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Impact of forestry interventions on land conflicts and land tenure in Eastern Africa

This study explores the implications of forestry interventions on land conflicts and tenure in Eastern Africa, with a focus on the timber rush and its impact on local communities. It examines the scale and actors involved in the timber industry, the drivers of the timber rush, land access procedures, institutional governance, and the effects on farmers and the wider growth of the value chain.

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Impact of forestry interventions on land conflicts and land tenure in Eastern Africa

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  1. Impact of forestry interventions on land conflicts and land tenure in Eastern Africa Esbern Friis-Hansen, Senior Researcher Rasmus Hundsbæk Pedersen, Postdoc

  2. From land grabbing to unpacking land-based investments? DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  3. Background:The land grabbing debate 2007-08 Triplecrisis over finance, fuel and food: • Increasedlevel of FDI intonaturalresourcesIn developingcountries (esp. Africa), preceded by liberalisation. • Flurry of activity, publications, amongscholars and NGO activists. • Convergence of critique of contemporarycapitalism and neocolonialism. DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  4. Land grabbing revisited Around 2013: land grabbingrevited: • Scale: From 203 million ha (2012) to 42.4 million ha (2016) (Land Matrix). • Otheractorsthan FDI involved, unpackingrequired. • Debates over methodologies and definitions. = Cotula (2013): The greatAfrican Land Grab? DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  5. Today: Plural approaches to studying land-based investments • Diversity of drivers and actors: more focus on domestic actors and political economy. • Context matters: more complex links between local-national-international. • Distribution of costs and benefits requires unpacking (though social diversification seem trend across). • Interplay between commoditisation, authority, rights, infrastructure. • Land grabbing label reserved to a narrower set of cases. DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  6. Scale and actors of timber rush DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  7. Scale and actors of timber rush DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  8. Pace, Scale and Drivers of Timber Rush Market volume; Market access; Land and labour availability; Culture; Cost-benefit; Land use factors influencing village plantation Land access & process Value chain Villagers Access procedures Land reforms Institutions Governance Relations (villagers- domestic investors) Asymetriceconomy VC input-output VC relations VC governance VC standards Changes in product, process and fuction Institutionalcontext Alternative landuse options Land properties Infrastructure Domestic investors Foreign investors Actors Impact Farmer-investor land conflicts Agriculture or trees Income from sale of trees Labour market Wider growth from value chain

  9. Forest land use • Villagers plant trees on slopes og infertile land, but also on flat fertile agricultural land • Domestic investors plant trees between the villages and on former common land • Land use planning and local bylaws are insufficient institutions for regulating land use DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  10. Land conflicts and institutions • Relations between domestic investors and the villages are envolving over time. Positive when land is sold, less so after some years when land become more scarce and prices increase • Strong increase in conflicts over ownership to land between domestic investors and multiple local people claiming ownership after initial sale • Significant increase cases at ward and district land courts • Shifting village government have conflicting interests in land transactions DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  11. Timber value chain • Value of trees in the field 2000$ per acre; Value as processedsawnplanks10-15.000 $ • Decentralizedthrough mobile sawmills • Timber traders operate unregulated cartels. • Taxation of timer trade is minimal • No policy policy facilitation of value chain DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  12. Timber value chain • F DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  13. Timber Rush and Food security • Trees replace food crops • Less land for hire for the poor • Sale of trees for buying food • Casual labour market ensure food security for the ‘able poor’ DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  14. Political economy of forest fire • Forest fire is the major risk for village plantations • Villagers only help fight fires for domestic investors that they have good relations to • No institutional enforcement of firebreaks, no modern firefighting equipment, no consequence for starting fires DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  15. Towards a new rural social fabric ? • Domestic investors aremembers of the village and asked to makevoluntarycontributions to villageprojects • Domestic investors create jobs • Social relations between investors and villagegovernmentare of mutualimportance DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

  16. Unpacking large-scale natural ressource investments DIIS ∙ DANISH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

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