ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the research on agrofuels and land rights in Africa, and specifically on field-based research over the past two years on the expansion of sugar cane in Mozambique and Tanzania, as well as several jatropha projects in those countries, many of which have meanwhile ceased production or switched to non-agrofuel crops. In order for investors to secure rights to village land, these rights have to be converted into 'general land' under national state ownership, after which the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) becomes the custodian with the mandate to conduct transactions of this land with investors. Concrete policy and advocacy initiatives are needed to safeguard the land rights of rural Africans, especially women and pastoralists, whose land rights are most insecure. In Tanzania, the Tanzania Gender Network Programme (TGNP) has been in the forefront of educating communities about the impacts of large-scale agrofuel investments on women.
