Agribusiness and Green power - the benefits for whom? A case study from Tanzania.

• Agribusiness and Green power - the benefits for whom? A case study from Tanzania Wilhelm Östberg1 and Gunilla A. Olsson2 1 Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, SE -106 91 Stockholm, Sweden 2 School of Global Studies, P.O. Box 700, Göteborg University, SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden The current excited interest in alternatives to fossil fuel is based on the growing insights of the rapid decrease of the global stores of fossil resources for energy production. This has led to a global race for discovering and developing new energy sources – with the dual goal of using renewable resources and to decrease CO2 emissions. Large-scale plantations of rapid growing crops suitable for processing to ethanol or bio-diesel are established especially in tropical and sub-tropical environments. Land, arable and non-arable, has become an expensive commodity linked to high expectations on conveying wealth and large economic benefits to the involved groups. Investors from all parts of the world are searching for suitable areas that can be transformed to bio-energy plantations. This happens in Tanzania where large-scale plantations of sugar cane for ethanol production for the European market, is under way put in order by a foreign company and with encouragement from the Tanzanian government. The land was sold very cheap by the government with the expectation that this enterprise would contribute to positive economic development for the country. It is stated that the new land use would be very profitable since this dryland is unproductive and deserted by humans. This paper presents a study on the implications for local communities and their possibilities to sustainable development when being involved in the globalised market of the production of biofuel. The current and historical land use in this region based on documents and interviews of local communities is surveyed with specific focus on the resource use in local agro-ecosystems. The influence of the new enterprise with its related activities on the livelihoods and resource needs of local peoples are studied. The production of green biofuels is related to the questions of sustainable development for different societies and at different time and spatial scales.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske -- Jordbruksvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries -- Agricultural Science (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

biofuels

sugar cane

ethanol

sustainable develoment

sustainable use of local resources

local participation

ecosystem

biological diversity

cultural diversity

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