Biofuel Production : Examining the development of sub-Saharan Africa through the concepts of land grabbing, environmental justice and different views on development theories

This paper examines and problematize the effects of biofuel production by focusing on local communities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The premise lays in a critique of neoliberal thoughts of development and the concept of sustainable development. The establishment of biofuel production in SSA has been depicted to carry with it opportunities of development for the rural population. However, there have been a big interest from foreign actors looking to invest in sub-Saharan biofuel production which have raced concern for land grabbing. A conflict of interest has emerged between Southern and Northern interests. A literature study is used as the method to examine reported outcomes on local communities in the proximity of biofuel production in order to determine if sub-Saharan biofuel production is established for the development need of SSA or the interest of the North. To analyze the results a theoretical framework has been constructed from concepts of large-scale land acquisition (land grabbing), environmental justice and the four worldviews market liberalism, institutionalism, bioenvironmentalism and social greens. The paper concludes that the large-scale production of biofuels is highly problematic due to the risk of land grabbing and Northern mitigation schemes are based on Southern lands raises the question of environmental justice. Depending on which worldview one adopts there can be several explanations to why this occur.