Large-Scale Land Acquisitions and Customary Land Tenure Systems : Corporate Playground or Minefield? The Case of Addax Bioenergy SL Ltd. and a Communal Land Conflict in its Project Area
Keywords
Loading...
Authors
Issue Date
2013-09
Language
en
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) are the subject of a heated debate among
academics, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and development institutions. Given
the risks these acquisitions bring with them, some international institutions have proposed
Codes of Conduct (CoCs) for companies that wish to pursue a socially responsible LSLA.
Many critics find these CoCs to be ineffective in sufficiently protecting affected communities
from LSLA related risks, such as food security and landlessness. There are, however, other
ways in which an LSLA affects communities: they are likely to induce local renegotiation of
land governing authorities and the legitimacy of those authorities. This may especially
problematic in post-conflict societies, where relations between people and authorities may
be ambiguous or contested. An LSLA may worsen these relations and may even enforce
exclusion and social tensions.
It is thus important to look beyond the question whether or not a CoC guided LSLA is
desirable as development tool and to assess how an LSLA affects land governance
processes. This research focuses on how Addax Bioenergy SL Ltd. - a company that
pursues a presumably socially responsible LSLA in Sierra Leone’s Northern Province -
affects social dynamics and local land governance processes in Komarabai, a village in their
project area. By doing so, the aim of this study is to contribute to to the debates on CoCs by
exploring what the International Finance Corporation - Performance Standards (IFC-PS) and
the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels - Sustainability Standards (RSB-SS) are lacking and
whether and how overlooked effects of LSLAs can be better addressed in these CoCs.
Qualitative research conducted in July-September 2012 found that (i) land
governance in Sierra Leone is organised through strict social hierarchies, that are based on
narratives of descendancy. This causes both land governance and the social hierarchies to
be prone to disagreements and thus conflict. (ii) Competing visions on social hierarchies
created a conflict over authority in Komarabai. This conflict over authority formed the basis
of a conflict that was fought over a territory. (iii) Disagreement between conflicting parties
over what constitutes a legitimate authority impedes mutual acceptance of possible
solutions presented by third parties. This led the conflict to come to a stalemate prior to the
Addax project. (iv) When the company made its entry in the area, the village head man was
appointed as a central point of contact in the community. Given the fact that his authority
was contested, Addax contributed to exclusion by showing respect for local (land) governing
actors, (v) Addax’s signatory system has led the company to be perceived as a legitimate
authority in the area, (vi) the implementation of CoC recommendations, such as stakeholder
engagement has contributed to the resurgence of the conflict, rather than providing a
platform where all stakeholder could equally participate and present their concerns. In
addition, both the CoCs and Addax’s project design display a reliance on the legitimacy of
traditional and other governance actors, whereas this case indicates that their legitimacy
might well be contested, which in turn may result in failure to resolve a conflict.
These conclusions lead to the notion that there does not seem to be a panacea that
ensures negative consequences of LSLAs to be effectively mitigated or neutralised.
Companies involved in large-scale land acquisitions should therefore look beyond the CoCs
and determine for themselves to what extent the recommendations are relevant to the
environment they wish to conduct business in. At the same time, it is advised to such
companies to be highly aware of local problematic circumstances, because the example of
Addax Bioenergy indicates that marginalisation and social tensions can be triggered
accidentally.
Description
Citation
Supervisor
Faculty
Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen