ABSTRACT
International efforts to curtail deforestation and biodiversity loss have increased as agricultural expansion including palm oil production by powerful agribusiness companies has greatly increased. This is particularly the case in tropical regions including Africa where agriculture is taking over forestlands. This chapter considers how the global dynamics of agricultural expansion change the power relations between the key actors of forestland conversion processes in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our hypothesis purports that (i) limited statehood and lack of bureaucratic autonomy are key political drivers of forestland conversion; (ii) state bureaucracies, however, remain capable of skilfully preserving their informal interests, and (iii) science-based knowledge is used as a power resource for legitimizing and contesting palm oil expansion. Our research scrutinized a case study from Cameroon, centring on a US-based private agro-industrial company called Herakles Farms. The chapter reveals in great empirical detail that the process of forestland conversion to palm oil production is caused by the combination of erratic domestic bureaucratic capacities and autonomy and strong external influences from transnational companies and western cooperation agencies. Coalitions of conservation NGOs pressure dominant actors to limit social and ecological damages caused by palm oil production, but they only achieve short-lived changes for sustainability in the domestic governance of forestland use. This is because state bureaucracies in producing countries of palm oil are able to keep the upper hand and manage to successfully pursue their socio-political interests.
