The Journal of Peasant Studies · 2014 · 36 citations · 44 references
Natural ResourcesForestryNatural Resource GovernanceForest PolicyLand Use ManagementResource GovernanceForest GovernanceForest PoliticsForest Property RightsForest TenureLand GovernanceLand ReformAccess Rights To Forest ResourcesForest Political EconomyForest Resource GovernanceForest Tenure RightsGovernance Of Forest ResourcesLand PoliticsNatural Resource TenureProperty Rights In Forestry
AbstractCustomary land and forests are more embedded in the global economy than ever. With globally significant supplies of land and raw materials and favorable terms for foreign investors, developing countries – particularly in Africa – have become increasingly attractive trade partners and destinations for investors. Increasing competition over land is placing new pressures on vast tracts of forest and woodland, areas often considered ‘under-utilized’ by national governments despite their critical role in supporting local livelihoods. While increased demand for primary agricultural, forest and mining commodities in the context of forest tenure reforms and decentralized decision-making could create unprecedented economic opportunities for forest-dependent communities, increased ‘stakes’ over forest resources and land will undoubtedly heighten governance challenges. This is in no small part due to the political dynamics of property, and to the role of the ‘recursive constitution of property rights and authority’ in the evolution of the modern nation-state. By identifying the social ‘stakes’ associated with different pathways through which sectoral and extra-sectoral commodities shape forests, this paper provides a conceptual framework for analyzing how shifting contours of rights, property and authority in the context of forest-related trade and investment shape human well-being for affected communities and the wider citizenry of host countries. It then illustrates the use of the framework through its application to two brief case studies from southern Africa: tobacco production in Malawi and copper mining in Zambia. It is hoped that this framework will provide a meaningful contribution to growing scholarship on the political dynamics of property, and implications for rights-based approaches to agricultural investment and large-scale land acquisitions.Keywords: customary tenureforeign direct investmentforestslarge-scale land acquisitionstrade-offs The authors gratefully acknowledge the conceptual contributions of Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) colleagues in the trade and investment domain and the generous financial assistance from the European Union. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers who provided constructive critiques on an earlier draft.Notes1While a growing body of scholarship has questioned the use of the term ‘customary’ to refer to tenure relations shaped in profound ways by colonial and post-colonial history (Snyder Citation1981, Schmidt Citation1990, Mamdani Citation1997), we retain the term as a way to distinguish the de facto tenure relations prior to industrial penetration of affected communities with the changes induced through these processes.2Which are often advanced to justify state and corporate appropriation of rural areas and its associated costs.3While other authors equate property with rights through their emphasis on formal recognition of claims (‘property is only property if politically legitimate institutions sanction it’, Sikor and Lund 2009, 1), we retain this original definition in order to differentiate between rights and property.4Or as ‘legitimate property’, to use the terminology of the authors (Sikor and Lund 2009, 1).5Concessions granted to logging, non-timber forest product (NTFP) extraction, mining, exploitation of oil and gas, and agricultural production are included in this figure.6FPIC is here defined as the right of project-affected persons to give or withhold their consent to proposed projects that may affect the lands, territories and resources they customarily own, occupy or use, as expressed through their own chosen representatives, in the absence of coercion or manipulation, based on a full sharing of relevant information, prior to the approval or implementation of legislative or administrative measures or project activities that may affect them (see UN 2008, Colchester in prep.).7The level of compensation should be compared to the full opportunity costs associated with activities forgone during the concession period and beyond (e.g. opportunities lost due to the degraded state of the resource).8According to Mangisoni (2005), tobacco directly or indirectly supported between 7 and 8 million people per year from 2000 to 2005.9Following policy reforms in 1990s, smallholders began to dominate the industry, with the average size of tobacco farms being 1.0 ha and the average tobacco field 0.2 ha. Only China rivals Malawi in this regard among major producer countries (Jaffee 2003).10This contrasts with figures provided during an October 2009 interview with the Tobacco Control Commission, which gave a figure of 15 percent, which would suggest the economic importance of the sector to GDP is on the decline. The agricultural sector as a whole contributes about 39 percent to the country's GDP and 90 percent to its foreign exchange earnings (MAFS 2010).11Flue-cured tobacco, which requires higher investments in processing, is grown primarily by medium- and especially large-scale estates (Jaffee 2003).Additional informationLaura German is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Center for Integrative Conservation Research at the University of Georgia. She has spent the past seven years working on the impacts and governance of large-scale land acquisitions, including the local social and environmental impacts of biofuels (special issue of Ecology and Society, 2011); comparative analysis of legislation and practice related to large-scale land acquisitions (World Development, 2013); regulatory, market-based and multi-level governance (Energy Policy, Journal of Development Studies and Review of Policy Research, among others), and the development of frameworks and case studies to explore trade-offs for customary rights holders and citizens (Journal of Peasant Studies, Agriculture and Human Values and Human Ecology, forthcoming). Other interests include integrated natural resource management, community-based governance of natural resources and research-policy-practices linkages.Alois Mandondo is a doctoral student in the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. He has worked on natural resource governance, especially the political economy of environmental decentralizations, for the past 15 years. He has published about a dozen scientific articles in this area. One of his recent publications includes a book, co-edited with Ravi Prabhu and Frank Matose, entitled Coping amidst chaos: studies on adaptive collaborative management in Zimbabwe (CIFOR, 2008).Fiona Paumgarten is currently completing her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Prior to this she was based with the Center for International Forestry Research, where she specialized in the contribution of dry forest products to rural livelihoods, primarily in Zambia but also in other dry forest countries including Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Tanzania and Malawi. Major interests include forest-based livelihoods, (collective action in) NTFP value chains, vulnerability and climate change adaptation.Jacob Mwitwa is a Professor of natural resources management in the Copperbelt University in Zambia. He has over 20 years of experience in natural resources management, environmental resources policy, rural livelihoods and conservation, and project management. He holds a PhD in forest science from the University of Stellenbosch and has published two books, and articles in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, he contributes significantly to the private sector and civil society through his position as a member of a company board and board of trustees.
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