ABSTRACT
The miombo ecosystem, a mosaic of tropical dry grassland and woodland, is distributed from coast to coast in southern central Africa, providing livelihood and a large variety of subsistence resources for almost 40 million people (Sileshi et al. 2007). In eastern Tanzania the miombo areas are sparsely settled but used for resource extraction, including livestock grazing by local communities. The Tanzanian government has classified the land as underutilised and appropriate for investment and intensive cultivation, with the aim of obtaining economic revenues for the country. Recently, biofuels have emerged as the major option for agricultural development and land investments in eastern Tanzania. This chapter will discuss some aspects, in particular the consequences for rural livelihoods, of transforming the miombo in eastern, coastal Tanzania into agrofuel plantations. We will show how this transformation is made possible by applying new perspectives on the use value of the land, from a valuable but priceless natural resource area (i.e. pasture for livestock) in a subsistence economy, to valuable land for sugarcane production (for ethanol) in the global market economy. Changes in ecosystem services and the long-term sustainability of the ecosystem are also considered.
