(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

FIGURE 2 LAND ACQUISITIONS BY SECTOR IN AFRICA 165
Number of hectares (millions) cross-referenced
Several case studies also support these quantitative findings. A study ordered by the
European Commission and released in January 2012 to give baseline data and
method regarding the impact of biofuels as of 2008 (hereafter the “2008 baseline
study”), reviews the situation in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sudan,
Tanzania and Uganda and equally indicates that African countries with large land
areas suitable for cultivation have become increasingly attractive for biofuel
investments and several examples of this growing trend are given throughout the
study. 166 Jatrophabook, an online community with more than 2,000 members gathering
information about jatropha plantation projects, anticipates more than 1 million hectares
of land grown for jatropha only in Africa in the next 3 years, in particular in Ghana,
Ethiopia and Uganda. 167 It also counts currently 123 jatropha related projects across
the continent (see Annex III).
It comes as no surprise that increase in agrofuel demand leads to pressure on land,
and land grabbing. The various biofuel policies in the world drive the demand for
agrofuels, which in turn require millions of hectares of land to produce the necessary
raw material. For instance, the 2008 baseline study concluded that between 2003 and
2008, 6.6 million hectares additional arable land was put into cultivation globally due to
biofuels. 168
It is however extremely difficult to assess what the exact impact of biofuel demand in
terms of land demand is (See Box 2). Without entering into a battle of numbers, what
is in any case striking is the pace of the growth of the demand of land for biofuels.
Taking the figure above about additional arable land put into cultivation because of
50