Transcript Jatropha in Maasailand - IUCN Academy of Environmental Law

Jatropha in Maasailand: Why,
How and for Whose Benefit?
Eliamani Laltaika
[LL.M Env.Law (KwaZulu Natal) LL.M-Intellectual Property (Munich)
Doctoral Candidate,
Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law
Munich Germany]
Lecturer
Faculty of Law
Tumaini University Iringa
P.O.BOX 200
IRINGA-TANZANIA
Tanzania: the land of Kilimanjaro
and Zanzibar
One of the worlds biological “hot spots”
Politically stable since independence
Kilimanjaro: As then it was?
Jatropha in Maasailand:
• Why,
• How
• For Whose Benefit?
INTRODUCTION
Preliminary Questions
• What is climate change and how does it
affect indigenous people?
• Who are indigenous people of Africa?
• Who are the Maasai?
• What is Pastoralism?
What is Climate Change?
• Growth of green house gas emission due to the
burning of fossil fuels, resulting mainly from
industrial activities and motor transportation
• Man induced climate change, emphasized by
both UNFCC &IPCC definitions
• Double tragedy to indigenous People:
Adaptation and Mitigation strategies militate
against them
• North South Issue “Paying for the sins of
others?”
Who are Indigenous People?
• Aboriginality: First people in the
Americas, Australia and New Zealand
• Marginalization: African Pastoralists,
Hunter-Gatherers and Fishermen
• Examples of Indigenous People Pygmy
(Central Africa) San of (Southern Africa);
Maasai (Kenya and Tanzania), Tuareg
(west and northern Africa), and the Himba
in Namibia
Who are the Maasai?
• Found in Kenya and Tanzania
 Well known among tourists and travellers
 Still observe their traditions and occupy
their ancestral lands in/around protected
areas such as the Serengeti, Maasai
Mara, Ngorongoro, Tarangire and Manyara
 Pastoralism makes them vulnerable to
climate change
WHY JATROPHA?
• Biofuels come as a result of two crises
• The Climate Crisis and the Oil Crisis
• These are two interrelated GLOBAL problems
“of the North” (affecting all of us)
• The US has indicated that it will support the use
of biofuel as the main way of combating climate
change
• The EU on its part has aimed to replace 10% of
motor transportation fuel by renewable energy
such as biofuel by 2020.
To “solve” the two crises
• There is currently a ‘scramble’ for land
among European and American
corporations interested in biofuel.
• Foreign companies already in Tanzania for
this ‘golden’ opportunity include BioAlcohol Fuel Foundation (BAFF) &Svensk
EtanolKemi AB (SEKAB) of Sweden,
Prokon (Germany) and Wilma of the US
HOW?
• Land grabbing: Big chunks of land used to
grow bio energy crops
• Evict Indigenous People
• Food prices skyrocket
• Manipulating governments to go “head on”
(kichwa kichwa) into biofuels even without
legal and policy instruments in place
HOW?
• Soil degradation, mono cropping
• Deforestation: Competitive prices of
Jatropha lead to clearing forests
• Alien and invasive species
• Danger of uncontrolled GMOs
• Change of lifestyles “bio energy growers”
• No foreseeable future: is the world ready
for biofuels?
HOW?
• Putting Developing countries in a dilemma:
biofuels or nuclear?
• ‘Over 60% of all energy R&D undertaken
around the world during the last forty years
has been spent on developing nuclear
energy. Only 6% has been used to support
renewable energy”
• Nuclear proliferation vs. starving ¾ of the
world: no lesser evil?
FOR WHOSE BENEFIT?
• UNFCC and Kyoto Protocol exempt
developing countries from emission
reduction “Common but differentiated
responsibility”
• Biofuels is NOT a “home grown” priority
• Biofuels will NOT solve domestic oil needs
in Africa as oil is a GLOBAL commodity
• Examples FIJI (water) NIGERIA (Oil)
FOR WHOSE BENEFIT?
• Who are the main players in the field?:
Transnational Corporations!
• “The Corporation…is all about creating wealth,
and it is a highly effective vehicle for doing so.
No internal limits, whether moral, ethical or legal,
limit what or whom corporations can exploit to
create wealth for themselves and their owners”
Bakan J. The Corporation: The Pathological
Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004)
FOR WHOSE BENEFIT?
• Environmental colonialism
• A Kenyan newspaper columnist sums it all
“Slavery, colonialism, plunder, cheap labour,
brain drain… and now bio-piracy. Nothing
has changed much in Africa-Europe ties
for centuries. Africa continues to oil the
wheels of industry in the West.”
The North will receive ALL the benefit!
CONCLUSION
• “Whoever wants to follow me must deny himself”
• The North should learn and PRACTICE how to
live an ecologically friendly life:
• Luxurious lifestyles, “Love miles” and hunger for
“economic prosperity” are our greatest enemies
• “Do justice unto the South” CDM, REDD etc
should be put into practice with less
bureaucracy!
• THERE IS HOPE
Thank you very much
“Asanteni sana”