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Analyzing Contentious Environmental Politics: Matola Hazardous Waste Incineration Project

Explore the contentious politics surrounding Mozambique's incineration project through stakeholders, actions, discourses, and outcomes to understand how public mobilization affects environmental decision-making processes.

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Analyzing Contentious Environmental Politics: Matola Hazardous Waste Incineration Project

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  1. Contentious Politics in Environmental Assessment: The Matola Hazardous Waste Incineration Project, Mozambique John F. Devlin, PhD Associate ProfessorSchool of Environmental Design and Rural DevelopmentRoom 116 - Landscape Architecture Building - University of Guelph50 Stone Road East, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1Tel: 519-824-4120 Ext.52575 / Fax: 519-767-1686

  2. The Proposal • Collect obsolete pesticides from all over Mozambique: 300 – 900 tons. • Develop a disposal plan: land fill, export, incineration • Develop a hazardous waste incinerator to burn those that can be incinerated. • Recondition an existing cement kiln in Matola using Danish incineration technology.

  3. The Timeline • 1996 Mozambican authorities request DANIDA's assistance for the disposal of obsolete pesticides • 1997 Collection of pesticides begins and first EA Report completed • 1998 NGO opposition begins • 1999 Second EA Report Completed • 2000 MICOA (Mozambique’s Ministry for Environmental Coordination) announces that the project is cancelled. • How does the contentious politics approach suggest we analyze this process?

  4. Contentious Politics • Mobilizing structures • The stakeholders and their resources • Repertoires of action • What the stakeholders do • Discursive contention • What the stakeholders argue • Political opportunity structures • Additional conditions and events that shape the contention

  5. Mobilizing structures • The Proponents • MICOA (Ministry for Environmental Coordination, Mozambique) • DANIDA (Danish International Aid Agency) • Cimentos de Mozambique • The Opposition • BAN (Basel Action Network) • Greenpeace (International, Denmark) • Environmental Justice Networking Forum (SA) • Livaningo (All that Sheds Light) (Mozambique) • City of Matola (Mozambique)

  6. Repertoires of action • Letters to DANIDA President • Press releases • Newspaper articles • Meeting with Danish Parliamentarians • Public meetings and education campaign in Maputo/Matola • Demonstrations in Maputo/Matola

  7. Discursive contention • The environmental impacts of incineration. • Emission of dioxins, furans, persistent organic pollutants • Danger to the local community • The potential for international trade in wastes • Contravention of Basel, Bamako, Lome IV conventions • The existence of alternatives • Export of all wastes to countries with existing facilities • Cost: The alternatives would be cheaper • $2.2 million instead of $8.8 million • The weakness of the public participation process • Limited notice, difficulty of access to documents, limited public hearings

  8. Political opportunity structures • Existing international conventions: • Basel, Bamako, Lome IV • Mozambique’s adoption of EA legislation in 1997 • Fact of international funding • Danish involvement, multiple pressure points • International concern about obsolete pesticides • NGOs had interest and developed positions • International concern about waste incineration • NGOs had experts, analysis • Disagreements within the Dutch government • DANIDA vs. DANCED

  9. Explanation • The final decision to abandon the project was not inevitable. Why did it happen? What was most important? • The MICOA statement asserted the non-viability of the project from an economic standpoint not an environmental one. • A key defection • Cimentos de Mozambique announced that it was not willing to become a permanent hazardous waste incineration facility. • This made the investment non-viable

  10. Conclusions/Hypotheses • Public mobilization was important • Cimentos de Mozambique would not have changed its position if the public mobilization had not taken place • Proponents with vulnerability to the local community are more likely to defect to the opposition • Economic outcomes continue to be more important than environmental outcomes in decision making.

  11. Generalizing -Applying contentious politics to EA processes

  12. The Research Program • The objective is theory construction • What factors influence outcomes in the EA process? • Are there necessary and /or sufficient conditions? • There is need for many case studies of contention in EA to contribute to this research program. • Theory will advance through accumulation and comparative analysis of case studies. • You are all invited to contribute.

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