A case for making climate aid help small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa prevent land grabbing – and the would-be priorities of members of relevant NGOs
(2013) SGEK02 20122Department of Human Geography
- Abstract
- This thesis looks at the issues of land grabbing and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Taking the situations of small-scale farmers – the dominant group of people population-wise and producers of 90 percent of the subcontinent’s food – as its focus, it also looks at how climate change might make land grabbing worse. It is argued that climate change will do so because of: decreased agricultural productivity both in land-grabbing countries and in Sub-Saharan Africa; the rise of the agrofuel industry; because of improving terms-of-trade for primary commodities; because of carbon compensation schemes; and because of risk diversification in the face of extreme weather events, among other factors. Agrofuels will likely play the largest part.... (More)
- This thesis looks at the issues of land grabbing and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Taking the situations of small-scale farmers – the dominant group of people population-wise and producers of 90 percent of the subcontinent’s food – as its focus, it also looks at how climate change might make land grabbing worse. It is argued that climate change will do so because of: decreased agricultural productivity both in land-grabbing countries and in Sub-Saharan Africa; the rise of the agrofuel industry; because of improving terms-of-trade for primary commodities; because of carbon compensation schemes; and because of risk diversification in the face of extreme weather events, among other factors. Agrofuels will likely play the largest part.
Therefore, the thesis also proposes a new type of climate aid to help small-scale farmers prevent land-grabbing. It argues that the chances for the proposed climate aid to become a reality are reasonable, foremost because of geopolitical struggles in general and for agricultural land in particular, but hopefully also because the international community realizes that helping small-scale farmers manage these double threats will gain the whole world. However, the aid will neither be called ‘climate aid to prevent land grabbing’ or the like, nor will it be disbursed through the UNFCCC platform and the Green Climate Fund. This is due both to the proposed climate aid’s controversial elements in the eyes of prospective land grabbers and to the current lack of climate aid.
Unfortunately, one of the two parts of the thesis suffered from a methodology come undone. This had major consequences for the main research effort, namely to learn from small-scale farmers, represented to some extent by members of relevant NGOs, about which priorities the proposed climate aid should have according to them, if it was to be implemented. Since the methodology broke down (a development discussed in the thesis) the thesis in large part is a call for further research. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/3363250
- author
- Isaksson, Tim LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SGEK02 20122
- year
- 2013
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- land grabbing, small-scale farmers, climate change, climate aid, COP 18, NGOs
- language
- English
- id
- 3363250
- date added to LUP
- 2013-01-18 10:54:43
- date last changed
- 2013-01-18 10:54:43
@misc{3363250,
abstract = {{This thesis looks at the issues of land grabbing and climate change in Sub-Saharan Africa. Taking the situations of small-scale farmers – the dominant group of people population-wise and producers of 90 percent of the subcontinent’s food – as its focus, it also looks at how climate change might make land grabbing worse. It is argued that climate change will do so because of: decreased agricultural productivity both in land-grabbing countries and in Sub-Saharan Africa; the rise of the agrofuel industry; because of improving terms-of-trade for primary commodities; because of carbon compensation schemes; and because of risk diversification in the face of extreme weather events, among other factors. Agrofuels will likely play the largest part.
Therefore, the thesis also proposes a new type of climate aid to help small-scale farmers prevent land-grabbing. It argues that the chances for the proposed climate aid to become a reality are reasonable, foremost because of geopolitical struggles in general and for agricultural land in particular, but hopefully also because the international community realizes that helping small-scale farmers manage these double threats will gain the whole world. However, the aid will neither be called ‘climate aid to prevent land grabbing’ or the like, nor will it be disbursed through the UNFCCC platform and the Green Climate Fund. This is due both to the proposed climate aid’s controversial elements in the eyes of prospective land grabbers and to the current lack of climate aid.
Unfortunately, one of the two parts of the thesis suffered from a methodology come undone. This had major consequences for the main research effort, namely to learn from small-scale farmers, represented to some extent by members of relevant NGOs, about which priorities the proposed climate aid should have according to them, if it was to be implemented. Since the methodology broke down (a development discussed in the thesis) the thesis in large part is a call for further research.}},
author = {{Isaksson, Tim}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{A case for making climate aid help small-scale farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa prevent land grabbing – and the would-be priorities of members of relevant NGOs}},
year = {{2013}},
}