This essay discusses the impacts and effects on the rural population of the large-scale land acquisitions that are taking place in Africa today, with a focus on Tanzania and the activities of the Swedish biofuel company EcoEnergy in the country. The main objective is to explore the implications on the rural population and the environment created by EcoEnergy’s involvement in land acquisition in Tanzania. Large-scale land acquisitions are often said to have a positive impact on a country’s development process. Critical assessments, however, question this opinion and the method chosen for the essay is a case study analysis. For my exploration, it has been crucial to study the documents of the company, its code of conduct and also how the company adheres to Tanzanian laws while carrying out its activities. These documents, which describe expected environmental and social impacts, have been compared to field studies made in Tanzanian villages by institutes to see if EcoEnergy follow their code of conduct statements and adheres to the laws of the country. What has been found when comparing the impact on the environment and the effects on the social life of the local population is that their lives will not be improved, and that promises made by EcoEnergy have not been kept. The conclusion made in this study is that there are no satisfactory communication and information links between the government, the investors and the population. The population does not have any accountability measures towards the investors if the investors’ promises are not kept. The final conclusion is that the development process of Tanzania, as it seems, is thus not gaining on having biofuels investors in the country.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-175415 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Kjellin, Frida |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Kulturantropologiska avdelningen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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