(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

should be remarked however that the negative impacts of high food prices are on the
short or middle term, and that in the long term, some studies do not exclude a positive
effects of high food prices, but under certain circumstances. 294
As we will see below, employment opportunities and the level of incomes created by
the investment in biofuels do not allow to have a safe access to food via the market
especially in the context of food price volatility.
6.2. Access to land and water
In most African countries, the land formally belongs to the state, which plays a key role
in land allocation. 295 The State is thus a central actor to deal with the recent
investments in land. However, land ownership is in practice very complex in Africa,
as land rights are often customary, or the management of the land is delegated to a
village or a community. 296 In addition, in many of these countries, land policies – i.e.
policies defining how people use and interact with the land 297 – are weak and do not
efficiently protect customary land rights. 298 Formalised land tenure rights would exist
for at most 10% of the land, and mostly in urban areas. 299 In many African countries,
there are little requirements in terms of environmental and social impact assessments
prior to commercial or development projects, and they are often poorly enforced when
they exist. 300
As the case of Mali illustrates (part 4.2), due to the lack of appropriate recognition and
effective protection of customary land rights and systems, States are abusing the fact
that they are formal owners of all lands to arbitrarily dispossess local communities of
their use rights in order to allocate the lands to investors. This practice amounts in Mali
and other countries to violations of the rights to housing and food of the affected
population.
The promotion of large scale production leads to the concentration of land ownership,
rather than a fair land distribution that allows the local population to benefit from it. 301
Large scale investments stimulated by the EU biofuel policy create uncertainty and
instability regarding the status and the use of the land. This has important negative
consequences on poverty alleviation, as it has been shown that security of tenure is a
key dimension to reduce hunger and poverty, and it encourages farmers to better
maintain and develop the land. 302
Agrofuel crops rely heavily on water for their production. 303 Agrofuel and food export
feedstock thus necessarily enters into competition with water needed for food
production for local consumption, leading the World Bank to state that the effect of
biofuels on the availability and quality of water for agriculture is “a major concern,” 304
while the OECD and the FAO came to similar conclusions. 305 In a conference
organised by the German government at Bonn in November 2011, a wide range of
actors equally acknowledged “the water, energy and food Security Nexus,” including
with agrofuels. 306 Access to water, more than land, was at the core of the problem in
several cases (see Box 4), so that some talk of a “water grab.” 307 In most cases, it
seems that the contracts between the investors and the host states do not regulate
access to water appropriately. 308 In other cases, such as the Malian project presented
in 4.2, contracts contain provisions on access to water. However, if states guarantee
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