ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the loss of access to commons is not compensated by the company’s compensation payments, job creation and development programmes. It discusses a brief introduction to the concepts of moral economy and political ecology, which will enable the reader to understand the institutional transformation and the implications of different forms of access and resource control for local livelihoods in the northern region of Sierra Leone. The chapter focuses on ethnographic fieldwork and addresses the local impacts of a large bioenergy project in Sierra Leone. The project comprised three different case studies in Kenya, India and Sierra Leone, which investigated local perceptions, consultation processes, impacts on land rights and livelihoods and the coping strategies of the people affected. Addax and Oryx Group worked closely with the Sierra Leone National Petroleum Company and established strong ties to influential businessmen and high-ranking politicians in the country over the course of two decades.
