(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

While agrofuel related crops are grown in countries where the population already
suffers from undernourishment, it is not even entirely sure whether there would be
enough land available in Africa to fulfil the world’s biofuel needs in addition to
human livelihood needs. Indeed, the estimated figures about the amount of land
needed for biofuel production presented above have to be taken together with the
projected demand of land for food, housing and other essential needs, in a context
where technological progress is unsure and climate change limits the arable land
available (see chapter 2). The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de
Schutter, already estimates that it would be difficult to expand the areas under
cultivation to the degree required to accommodate the growth of rural populations. 281 It
might thus be that the expansion of agrofuel related crops in Africa could have for
consequence that the continent would not have enough land available to fulfil its own
food needs. Although figures about the amount of land necessary for agrofuel
production and the amount of arable land available are contested, and while this issue
still needs to be further researched, as scientific knowledge stands, the idea of an
Africa that cannot become food self-sufficient if agrofuels keep on expanding as
planned cannot be excluded.
BOX 2 THE DIFFICULTY TO ASSESS HOW MUCH ARABLE LAND IS
“AVAILABLE” AND THE CLAIM ON “MARGINAL” LAND
As the International Energy Agency explains: “There may be potential to use
currently unused land, but it is difficult to identify “unused” land, since reliable field data
is lacking on current land-use through smallholders and rural communities. Complex
land tenure structures and lack of infrastructure in rural areas are additional challenges
for the expansion of biofuel production in many African countries.” 282
The HLPE equally indicated: “[I]t must be recognised that expansion of the agricultural
land area will be at the expense of grazed or forest land, with both social and
environmental impacts.”
“Satellite and aerial photos cannot show the invisible elements that are essential for
understanding how land is actually used, the rights of different users of the land, and
existing land-based social relations. And in many countries, cadastral systems
showing registered land claims are extremely problematical, so that official state
records and actual reality do not match. In addition, a large number of smallholder
farmers may have no registered rights to the farmland and commons on which their
incomes and livelihoods depend.
It is often asserted that there is much ‘available’ land in Africa and Latin America. This
suggests abundant unused land. However, there is rarely any valuable land that is
neither already being used in some way, nor providing an important environmental
service. Hence, any taking of land deemed to be ―available‖ will impose some cost,
either on the existing land user, or in environmental services forgone.” 283
In addition, agrofuel investors usually a single large piece of land, while, if there are
tracks of unused land, these are often multiple small pieces within a dynamic and
clustered populated area.
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