by dispossession – that, the process of transferring land rights from marginalized local people to biofuel investors involved the use of threats, force and manipulation. This has heightened resource conflicts given that biofuels production has tended to exclude resource interests of local communities. Thus, it suffices concluding here that neo-Liberal capitalism is hiding itself in the discourse of climate change to legitimize control over resources in the Global South.