LAND GRABS-CUM-ACQUISITIONSThe Case of Tanzania Mainland in the Neo-Liberal Era

Chambi ChachageIndependent ResearcherDar es Salaam, Tanzania

Land Area and Agricultural ‘Use’ in Tanzania

(1) Conservation(2) Tourism(3) Mining(4) Speculation (5) Carbon(6) Biofuel (7) Food

These are respectively related, but not only limited, to: (1) Wildlife Attractions (2) Leisure Hunting; (3) Military Expansion (4) Financial Crisis; (5) Climate Change; (6) Oil Prices and (7) Food Needs.

7 Key ‘Attractions’ for ‘FDIs’ in Tanzania’s Pastoral/Farmland

Photo: Part of the over 10,000 Hectares of Village Land Acquired/Grabbed by ‘New Forests Company’ from the United Kingdom for Planting Trees in

Kilolo District of Iringa in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

Source: Land Rights Research and Resources Institute Report (2010) on Accumulation by Land Dispossession and Labour Devaluation in Tanzania: The

Case of Biofuel and Forestry Investment in Kilwa and Kilolo

“We request our farms to be returned to us and not to be paid anything; because from the beginning we didn’t intend to give it to the investor. Besides those farms is what we depend on to sustain our livelihoods and those of our families” – Villagers’ Letter Protesting the Acquisition of their Farmland of about 6,000+ hectares by a United Kingdom Forestry Investor, New Forests Company, in a Kilolo Village in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

(Quoted by the Author in Land Rights Research and Resources Institute Report, 2010 Ibid.)

Quote: From ‘Resisting’ Villagers in Kilolo District

Photo: Maasai Pastoralists’ Residences incorporating Pastures burnt for the sake of a Royal United Arab Emirates’ Hunting and Tourism Investor in Loliondo (‘Game Controlled Area’) in Northern Tanzania

Source: Marc Wegerif’s 2010 Eastern and Southern African Small Scale Farmers’ Forum Presentation: Perspectives on Land Grabbing and the Implications for Small Scale Farmers and Pastoralists in Tanzania

Quote: On Land Grab for ‘Timber’“Green Resources has three main plantations in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania all managed by Green Resources Ltd (GRL) with 7,900 ha of forest. The land allocated to Green Resources in the Southern Highlands covers more than 100,000 ha in various stages of the land acquisition process, including 34,000 ha of titled land. In addition to the Idete, Uchindile and Mapanda plantations, trial planting has been initiated in Kitete and Masagati. The potential planting will be completed in the initial plantations, but local and district communities are awarding additional land to Green Resources such that the activity can continue and the level of employment can be maintained” – Official Website of the Norwegian Company, Green Resources, as quoted by the Author in PELUM (Participatory Ecological Land Use Management-Tanzania) Report (2010) on Land Acquisition and Accumulation in Tanzania: The Case of Morogoro, Iringa and Pwani

Quotes: On Land Grab for ‘Gold’“We have lost a lot of things including our sense of belonging, clothes and other household materials. What hurts most is that they buried even already harvested crops, which we would have sold to get some income to buy food and take care of our children” – Villager(s) Evicted from their Land in 2007 to Pave Way for a ‘Canadian Investor, Barrick Gold Company’

(Quoted by Allan Cedillo Lissner in Someone Else’s Treasure – Tanzania:

http://someoneelsestreasure.blogspot.com/2008/11/click-to-enlarge-someone-elses-treasure.html)

“Preparations are in top gear to start production of the mineral in southern and central parts of the country [Tanzania]. It is expected that the Mkuju River uranium project in Namtumbo district, Ruvuma Region, will start production this year. Mantra Tanzania Limited is developing the project… the mine has the potential of producing over 1,650 tonnes of uranium oxide a year and will overtake the US production which produces 1,560 tonnes” – Quoted in The Citizen Newspaper ( 6 September 2010: Page 1)

Quote: On Land for ‘Uranium’

Quote: On Land Grab for ‘Tourism’“So here we are with a village that has 19, 800 hectares out of which 12, 829.9 hectares are conserved within a Wildlife Management Area [WMA]. A French investor, Un Afrique En Lodge (ULEA), is welcomed to build a tourist lodge/camp within this WMA as if s/he is not a threat to the wild. Yet the pastoralists have to raze their shelters, abandon their little farms and let the animals in peace so that tourists can wildy gaze at them.” – Author’s Article on ‘Fatal Wildlife Attraction’ Drawing from Land Rights Research and Resources Institute Report (2008) on Wildlife Conservation for Tourist Investments or Villagers’ Livelihoods: A Fact-Finding Mission Report on Vilima Vitatu Land Dispute – Babati District

Quote: On Land Grab for ‘Bio/Agrofuel’Villagers in Kilwa in Southern Tanzania talk of “Njaa ya BioShape” (i.e. ‘Hunger caused by BioShape’) since BioShape, a Dutch and Belgian Company, acquired over 30,000 hectares of Village Land to farm jatropha for biofuel production:

“We are desperate in need of food. Nowadays food comes from the city to be sold in the village and not vice versa as before. We could not afford to buy food because the wages we were paid was very little”

(Quoted by the Author in Land Rights Research and Resources Institute Report, 2010 Ibid.)

Quote: On Land Grab for ‘Food’“Why are they letting – have they come to invest or to sub-let?” – A Village Chairperson commenting on foreign investors who sublet blocks of land to peasants because they, the investors, do not have the claimed capacity to cultivate a whole 4000+ hectares farm that the then National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) acquired from villagers prior to it being privatized

(Quoted by the Author in Land Rights Research and Resources Institute Report (2009) on The State of the then NAFCO, NARCO and Absentee Landlord’s Farms/Ranches in Tanzania

Video: On Land Grab for ‘Urbanization’

‘Embargoed’ Video Clip of New Kigamboni City Plan

Conclusion: Land Grabbing is Indeed Happening!

There is a thin legal line between Land Grab and Land Acquisition in Tanzania