Global Utmaning

11 år sedan

In order to achieve sustainable bioenergy and biofuels in Africa, which is the mandate of Global Challenge’s project ABBBA, a good business case is not enough. We need to focus on local empowerment, gender rights, land tenure, protection of biodiversity and other aspects, that were the focus of the Agri4D conference in Uppsala. ABBBA presented its project portfolio, to widespread acclaim – and received many suggestions on where to go next.

Climate change & development goals

At the Agri4D, Johan Rockström from the Stockholm Resilience Centre set the tone by clarifying how climate change is a particular threat to the agricultural sector, with small-scale farmers among the most vulnerable. But, as ABBBA points out, the current focus on climate change is also a tremendous opportunity to increase awareness about biofuel and bioenergy options in Africa – investing in these sectors may not only reduce climate change, but also form an important part of local adaptation to a changing climate.

A central theme for Agri4D is the sustainable development goals that from 2015 are to replace the current Millennium Development Goals. Hannah Akuffo from Sida presented how to deliver on the current goals, while Peter Holmgren, Director-general for Cifor, the Center for International Forestry Research, presented where the new goals are headed. The focus is five transformational shifts, 12 main goals and more than 400 proposed sustainable development goals – how can the UN system deal with this? Holmgren recommends focusing on the most important tasks ahead of us, such as food security, climate change, biological diversity and the “green economy” that was established at Rio+20. Holmgren also warns against the current silo-type approach, which makes it very difficult for cross-sectorial work, including UN initiatives such as REDD which requires that agriculture and forestry work together.

Biofuels

Maria Ölund from LARRI, the Land Rights Research Initiative, presented her findings about EcoEnergy’s sugar cane project in Tanzania, which has already been widely discussed in the Swedish and international media. She particularly focused on the 500 subsistence farmers and pastoralists that now live on the land that EcoEnergy wants to use, out of which some have moved in during the last few years.
EcoEnergy claims that they will all be resettled due to the EcoEnergy project, following the IFC Performance Standards for Resettlement, with compensation for everyone moving into the area before October 2011, with IDC ensuring that the rights of the people are respected, and the government insisting on resettlement happening outside of the land that EcoEnergy wants to use land. While some have criticized that compensation is done in kind, with new lands rather than with money, others argue that dishing out large sums of money may not be the most efficient way to fight poverty, and that the money will most likely remain with the men. LARRI will be following the project for over a year, with more reports to come.

Land Tenure

Mikael Ståhl works with land tenure for development of agricultural and forestry, focusing on Eastern Africa. “It is generally a densely populated area, where smallholder farms dominate, with land shortage and low yields. Forests, national parks, rivers, rangelands are public land, while the cultivated land is held by farmers under different rules. Land cannot be bought or sold without written agreements.” The main exception is Kenya, which has privatized land since the 1950s and continues to issue private title deeds, that can be bought and sold by the owner without anyone else’s consent.

The current trend, according to Ståhl, is that donors now favor the implementation of the customary systems, with certificates of occupancy. However, these tenures have been criticized for promoting hierarchy, favoritism, exclusion of women and marginal groups. Also, the process is difficult, needs land register competence, a political will, local acceptance and measures against corruption.

When Ståhl compared the two main different systems, he claims that “the impact on productivity is very limited – freehold or customary ownership doesn’t seem to matter much”. More focus should be given to additional farm inputs and marketing.

Land grabbing

As Mikael Ståhl made clear, everyone is involved in “land grabbing”; emerging local farmers, local banks, town people – it is not just the Chinese, and it is certainly not limited to bioenergy. To prevent land grabbing, Ståhl sees documented evidence of land holding as necessary, and asks all parties involved to refrain from calling any land related investment ”grabbing”, instead using “large-scale land acquisition“. Linda Engström from the Nordic Africa Institute pointed out that many NGOs and institutions have now agreed on the Tirana definition, and that there are guidelines for responsible investments that should be used.

Side shows

At the Agro4D side shows, Ulf Magnusson from SLU showed how Wikipedia can be used to share information about crops for in languages and to parts of the world where there is not much information available.

Of particular African relevance was Anafe, the African Network for agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural resources Education, presented by Martha Zdrackovic. Anafe brings together industry, research institutions and universities in Ghana, Mali, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya, to promote exports that were not previously happening, as well as a more efficient usage, so that waste is used for energy production, etc.

ABBBA presented its aim – to match-make relevant projects in Africa with willing investors in Sweden – and the projects that are currently worked on, including energy efficient stoves, bioethanol from sugar beet and conversion of safari vehicles to solar-based electricity. The presentation led to several new prospects – stay tuned for more information!