A timely lesson for the New Alliance
initiative
FAC Policy Brief 80 by Emmanuel Sull
Policies promoting biofuels development
through financial incentives in Europe and in the United States of
America are major drivers of the ‘land rush’ in many African
countries. Yet, we know that most of the first projects have not
achieved their intended objectives on the ground.
Amidst these
controversial and failed investments, which continue to hold large
tracts of land in Africa, the G8 initiative called the New Alliance
for Food Security and Nutrition is trying to attract substantial new
private investment in agriculture in ten African countries.
The New
Alliance focuses on public-private investments, with host governments
offering large tracts of land to investors. These land-based
investments follow similar patterns to unrealised ambitions of
biofuels investments. Given the evidence of negative impacts of
biofuels investments on rural communities’ access to and control of
land, water and forests, the New Alliance implementing partners need
to consider lessons from the biofuels rush, and take different
pathways to avoid such impacts.
No comments:
Post a Comment