Abstracts

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Economic Vulnerability to Peak Oil

Authors: Kerschner, Christian (Masaryk University, Department of Environmental Studies); Prell, Christina; Feng, Kuishuang; Hubacek, Klaus

Peak Oil, which refers to the maximum possible global oil production rate, is increasingly gaining attention in both science and policy discourses. However, little is known about how this phenomenon will impact economies, despite its apparent imminence and potential dangers. In this paper, we construct a vulnerability map of the U.S. economy, combining two approaches for analyzing economic systems, i.e. input–output analysis and social network analysis (applied to economic data). Our approach reveals the relative importance of individual economic sectors, and how vulnerable they are to oil price shocks. As such, our dual-analysis helps identify which sectors, due to their strategic position, could put the entire U.S. economy at risk from Peak Oil. For the U.S., such sectors would include Iron Mills, Fertilizer Production and Transport by Air. Our findings thus provide early warnings to downstream companies about potential ‘trouble’ in their supply chain, and inform policy action for Peak Oil. Although our analysis is embedded in a Peak Oil narrative, it is just as valid and useful in the context of developing a climate roadmap toward a low carbon economy.

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EUROPEAN GAS POLITICS: AN OVERVIEW OF LNG SHIPPING AND PIPELINE GAS TRADE

Authors: Uzunoz, Meral (Yildiz Technical University); Oztig, Lacin Idil

Since 1990, natural gas consumption increased dramatically in the world. Environmental concerns and economic considerations played a role in the increase in gas consumption. With concerns over climate change, states decided to decrease carbon emissions and therefore increasingly relied on gas rather than coal . Europe is the most energy-dependent continent in the world. Gas is used in every aspect of European industry. Gas is an important element of transport sector, farming sector as a feedstock for fertilisers and is used for food processing. As the economy of European countries recovers and industrialization increases, gas demand is likely to increase by 2035. This article provides an overview on the European gas market with respect to LNG shipping and pipeline trade. This article argues that both LNG shipping and pipeline gas trade are associated with uncertainties. The dynamics of LNG trade depend on global markets. Any crisis or fluctuations at the global level has an impact on LNG imports of dependent countries. For example, when the Fukushima incident took place in 2011, the demand of Japan for LNG increased significantly. This, consequently, decreased European import of LNG in the subsequent years. Gas trade through pipelines is also associated with uncertainties especially when import countries heavily depend on an export country. For example, Russia has been the main source of European gas imports. However, its disagreements with Ukraine led to gas cuts which in turn disrupted gas supplies to Europe.Europe currently seeks to diversify its pipeline routes. Through the Southern Gas Corridor, which will be operationalized in 2019, Caspian gas will be transported to Europe via Turkey. In a nutshell, this article argues that the rationale behind the diversification of pipeline routes in Europe is lies in uncertainties associated with gas flows. By diversifying its pipeline routes, Europe aims to decrease uncertainties and provide more sustainable gas supplies.

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The Politics of Natural Resources and Poverty in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Author: Kipuka Kabongi, Decky (Carleton University, Ottawa)

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is richly endowed with natural resources (gold, diamonds, uranium, oil, copper, cobalt, coltan, etc.), but is one of the poorest nations in the world. More than seventy percent of its population lives in abject poverty. Such a high level of poverty in the Congo, despite its abundance in minerals, is a puzzle that needs to be explained. This paper seeks to accomplish two things. First, critically examines the question of natural resources management in the Congo and its impact on citizens’ well being. Second, the paper seeks to advance a theory of fairness in the governance of resources in order to address the issue of poverty in the Congo. The paper hypothesizes that Congo’s rulers’ predatory policies have created a system of inequity in resource revenues and caused, consequently, the high level of poverty facing citizens. The main argument of the paper is thus that, with increasing global competition over access to natural resources, only a governance system built upon an effective decentralization mechanism is the viable policy option necessary to making resources benefit local communities.

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The accumulation of material wealth in different world regions

Authors: Mayer, Andreas (Institute of Social Ecology); Haas, Willi

There is ample evidence that an unabated growth in material consumption is likely to pass the earth system’s source and sink capacities. In the face of limited resources, distributional questions increasingly gain importance. Material flow analysis allows establishing evidence on who consumes how many resources and on present resource use dynamics. But same as with climate justice, it wouldn’t be just to neglect the historic dimension of material consumption. Hence, at the core of our contribution we address the different developments of material consumption for world regions from WW II up to 2010. During this phase, the fossil fuel based industrialization triggered unprecedented growth in material consumption mainly in the wealthy world regions of Europe, Australia, Northern America and partly in the countries of the former Soviet Union. Recent data show that the highly industrialized economies have stabilized their metabolic rates (albeit on a very high level). Emerging economies such as China or Brazil are rapidly converging towards an industrial pattern of material use, and material use in some of the least developed regions start to grow since 2000. One major goal in policies for these economies is decoupling of material consumption from economic growth. Apart from that, population growth in these countries is discussed as another problem linked to increasing pressure on the environment. However, broadening the focus to earlier time phases shows a clearly different picture. In this contribution we address the accumulated material wealth in world regions, and to what extent this wealth has been built up upon own resources, respectively by imports from other world regions. This reveals world regions of material intensive lifestyles or resource poverty in its dynamic development over the last decades. The results will be displayed on global maps displaying cumulated consumption and trade flows in absolute terms as well as average annual per capita consumption. The latter analysis highlights regions with material intensive lifestyles, where an average life between 1950 and 2010 consumed more than 400 tons of matter. A breakdown on the level of biomass, metals, fossil energy carriers and minerals can reveal path dependencies, or if and where industrial patterns of resource consumption were adapted throughout this period. For this contribution, we accumulate material use in the period from 1950 to 2010 to show uneven material wealth in different world regions and hence address questions related to inequalities of resource use. This analysis shows that it is not the rapidly growing giants who are the primary targets for dematerialization, but those economies that have already excessively consumed materials over the last decades.

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Israeli land expropriation and resource colonisation in occupied Palestine

Authors: Nasr, Sandra (University of Notre Dame Australia); Nasr, Leila

The seemingly intractable Palestinian-Israeli conflict as it now exists is foremost a competition for limited resources. Arable land and water resources are scarce in the sliver of contested space that is the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank. Since 1967 Israel has vigorously pursued a colonising project to install Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank, often locating these close to existing Palestinian towns and villages. A huddle of basic structures quite quickly take root and spread out into the surrounding land; swallowing crops, wells and homes, and expelling Palestinians as they go. Israeli government support for settlements (which are considered illegal under international law) includes assurance of material resources and ‘security’ policies which not only support their existence, but displace Palestinians from the land to facilitate settlement expansion. Under the Oslo II agreement of 1995, the West Bank was divided into three areas, designated A, B and C which, for an interim 5 year period, would denote differing levels of Israeli and Palestinian administrative and security control. Area C, which makes up 59% of the West Bank and holds approximately 63% of the West Bank’s agricultural lands, would be temporarily placed under Israeli security and administrative control. Almost twenty years later, some 70% of Area C is classified as settlement areas, firing zones or nature reserves and, therefore off limits to Palestinians. Approximately 40% is privately owned Palestinian land now sitting beneath settlements. Of the remaining 30% that is accessible to Palestinians, less than 1% is eligible for Palestinian development. In recent years 94% of Palestinian construction permit applications have been rejected; and on average 500-600 Palestinian structures are demolished annually by Israel. Compounding this is a disproportionate allocation of vital water resources, the regular destruction of existing water infrastructure, and the denial of water development project approvals. This paper will discuss the systematic inequities in resource access in Area C that severely constrict Palestinians’ access to vital natural resources, focussing on agricultural land which has both practical and symbolic importance to the approximately 150,000 Palestinian residents in 542 communities across Area C. It will be asserted that the scope of forced Palestinian dispossession from their land amounts to resource colonisation by the Israeli government in support of its long-standing colonial-settlement project for the West Bank.

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Replace One's Place - The Livelihood of Internally Displaced People in Colombia

Author: Helmcke, Cornelia (Lund University)

Colombia is the country with the highest number of internally displaced people worldwide. Rural populations often flee violence provoked by the armed conflict. It is a battle over the access to land and resources. So called development projects” when multinational corporations invest in infrastructure, usually affect local communities. The World Bank provides an Operational Manual (4.12) for development induced resettlement” to prevent impoverishment. It puts its focus on reimbursing the assets of livelihood of the resettled population. But does the population suffering of displacement share the same approach of livelihood? Can place be replaced? The paper analyses the case of El Quimbo, a hydroelectric project in the south of Colombia, which displaces a peasant community. In-depth interviews with affected people show that culture and life projects are strongly related to place and identity. Through the findings a place-based livelihood approach is developed, bringing together the livelihood and the Buen Vivir (good life/well-being) approach.

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From democracy transition to environmental justice: how reform of institutions can affect oil industry in post-conflict Angola

Author: Silva, Ana Luiza (Roehampton University)

Oil revenues represent over 95 per cent of Angola's export income and around 45 per cent of gross domestic product[1], making the country the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. The country ranks 153rd out of 177 countries in Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perception Index. [2] Thus it is constantly criticised for scandals involving corruption and its lack of transparency in the relations between politicians and civil servants on the one hand and the private sector on the other. First, oil exploitation in Angola is executed through agreements between multinational oil companies and the state company SONAGOL, which is known for its unclear revenue accounts and confidentiality clauses that do not allow disclosure of information[3] Therefore, the growth of the oil industry in Angola has been characterized by lack of transparency and accountability, especially regarding human rights violations. Since 2008, due to the IMF’s requirement for a loan, SONAGOL has been subjected to audits and has adopted transparency practices, but there are still contradictions regarding the numbers generated by oil exploitation. [4] As a consequence, the mismanagement of the revenue originating from oil exploitation strengthens the phenomenon known as Dutch Disease or Resource Curse, which constitutes the decline of local activities due to the intense exploitation of a certain natural resource. [5] A second issue concerning the post-conflict Angolan scenario is the weakness of regulatory mechanisms with regards to environmental justice. The lack of specific applicable rules results in a culture of impunity and lack of enforcement, which means that any action taken by companies to put right any harm resulting from their activities is purely voluntary. Different approaches can be applied to the analysis of economic development in post-conflict societies, and in this research two approaches will frame this analysis. First, elements of Transitional Justice, discussed by Teitel[6], such as policies related to truth, memory, reparation, reform of institutions and reconciliation. Second, another perspective, designed by the International Association for Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR International)[7], points out five economic areas for economic recovery: community reintegration, employment and empowerment, public finance and economic governance, natural resources analysis and management and, finally, private sector development. Therefore, by combining these two perspectives, this research aims to clarify the relationship between good governance practices, oil industry and economic development. [1] Reuters. Angola launches $5 bln sovereign wealth fund. Oct, 2012. Available at: www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/17/ozatp-angola-fund-idAFJOE89G01F20121017 [2] Transparency International’s 2013Corruption Perception Index, 2013. Available at: cpi.transparency.org/cpi2013/results/ [3] Ali, S. H. Oliveira, J. A. P. Can Corporate Power Positively Transform Angola and Equatorial Guinea? Wayne Visser. Ed. Corporate Citizenship in Africa. Greenlaf Publications, UK, 2006, p. 11. [4] United State of America report on Angola, 2010. Available at: www.state.gov/documents/organization/160519.pdf [5] Ali, S. H. Oliveira, J. A. P. Can Corporate Power Positively Transform Angola and Equatorial Guinea? Wayne Visser. Ed. Corporate Citizenship in Africa. Greenlaf Publications, UK, 2006, p. 8. [6] Teitel, Ruth G. Transitional Justice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2000. [7] See more at: www.hpcrresearch.org/partners/hpcr-international

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Which "fairness", for whom, and why? Broadening inputs for a standard designed to certify "fair carbon credits".

Author: Howard, Rebecca Joy (University of Leeds)

Carbon trading has triggered expectations of a new income stream that can be harnessed by developing nations with forest and land reserves. The commoditisation of carbon has buttressed jobs, contracts and revenues for standards organisations, auditing companies, and other actors in the carbon value chain. However, carbon projects are unevenly spread across the globe and across scales, with the majority implemented in middle income countries at industrial scales. Despite a recent proliferation of carbon projects in East Africa, foreign companies and consultants dominate the pool of expertise, and absorb the majority of the available finance, leaving little for project beneficiaries. Within the voluntary carbon market, fairness” is being discussed by standards organisations seeking to develop new governance arrangements for regulating fair” production and trade of carbon credits. An initial analysis suggests that their understanding of fairness” revolves around access to the carbon market and distribution of benefits, with a focus on smallholders and communities as the ‘target’ of fairness. However, notions of fairness” are still fuzzy, and while its vagueness facilitates cooperation and communication between multiple stakeholders invited to input into the standards- making process, behind the term are multiple goals and priorities. If the goals of more powerful actors are predominant, this may lead to outcomes unsuited to the goals of more vulnerable actors. This paper sheds light on multiple and contending social discourses on fair carbon” through the use of Q methodology, which involves using quantitative techniques in an open-ended manner to reveal social perspectives. We collected a stratified sample of statements on fairness” in carbon during a collaborative standards-making process led by Fairtrade International and Gold Standard. Participants of the Q study (strategically selected from the body of actors involved in the standards-making process) were asked to rank the statements in relation to each other, and to explain the subjective logic they used in completing this task. Factor analysis was subsequently used to reveal patterns in the rankings across participants, and a number of ‘social perspectives’ were exposed. The application of the method in this paper involves drawing on equity frameworks during the collection of the statements, as a reference point for exploring what does and does not form part of fair carbon” in policy and practice at different scales. The plural discourses revealed through the methodology are integrated back into theory, in an attempt to contribute to a harmonisation of theory and practice. This paper also provides the groundwork for further analysis of the outcomes of the standards-making process. By elucidating multiple perspectives on fairness, it becomes possible to assess which perspectives are in fact taken into account in the dominant framing of the standard itself, and which notions are excluded or in conflict with this dominant framing. Communicating these findings to standards organisations potentially enable a more open and inclusive policy process. Clearer definitions of fairness” are also useful for standards organisations in reviewing ex post whether fairness” goals have been met.

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What lessons can we draw from past resource conflicts for today's policy recommendations? The case of lithium in Bolivia

Author: Romero, Janine (University of Erfurt)

How can we bridge the gap between research and policy recommendations for conflict prevention? The paper will exploit this question on the example of lithium in Bolivia. Bolivia is historically experienced in resource conflicts and about to start exploitation of its lithium reserves. I ask the question whether process tracing of past conflict development in Bolivia and insights into lithium conflicts in the region can help us understand current cleavage lines and support the development of policy recommendations. The multi-dimensional relationship between resources and conflict has been debated inconclusively in various scientific fields. International relations focused predominately on the relationship between resources (scarce or abundant) and violent conflict. Earlier research especially in the political economics has within the resource curse framework discussed detrimental effects of resources on the economy and political institutions. Especially in weak states, with already limited conflict resolution abilities, these effects can support conflict development. In Latin America, these discussions have been less central. Recently, the macroeconomic and societal effects of a resource-based development model have been analyzed under the concept of (Neo-)Extractivism. The resource-rich state in Latin America no longer functions as a rentier body for small elites but as a compensatory and redistribution scheme for a poor majority. What is consensual in all discussion lines is that a development model based on resource rents can create cleavages within the society and support conflict development if commodity wealth is not managed properly. Thereby, it is not the state alone but civil society as well as large corporations that influence resource politics - underlining the need for encompassing resource governance. Policy recommendations on how resource governance instruments should be designed have however remained vague. I believe that good research should not only support theory development but also be of relevance for policy making. Therefore, I ask whether we can use the knowledge we gained on the relationship between resources and conflict to improve resource governance in conflict-prone countries. I will elaborate on this question on the example of lithium exploitation in Bolivia. Bolivia has the largest lithium reserves in the world - necessary to power the growing market for consumer electronics and electric mobility. Conflict risks, especially with regard to the potential destruction of fragile ecosystems, have however been omitted from the rhetoric on the white gold” lithium. I believe that lithium exploitation in Bolivia can combine long-standing societal cleavages with resource-specific challenges and produce conflicts especially on the sub-national level. In my research, I am therefore interested in resource conflicts in the Bolivian past as well as lithium-based conflicts in Chile and Argentina. In the paper, I want to exploit the question whether process tracing of past conflict development in Bolivia and insights into lithium conflicts in the region can help us understand the nature of current cleavage lines and support the development of valid public policy recommendations for conflict prevention.

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Exploring the unequal exchange of Dutch cheese and Kenyan roses: A North-South perspective and implications for policy reform

Author: Oulu, Martin (Lund University)

Trade at market prices is generally regarded as equal or fair. However, the theory of ecologically unequal exchange (EUE) contends that the equal exchange in money can very well be unequal in ecological or biophysical terms. Such biophysical inequality, the result of systemic world economic and political structure, it is claimed, is skewed against less developed peripheral” countries who are forced to become the resource depots and pollution havens for the developed industrial core” nations in the North, with catastrophic environmental and socio-economic consequences. This paper explores the notion of unequal exchange and applies it to the contemporary bilateral trade between Dutch cheese and Kenyan rose flowers. Its objectives are twofold: (i) to empirically identify EUE in the said bilateral trade and, (ii) analyse the implications of the unequal exchange to policy, both spatially and temporally. The empirical analysis applies life cycle analysis (LCA) in examining the embodiment and subsequent exchange of six parameters: mass (tonnage), land use, energy, global warming potential (GWP), water, and labour. The results confirm the EUE claim that resources generally flow from the global South to the North. Considering the metric mass, Kenya consistently suffered a physical trade deficit (2008-2012), its rose flowers are priced 8 times lower than Dutch cheese on the international market, and it consistently export more of its biomass resources even at a fixed monetary price. A similar trend is observed with embodied labour. In 2011, Kenya exported a net of 52.2 million man-hours to the Netherlands. The minimum wage of Dutch dairy workers is 85 times higher than those of Kenyan cut flower workers, suggesting that no factor price equalization is occurring despite the considerable mobility of goods and capital. The relatively high embodied energy per unit of Dutch cheese is directly correlated to its higher GWP, an indication that the Netherlands are using a larger proportion of the planet’s sink capacity. Land use and water footprint are instances where Kenya has an advantage, appearing to be gaining in the exchange by importing a net of these resources from the Netherlands. This suggests that rose flowers are a ‘good’ product which Kenya should continue to invest and trade in. However, land tenure regimes and ownership of the flower farms which is largely by European private investors and multi-national corporations, as well as environmental pollution linked to flower farming, challenge this position. These results, apart from highlighting ongoing unequal ecological exchange, can provide guidance on appropriate policies to adopt in terms of choice of products to trade in with a view to enhance socio-economic development, resource fairness, and ecological sustainability. More importantly, they provide entry points for negotiation and cooperation between relevant stakeholders on how best to avoid resource conflicts, address EUE, and alleviate some of its negative impacts.

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The Political Ecology of Drought and Social Conflict

Author: Köpke, Sören (TU Braunschweig)

Climate change poses a serious threat to societies, and agricultural-based developing countries are particularly vulnerable. Among the most severe climatic disasters are prolonged droughts that endanger rural livelihoods, resulting in yield failures, depletion of water resources and death of livestock. According to the proponents of the environmental security discourse, environmental change – climate change, for instance – is able to cause conflicts on the basis of rivalry over vital resources, possibly even triggering civil war. This argument has been critizised on empirical grounds. Internal conflicts, let alone interstate wars, are not uni-dimensional and cannot be attributed to a single cause like scarcity of natural resources. The political ecology approach neglects a narrow focus on resource scarcity as a cause for conflict and explores underlying power structures instead, revealing the political economy of resource use under the given climatic conditions. Unequal and unfair allocation and distribution of water resources are laid bare under drought conditions. The research paper at hand looks at the interest-driven agency of the state, private enterprises, grass-root movements and other actors in dealing with droughts. In the way local and national governments reply to the grievances of local populations in connection to basic needs, they can undermine or sustain legitimacy. Social protest may result from the inability of meeting the needs of vulnerable populations in the face of drought. Policies rather oriented on counterinsurgency strategies than on mitigation of social grievances may result in the escalation of social conflicts. This means in turn that state programs directed at alleviating climate-induced hardships might strengthen the power-base of the ruling group. Historical evidence suggests that starvation as an extreme consequence of drought is not likely to be a precondition of social unrest. Less severe, but chronic forms of food insecurity under conditions of recurring drought might increase the disposition of affected populations to protest. The theoretical approach of the paper is tested against regional cases from Brazil and Sri Lanka, thus attempting a contribution to the current debate on climate change and conflict.

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Green grabbing - a new form of primitive accumulation

Author: Backhouse, Maria (Freien Universität Berlin / Lateinamerika-Institut)

Socio-ecological crises like climate change or the energy crisis do not necessarily represent a limit to growth for capitalism, but can open up new fields of accumulation. Primitive accumulation – understood as the establishment or restructuring of capitalist relationships of ownership and production – can be a strategy for dealing with this by developing new fields of accumulation (e.g. arable land) or creating them (e.g. emissions trade), by means of dispossession, enclosures or privatisation. In this way the socio-ecological crisis offers capital the opportunity to place superfluous capital from other areas in these fields. Green grabbing, defined as new form of primitive accumulation, is understood as a crucial form of this crisis management. It involves not only the material process of appropriation, but also a specific discursive framing. The invention and commodification of natural resources such as CO 2 and biofuels, therefore, needs to be linked to the way in which agreement to this market-based form of environmental protection across different classes is established. This paper, thus, argues for a re-interpretation of the concept of primitive accumulation with an additional focus on the scientific, political and everyday production of knowledge, subjects and ‘new truths’. The presentation will focus on the analytical concept of green grabbing as a new theoretical approach. The aim is to discuss the analytical contribution of this concept to thePolitical Ecology of resource conflicts and social transformation in the context of the current socio-ecological crisis. Empirically, the paper is based on a case study about the expansion of palm oil plantations for biofuels production in the Brazilian Amazon region.

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Carbon Leakage: Pollution, Trade or Politics?

Authors: Michalek, Gabriela (Lehrstuhl für Internationale Umweltökonomie); Schwarze, Reimund

Carbon leakage (CL) is a teleological concept, thus it is contextual and goal-related. The most prominent and widely accepted definition of CL is set out by the IPCC and it reads as follows: the increase in CO2 emissions outside the countries taking domestic mitigation action divided by the reduction in the emissions of these countries.” This, at the first glance, uncomplicated definition has got however a different meaning in the literature. Most scientists argue that the mentioned emission changes, called also strong carbon leakage, must be a result of the particular environmental policy. E.g. one of the main drivers of strong CL, the so-called energy channel, occurs when carbon regulation increases prices of the fossil fuels which leads to a lower demand for this kind of fuel in the regulated area. This lowers the world fossil fuel prices and thus encourages demand for this type of energy in the unregulated countries. Such a causal interpretation is driven by the goal of answering the political question, if carbon mitigation policies result in and thus are diluted by the increased carbon emissions in other, non or less mitigating countries. However, the IPCC does not state explicitly this causality condition. The ambiguity around this definition has consequently led to a stunning diversity of scientific results and political judgments on 'carbon leakage'. In fact, in the current literature there are a few definitions of this phenomenon and many different interpretations. Beside the most popular strong definition, there exists also its weak version. The main idea behind the weak CL is to capture the emissions in the countries with no/weak mitigation policy emitted during the production of goods that satisfy the demand in the carbon-capped area. It is defined as the difference between the territorial and consumption-based emissions, which is nothing else than the net emission transfer via trade (Peters et al. 2011). It should be however noted that emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels traded internationally are typically attributed to the point of combustion and thus accounted as domestic production emissions, although they would have had severe implications for the volume of emissions embedded in trade (in 2004 about 23% of global emissions were embedded in trade and 37% of global emissions were generated from fossil fuels traded between countries (Davis et al. 2011)). There are many different methods to calculate net emission transfers which often leads to substantial discrepancies between the obtained results. This problem does not however concern only weak carbon leakage. Also models used in calculating strong carbon leakage can produce results that range from a few to 130% due to many assumptions and necessary estimations. Unfortunately, this greatly decreases the certainty and reliability of the results. What should be then understood as carbon leakage and how should we calculate it in order to obtain sound estimates? The paper will give an answer to these questions by critically discussing and comparing different definitions and appropriate calculation methodologies. Crucial differences with respect to research purposes will be highlighted, deficits and possible problems will be indicated. The analysis will be completed by a review of literature from 1990s-on revealing how the concept of carbon leakage has evolved and how our perception and understanding of it has changed over decades

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Analysing conflicts over nature: conceptual starting points from social and conflict theory

Author: Dietz, Kristina (FU Berlin)

In social science conflicts over nature gain more and more momentum. Thereby, existing analytical approaches are theoretically and conceptually flawed. The paper addresses weaknesses of the environmental conflict approaches which lack a theoretical perspective on societal nature relations and therefore fail to analyse conflicts over nature as an expression of underlying power asymmetries at various scales. In contrast, political ecology builds upon social theory and a multi-scalar research perspective; however, contributions in this field often lack a theoretically funded understanding of conflict as such. The aim of our paper is therefore to develop a perspective on conflicts over nature that builds upon social and conflict theory, and that can capture conflicts over nature conceptually and empirically. We argue in favour of an analytical approach that links conflicts to social agency and social agency to structural conditions and cultural contexts. We claim that an agency orientated perspective provides tools for a sharpened analysis of resource conflicts at and between various scales without neglecting the restricting or enabling role of overall structural conditions and specific cultural contexts. We illustrate our conceptual reflections with empirical evidences from concrete conflicts over land in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Structural disparities in carbon dioxide consumption and trade in the world economy

Authors: Ederer, Stefan (WIFO - Austrian Institute of Economic Research); Weingärtner, Stefan

The amount of CO2 emissions varies substantially across the world. Countries in the core of the global economy usually emit more than those in the periphery. This pattern however has been changing considerably in recent years, when emerging and developing countries were more and more incorporated into the world economy. According to modernization theory, technological progress decouples industrial production from the degradation of nature by reducing emissions per output. Greenhouse gas emissions consequently decrease with the income of a society, a hypothesis which is underlined by the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC). The EKC has however come under severe criticism.Besides its technical and theoretical weaknesses, recent consumption-based approaches do not find a significant negative correlation between high income and emissions. Emissions can be outsourced from the core to the periphery. Through imported goods, economies consume natural resources which have never been on domestic land in their pure form. Environmentalist world-system theory states that countries of the core have the economic, political and military power to annex resources from peripheral regions. The division of labour in a capitalist world economy reinforces structural inequalities between regions. The periphery serves increasingly as a waste dump where the emissions for the consumption of core countries are released. This paper quantifies emission balances and footprint developments of countries and regions by means of an input-output analysis using data from the WIOD project. We calculate CO2 exports and imports which stem from the increasing break-up of global value chains. We find that peripheral countries are increasingly exporting CO2 to countries in the core, while the core experiences greater negative emission balances itself. Almost the entire CO2 balance deficit increase of core regions is a result of increasing imports from peripheral regions. Furthermore, we calculate the carbon dioxide footprints of regions in the core and periphery of the world economy and decompose their changes between 1995 and 2007 into three effects: technical progress, a value chain effect and a final demand effect. We find that countries with low CO2 footprints are major CO2 exporters. Such countries show small shares of footprint imports, especially from core countries. Countries of the core could increase consumption at the expense of the periphery without a similar increase in emission production at home. Because of changes in the global value chains, CO2 emissions have shifted to the periphery. Technical progress in the periphery lowers CO2 consumption in the center, but not vice versa. An increase in final demand has however overcompensated the effect of the technical progress. All country groups exhibit increasing emissions for their final consumption over time.

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The soy-production's fair(y) tale? Globalised dynamics, territoriality and Environmental Justice - Latin American perspectives on fairness.

Authors: Hafner, Robert (Institut für Geographie, Universität Innsbruck); Coy, Martin

Over the last years, the production of soy has become an increasingly lucrative business in Brazil and Argentina. Now fully incorporated in globalized value chains, local consequences of globalised activities are observed: Socio-territorial fragmentation, increasing vulnerability, particularly in the nuclei of production, rising polarisation between inclusion and exclusion and the manifestation of socio-ecological conflict constellations become core problems of investigation. Seemingly untouched by those developments, market concentration towards the big four” market leaders occurs. Rising demands, opening up markets, such as China, allow for diversified producer strategies: While buyers in the European Union increasingly ask for socio-ecologically sound and fair” production, Asian customers tend to focus on pricing and availability. Given this socio-economic framework, the paper deals with theoretical considerations of fairness and soybean production and commercialization. Applying a modified Environmental Justice approach, three main axes of investigation are explored: a) Territorial: Unearthing the physical aspects of the soy business, production related conflicts with locals are in focus. Here, examples from the Argentine Chaco and Brazil’s Mato Grosso Region, two frontiers of soy production, are compared according to their territorial settings, distribution of soy-related environmental goods and bads, and strategies of dealing with resulting problems. b) Discursive: Fairness in relation to extraction of resources is by nature a normative concept. In order to obtain major understanding, this discursive axis is introduced, bringing together opposing thought styles on soy production and its consequences. Clear examples are observed in terms of Argentine’s retenciones, the discourse of Brazil’s organisation APROSOJA and (environmentalist) NGOs counter positions; c) Corporate Social Responsibility and certification: The aim is to explore the role of international NGOs in decision- and opinion-making on green and fair business. Here, the Organisation Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) is scrutinised to visualise business-driven mechanisms of certification for marketing purposes. As a conclusion, the three dimensions are brought together to critically reflect upon reasons and strategies towards fairness in the soy agribusiness.

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Financialisation and the Microstructure of Commodity Markets

Author: Staritz, Cornelia (ÖFSE)

The financialisation of commodity derivative markets, reflected in the increased presence of financial investors, and its effects on commodity prices and the structure and functioning of commodity markets, have been controversially discussed. The paper adds to the largely quantitative literature on the impact of financialisation by assessing the microstructure of commodity derivative markets, focusing on two questions: firstly, how, in the context of financialisation, have the composition of traders and their trading strategies changed, and, secondly, how have the increasing presence and trading strategies of financial investors affected physical commodity/commercial traders and the fundamental functions of these markets, i.e. price discovery and price risk management/hedging. The analysis builds on interviews with different types of market participants and relevant stakeholders but also relies on a range of non-scientific documents, including the financial press and traders’ or stakeholders’ blog entries, focusing on the commodities coffee, cotton, wheat and aluminium. The paper finds that the increasing and often dominating role of financial investors has changed the microstructure of commodity derivative markets in terms of trading volumes and open interest positions, investment products and strategies, speed and complexity. The common classification of traders put forward by the US Commodity Trading Futures Commission abstracts too much from the reality in commodity markets given the multiple and interrelated roles of traders. The boundaries between financial and commercial traders has become blurred given their multiple and interrelated roles. While financial investors also engage in physical trading, large commodity companies and trading houses increasingly offer financial services and pursue speculation along hedging. Financial investors are widely believed to increase short term fluctuations and commercial traders have to monitor their trading behavior. However, the impact on different types of commercial traders differs. Large commercial traders seem not to be concerned about the increasing role of financial investors or even perceive their presence as advantageous. But smaller traders with no resources and capacity to interact actively with financial markets find it even more difficult to pursue hedging given the increased complexity, speed and short-terminism and related higher risks and costs.

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Blood consumption: Violence as a Consequence of Environmental Burden Shifting

Author: Partzsch, Lena (Environmental Governance Freiburg)

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says that, amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis. In Southern Sudan, as a consequence of global warming, average precipitation has declined 40 percent since the early 1980s and violence erupted during the drought. The prospect of a ‘water war’ has also become a regular feature of Egyptian newscasts and front pages since Ethiopia announced that it was diverting the course of the Blue Nile for the Great Renaissance Dam. Neo-Malthusians argue that resource scarcity leads to armed conflicts. My paper aims to contrast this classic thesis of ‘resource war’ with the more recent thesis of ‘blood consumption’. The thesis of ‘blood consumption’ states that not only the purchase of illegal ‘blood’ diamonds but, more fundamentally, resource-intense Western life styles contribute to violence in other parts of the world. The thesis of ‘blood consumption’ is innovative because it recognizes indirect resource depletion, i.e. meaning those natural resources exploited to obtain a product yet no longer visible in the end-product. For instance, the indirect or virtual water content of a ton of coffee (Ethiopia’s major export product) is 17.629 m³ of water. The worldwide demand of consumers and the globalization of trade are causing increasing environmental burden shifting, i.e. exporting countries suffer from ecological degradation caused by the production of export goods, such as coffee.

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Governing Local Justice Claims in Natural Resource Conflicts

Authors: Jacobs, Andreas (Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (PRIF)); Coni-Zimmer, Melanie; Flohr, Annegret

The proposed paper will focus on local conflicts around the extraction of natural resources. It takes justice claims of the local population as its point of departure and examines if different governance instruments address these justice claims effectively, thereby contributing to a mitigation of conflict. We aim to make a contribution to the literature by focusing on local level conflict dynamics, differentiating empirical justice claims made by the local population, and investigating their impact on effective governance. Local level conflicts regularly occur in the context of resource extraction, for example, when local communities oppose projects of multinational corporations or multilateral development banks. These conflicts are not necessarily violent in nature but have the potential of erupting in violence, for example, when security forces are brought in to oppress non-violent protests or when envisaged resettlements are enforced. The proposed paper will focus on such local resource conflicts by drawing attention to the justice perceptions of the involved actors. Following Nancy Fraser, we propose a threefold analytical differentiation of such justice claims. They can either relate (1) to distribution of material resources, (2) to questions of recognition or (3) to questions of representation and procedural inclusion/exclusion. Applied to the empirical field, local level resource conflicts may arise where actors view the distribution of costs and benefits of resource extraction as unjust, where they feel that resource extraction clashes with their cultural identity or where the governance of resource extraction is seen as not allowing for proper degrees of representation and participation. Hence, we work along the following research questions: - What kind of justice claims are put forward by local actors? And to whom do they address their claims (e.g. state actors or transnational corporations)? - What governance instruments and mechanisms are devised and employed to address local-level grievances by the different actors involved? - To what extent are these governance instruments and mechanisms addressing the different underlying justice claims in an effective manner? The paper will draw on empirical evidence from local level resource conflicts gathered through field research in Kenya, Nigeria, and Peru in order to assess in how far existing governance mechanisms take due account of different justice claims.

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Any alternatives left? From green narratives of change to socio-ecological transformative utopias. A cultural political economy framework

Authors: Scharbert, Annika (Vienna University of Economics and Business); Leubolt, Bernhard; Wäckerle, Manuel

Any alternatives left? From green narratives of change to socio-ecological transformative utopias. A cultural political economy framework This contribution explores current narratives of ‘Green Capitalism’. Theoretically grounded in a cultural political economy approach it discusses the question of hegemony. Thereby we understand the so-called greening of the economy as a hegemonic battle, where institutions occupy certain positions based on political economic interests and strategies. The hegemonic discourse treats nature as a financial asset and investment, always subject to capital accumulation. Differing visions oscillate between neo-conservative state capitalism, a distributional perspective following the Keynesian agenda and the Green New Deal. We suggest deconstructing this discourse based on a Marxist reading of capital and nature as social relations. We highlight the co-opting effect of the dominant strategy in these discursive manifestations. Employing the Gramscian notion of hegemony as a social structure that advances the interests of a specific social group but also offers the possibility of disequilibrium and change, we focus on the interplay of material capabilities, ideas and institutions. A coherence of these aspects plays a role in, on the one hand, the maintenance of power and, on the other, the shifting balance of power between state and non-state actors. The notion of transnational alliances, especially a transnational managerial elite, is central, recognizing the increasing importance of a multi-scalar understanding of economic policy and institutions. This perspective departs from an understanding of international development as uneven and combined, resulting in huge inequalities both within and between nations. An ‘imperial mode of living’ (Brand/Wissen) was universalized to large parts of the population in many European and North American countries to the detriment of marginalized people in other parts of the world. This implied (among other things) uneven access to and use of resources. Now, with the rise of nations such as China, India or Brazil, it becomes apparent that it will not be possible to universalize this mode of living on a global scale. In the wake of the process, the need of an environmental transformation is re-emphasised by a multiplicity of different agents. The interesting question remains, how this rather inevitable transformation will precisely transform the material capabilities, ideas and institutions? Many trajectories are possible, only some of them are preferable from a political economy perspective. We will frame our contribution around the discussion about the need of a socio-ecological transformation, which seems to be mainstreamed. Theoretically, we propose a synthesis of Gramscian, post-structuralist, and institutionalist approaches to outline the commodification of nature as the dominant strategy and to explore alternative and transformative utopian visions.

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Resource Conflicts in Processes of Land Grabbing through Eucalyptus Tree Plantations in the North of Minas Gerais in Brazil

Author: Thomas, Wiebke (FU Berlin)

Conflicts over land, land-related rights and resources get discussed in the debate on land grabbing, which highlights changes in land use and land property relations that threaten the livelihoods of the rural poor by either directly dispossessing ‘local communities’ from their lands and/or depriving them from the food production their lives are based on. In the process of land grabbing environmental territorial conflicts” may emerge at various levels, in which several actors make claims to the same land and different society nature relations, as well as territorialities are in conflict with each other (cf. Zhouri and Laschefski 2010). How such conflicts are handled, and who wins and who loses, strongly influences whether land grabbing can be confronted and alternatives emerge, or if existing relations of power and domination are maintained and stabilized. From a Gramscian perspective I assume that land grabbing actors change their strategies of land control in moments of conflict from coercive to more consensus-oriented practices in order to maintain land control and stabilize hegemonic positions. To inquire into this assumption the following research question is proposed: How and with what consequences are resource conflicts in processes of land grabbing at the local level managed in order to maintain land control?” It is aimed at examining local-level dynamics of resource conflicts in processes of land grabbing. From an actor-oriented political ecology perspective that is added to a critical political economy approach, the analysis focuses on the specific strategies and justifications used by powerful land grabbing actors. A particular case in the North of Minas Gerais, in the Brazilian cerrado shall be examined, for which a three months field research was realized in 2013. The transnational company Vallourec Ltd., formerly Mannesmann Ltd., acquired land for eucalyptus tree plantations in the territory of the community of Canabrava, a traditional community of small peasants. The planted eucalyptus is used for the production of charcoal for the company’s steel production. In 2007 the assassination of a community member by the company’s security guards triggered protests by social movements and NGOs at different levels leading to open conflict over the use and distribution of the land. The process of land grabbing and the company’s changing strategy of land control before and after the conflict shall be examined in order to show how resource conflicts are dealt with at the local level and with what consequences for the affected community. By identifying the strategies of the powerful actors counter-strategies and alternatives towards resource fairness can be developed.

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Local Content Policies, Natural Resource Governance and Development in the Global South

Author: Ovadia, Jesse (Newcastle University)

Natural resource governance in the Global South has traditionally focused on strengthening institutions to fight corruption and rent seeking while promoting transparency and accountability to encourage better usage of the revenues generated from resource extraction. While the income from extractive industry can contribute to economic and social development, in many parts of the world natural resources (and especially oil) have been a terrible curse. While many important critiques have been made of the good governance agenda, natural resource governance must be seen in the light of the history of the current understanding of the resource curse. . The resource curse” is a catch-all term used to explain low levels of economic growth, a lack of industrial development, authoritarian and repressive regimes, violence, corruption and civil war. While the existence of the curse is be hotly debated, the proposition that different economic policies produce different development outcomes can be made without reservation. Consequent to this postulate, resource governance is important precisely because of the role of state policy in fostering both positive and negative developmental outcomes. Natural resource dependency has stood in the way of economic diversity and industrial development. Recent announcements of offshore oil discoveries across Africa are part of the emergence of a new discourse of Africa rising” that is now displacing older discourses of poverty and state failure in Africa in both academic scholarship and in the mainstream media; particularly business periodicals. Accounting for over 75 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s oil production in 2012, Angola and Nigeria are at the center of this shift. Previously seen as two of the prime examples of the resource curse due to their histories of conflict and underdevelopment, Angola and Nigeria are now among the fastest growing economies in the world. T his paper argues that local content policies (LCPs), which promote local and national participation in extractive industry, are essential for the sustainability of resource-led economic development. LCPs are now being promoted by t he World Bank, African Development Bank, UN Economic Commission for Africa, and several western development agencies as part of natural resource governance. Focusing on Angola, Nigeria and Ghana, it is argued that LCPs offer not only the potential for diversified growth, but also the potential to capture large amounts of foreign capital investment in the national economy. Based on analyses of policies and legal frameworks for local content as well as field research this paper will examine recent local content initiatives and argue for their inclusion as part of an overall framework of good governance of natural resources.

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How important is speculation on the agricultural commodity market and how do traders evaluate the situation? A Marxist Approach.

Author: Bergmann, Rita (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) price index peaked in 2008 and doubled compared to the average level of 2002-2004. In the beginning of 2011 the FAO index reached an even higher level and ever since has been stagnating on a very high level. This pattern increases concern about food security. The paper aims to develop a systemic and structural understanding of the speculative potential of the agricultural commodities market and its implications. A Marxist perspective will be taken to unravel and specify the nature of financialisation of agricultural commodities. It conducts a qualitative study with insights from commodity traders, showing their understanding of their own influences on food prices. The aim is to comprehend what influences the decision to sell or buy on the future- and spotmarket by traders and the effects on the real economy. 1. Introduction and theoretical background: The collapse of the Bretton Woods system unleashed an era of ongoing privatization and the importance of finance in the global economy grew steadily. The term financialisation exists in the academic literature since the 1990s; which from a Marxist perspective describes the growing importance of ‘fictitious’ capital compared to ‘industrial’ capital. These structural changes also influenced the agricultural commodity market and allowed the scope and liquidity of these markets to grow heavily. With the price peaks of 2008 and 2011, the ongoing financialisation of agricultural resources comes more and more to the fore in academic circles. This paper aims to develop a systemic and structural understanding of financialisation and the speculative potential of the agricultural commodities market and its implications for the poor around the globe. All arguments in this paper will be interpreted and explained within the framework of a dialectic development between ‘fictitious’ and ‘industrial’ capital. 2. State of the Art and Methods: The first part will consist of a literature review and an analysis of key data, such as price indices and volatility/liquidity measures in order to draw a general picture of the market. The second part concentrates on qualitative interviews with traders of the agricultural commodity market. The aim of the interviews is to generate rich, in-depth information on trading motivations and strategies of heterogeneous agricultural commodity market participants. Furthermore the traders’ perception of ‘fundamentals’, speculative trading opportunities and the ‘fictitious’ characteristic of agricultural commodities on the future- and spotmarket, will be a focal point. 3. Summary: The persistently high prices of food commodities increase concern about short term and long term food security. The financial market and the ongoing financialisation of agricultural commodities play a major role in the formation of food prices. The paper aims to unravel and specify the nature of financialisation of agricultural commodities and its implications for the poor around the globe from a Marxist perspective. Qualitative interviews with traders are used to generate rich, in-depth information on trading habits and their perception of ‘fundamentals’, speculative trading opportunities and the ‘fictitious’ characteristic of agricultural commodities.

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Development pathways and struggles over land and natural resources in the Nicaraguan agrarian frontier

Authors: Merlet, Pierre (Universidad Centroamericana Managua-Nicaragua (UCA)); Huybrechs, Frédéric

The ongoing transformation of forests into agricultural land is recognized worldwide as a key issue, above all in the context of global environmental crisis. The related land use changes account for transformations in the biophysical environment at local and global level but also install and shape social and cultural systems. Altogether this implies huge challenges for society in terms of governance, sustainability and fairness. In Nicaragua, this kind of transformation has been going on for several decades and the common thread is a process specialization (cattle breeding, coffee), land concentration expulsion of small farmers, and deforestation. Lately, new trends have influenced these historical processes such as the increasing presence of the state, the growing insertion of local producers in global value chains or the emergence of new actors (NGOs, private agro-industrial investors, conservationist organizations). These imply changes in practices and rules around access and use of natural resources and around the distribution of the benefits extracted from them while they also engender new struggles over the meaning of sustainable development (tensions between conservation and agrarian production). Even though this might seem a new dynamic, it cannot be understood without taking into account the past. Therefore, we argue that to understand what is happening today regarding land use changes and natural resources we need to analyse the current dynamics in the agrarian frontier with an historic perspective. We will do so by identifying and characterizing (in terms of social, economic and environmental attributes) in a historic perspective the ‘development pathways’ that exist in several concrete small territories in the Nicaraguan agrarian frontier. Our approach is inspired by complexity theory and political ecology. We conceptualize small rural territories as Complex Socio Ecological Systems (SES) composed by a multiplicity of sub-systems, elements and attributes which are interrelated in a complex way and from which emerge an unpredictable behavior of the system as a whole. Within these SES we focus on the interface between human beings and nature looking at the way natural resources have been appropriated and transformed in wealth because we believe this process is crucial in shaping more or less fair and sustainable patterns of territorial development and individual trajectories. Embracing complexity makes us realize that there is no panacea to deal with the challenges existing in agrarian frontier regions. Interventions must therefore consider uncertainty and local socio-economic and political historical processes. This ought not to be taken as a pessimistic message. On the contrary, it wishes to encourage a more thorough engagement with the realities of local territories and their actors, in order to have a more realistic view on what problems and solutions might be. For the latter, no imposition of pre-meditated instruments will have the desired effect, as the social-political process through which it is adopted and translated will lead to undesired outcomes, be it on sustainability or fairness.

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Neo-Extractivism as a Development Option? On the current dynamics and contradictions of raw-materials-based development in Latin America

Authors: Brand, Ulrich (University of Vienna); Dietz, Kristina

In our paper we address contradictions and dynamics of resource based development strategies at the beginning of the 21st century. We depart from recent debates in Latin America, where opportunities and limits of resource-based development have been discussed controversially under the term extractivism” or neo-extractivism”. Our aim is to analyse the emerging political-institutional, territorial, and socio-ecological dynamics and contradictions of extractivism in Latin America in the context of dynamic capitalist development at the global scale. Here, we refer to regulation theory, critical state theory as well as to the research field of political ecology. We conclude by asking what insights Latin American experiences on extractivism as a development model might be provided for other world regions especially when thinking of resource fairness at a global resp. transregional scale.

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Water Shortages and Conflicts: Their Mapping on the Macrolevel and the Microlevel Reality - Examples from Brazil and of Turkey's Regional Hydropolitics

Author: Dr. Walter, Wolfgang K. (DVGW Deutscher Verein des Gas- u. Wasserfaches)

Over the last decades the interaction between water resources, water shortages and conflict and the constant anxiety about so called future water wars” used to play a significant role in the mind set of both, relevant political leaders and the scientific community. A close look at the appearance of water shortages in conflicts throughout history and political geography allows us to identify the characteristics of water in situation of shortages and in violent situations. A close look at the appearance of water in conflicts reveals that control over water resources or water infrastructure not necessarily leads to any conflict. Nevertheless, disputes over the partition and use of water resources, especially in times of shortages and limited substitution possibilities did indeed trigger conflict, both, on an intra- and inter-state level. In this respect, the definition of water shortages is always a matter of scale. Water sufficiency on the macrolevel of states might turn into severe water shortages on the microlevel of regions or communities. Therefore, water availability and water usage on the macrolevel of 16 Newly Industrialized Countries, NICs are compared. To show the drift in the perspective once the macrolevel is left for the microlevel, regional aspects of water availability are revealed for the so called water rich nation” Brazil and for selected areas in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais. Too, the present and intra-state conflict trigger of water usage competition between different sectors is put into relation with the hydrological and socio-economic reality. On the macro- and inter-state level water plays a key-role within the ecological security of a country. A thorough analysis of relevant trigger and input factors of the water-factor-relevance of a conflict situation leads to a more general description of water shortages and water in crises. According to the interaction possibility of actors, water conflict triggers can be divided into so called outer” and inner triggers”. A description of water shortages and conflicts needs an interdisciplinary approach combining hydrological and socio-economical variables in the framework of a historical-geopolitical analysis. The application of the suggested basic approach for describing water conflicts is specified for Turkey and neighbouring countries. In comparison to the water nation” Brazil Turkey does not seem to be an explicit water power. However, in the relative inter-state comparison with its neighbours it positions itself as a water power, essentially by imposing the South-Eastern Anatolian Project GAP, one of the world’s largest hydro political irrigation and hydropower undertaking. For the GAP, a standard case and a case of drought are assessed.

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Reterritorialization and Biophysical Expansion of Palm Oil Production in Indonesia

Authors: Brad, Alina (); Schaffartzik, Anke; Pichler, Melanie; Plank, Christina

Palm oil is used in human nutrition and for various industrial products including cosmetics and biodiesel. Exponential growth in palm oil production and land use for oil palm plantations in Indonesia currently makes the country the world’s largest palm oil producer. This expansion provides economic benefits and has been instrumental in shaping power constellations. Its negative ecological and social consequences include destruction of rainforest and peat lands along with biodiversity loss, marginalization of indigenous groups and loss of rural livelihoods. In an account of politico-institutional and biophysical shifts which occurred between 1965 and 2010, we find that the expansion of palm oil production was enabled by two historically distinct processes of reterritorialization, or reconfiguration of territorial organization, implemented both politico-institutionally and biophysically: centralization (orde baru) and decentralization (reformasi). We discuss how these forms of reterritorialization must be understood not only as one of the sources of current conflict (potential) surrounding Indonesian palm oil production but also as part of a set of measures implemented to curb or avoid other forms of conflict.

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Mining as a chance for development? A comparison of key issues in Ecuador and South Africa

Authors: Smet, Koen (Universität Salzburg, FB Geographie und Geologie); Seiwald, Markus

The since 2003 ongoing mining boom has stimulated a renewed academic discussion on its potential for economic development in the Global South. The increased presence of emerging countries such as China and India on the world market, both as a customer for raw materials and as an investor for mining projects, has led to the assumption that the much-cited ‘resource curse’ phenomenon could come to an end. Our paper rejects the resource curse thesis as too deterministic from the outset and argues that the mining sector potentially can offer a pathway for development. To realize this potential, however, a series of pitfalls has to be overcome. Whereas the academic debate with respect to the development potential of resource extraction revolves around a nation state perspective, we want to extent this perspective by introducing a Global Production Network (GPN) approach. This approach can cope quite well with the complexity of interrelated processes within the resource industries. We are sure that by including the different stakeholders along the extractive industries’ value chain, the GPN framework allows for a richer conceptualization of the social and economic processes that underlie the extraction and processing of mineral resources. On the one hand questions like citizen participation in the course of the designation of mining areas, the form and extent of rent distribution from economic activities and the impact of environmental degradation on the local population become center of the discussion. On the other hand the behavior of (global) firms on a local level and its impact on development processes can be captured. Moreover, the interaction between governments and firms are also taken into consideration. By illustrating the contrasting cases of Ecuador and South Africa, we show that no general answer can be given to the question on the development potential of the mining sector. The two countries differ in relation to the historical development of the sector and the social and political environment in which it is embedded. As a result, the typical conflicts evolve around different issues. Questions of citizen participation and environmental degradation dominate the discussion in Ecuador, while the main topics in South Africa are the distribution of rent and labor politics. Our analysis of the two case studies shows that an analysis of the development potential of resource industries is highly complex. The interaction between governments, civil society groups and (multinational) companies are characterized by both cooperation and competition. Therefore, any academic debate should do justice to this interrelated complexity

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International Biodiversity Conservation Policies and Global Environmental (In)Justice: Where Does Institutional Design Go Wrong?

Author: Lehmann, Ina (Universität Bremen)

This paper attempts to bridge the gap between global environmental justice theorizing and social sciences through a proposal how normative principles of just international distribution can be applied in empirical analysis of global environmental governance. So far a growing concern among political philosophers with just design principles for global environmental institutions finds only limited uptake in empirical global environmental governance research. Beyond a fairly general recognition of the disproportionate suffering of the global poor we can thus hardly identify where precisely people suffer distributive injustices from existing international institutions. One area where global environmental justice problems are particularly prevalent is biodiversity conservation. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) attempts (among other objectives) to curtail the current overexploitation of biological resources through various conservation requirements. However, while global ecological interdependencies turn conservation into a universal benefit, most of the world’s biodiversity is concentrated in developing countries where many internationally sanctioned conservation measures take place. The world’s poorest thus bear the greatest burden of conservation and at least partly so for the sake of all humankind. This asymmetry raises the question whether and to what degree international biodiversity conservation institutions and policies foster global distributive (in)justice. To answer this question the paper proceeds in two consecutive steps. First, it develops a normative-theoretical framework for assessing global distributive justice of international biodiversity conservation policies. This has two major components. For one it has to establish which material entitlements conservation policies should guarantee for current and future generations. Here the paper discusses various justice standards reaching from basic sufficiency-oriented to much more egalitarian approaches. Moreover the question arises who has the responsibility for guaranteeing these standards. Here the paper discusses major suggestions from climate justice theory such as polluter pays or ability to pay principles. Having argued for a modestly egalitarian approach that assigns most of the responsibility for its realization to the global rich, the paper operationalizes how this might translate into indicators for empirical analysis. The paper’s second step applies this analytical framework to the conservation provisions of the CBD and related decisions of its Conferences of the Parties (COPs) as well as to the biodiversity portfolio strategies and policies of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). The GEF is the financial mechanism of the CDB and thereby one of the most important international institutions in the policy field. Its policies are thus of major importance for the implementation of the Convention. Through a content analysis of these key documents, the paper compares the actual policies with the requirements of distributive justice theory. The major empirical contribution of the paper thus is to highlight where key problems of distributive justice lie in the design of the global conservation regime. Since the COPs also provide guidance to the GEF the paper is moreover able to point out inductively in how far (in)just GEF policies are already predetermined at the higher policy level of the CBD COPs. The paper thus also tells us something about how (in)justice travels from one policy level to the next.

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Resource Conflicts between Landholders and Indigenous People in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil: Consequences, Sources and Policies in a Historical Perspective

Author: Kroyer, Kristina (University of Vienna)

This contribution aims to point out central aspects of resource conflicts between extensively producing landholders and the Guarani Kaiowá population of the Brazilian state Mato Grosso do Sul. The focus lies on the crucial role of indigenous reservations, both as consequences and as sources of resource conflicts and on the policy frameworks, which have, historically and presently, evoked violent clashes between these parties. Additionally, the lack of resources within these reservations will be addressed in relation to generational factors. Mato Grosso do Sul designates a crucial region for the Brazilian agribusiness and export sector given its production of cattle, soy, sugarcane and bio-ethanol. Due to the establishment of large-scale landholding entities in the form of ranches and plantations, its landscape experienced a profound transformation from predominant woodland to steppe land in the course of the last century. In this context, the indigenous population of the region, mostly Guarani Kaiowá, was gradually dispossessed of its land and forced to live on a small fraction of their traditionally occupied area, in order to make room for export-oriented agro-industries. With the aim of clearing the land from indigenous inhabitants, the Brazilian government established eight reservations in the beginning of the 20th century, which have accommodated displaced Guarani Kaiowá families ever since. These reservations suffer from overpopulation, poverty, a lack of arable land and other resources essential for their physical and cultural reproduction. Aside from the partly fatal implications for their physical wellbeing due to a lack of possibilities for maintaining their traditional economy, the environmental destruction and spatial concentration coupled with a paternalistic administration of indigenous lands have severely affected their cultural integrity. As a consequence, the Guarani Kaiowá are considered one of the indigenous peoples the most affected by malnutrition, alcoholism, violence, homicide and suicide in Brazil. Given the recognition of indigenous land rights by the Brazilian constitution of 1988, Guarani Kaiowá families and communities continuously leave the reservations to fight for their rights by occupying privately held land, demanding the demarcation as indigenous territory. It is against this background that the proposed contribution presents the reservations as consequences of resource conflicts, resulting in particular from the historical land grab experienced by the indigenous population, as well as sources of resource conflicts, namely in terms of an on-going fight over land due to the precarious living conditions prevailing within the reservations. Apart from a critical examination of indigenous actors and large-scale landholders as well as their discourses regarding land use practices, the state and its ambivalences between indigenous and economic policies, strategies and legal frameworks will also be addressed. Based on the author’s results gained during a 4-month field study, the paper furthermore aims to analyze the impacts of severe resource scarcity on the young generation and their perceived future perspectives while simultaneously revealing their relationship to land and conflict, bearing in mind that the majority of this generation was born inside the reservations.

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National ownership with cosmopolitan intent

Author: Nili, Shmuel (Yale University)

For almost forty years now, liberal cosmopolitans have been challenging nation-states’ exclusive claim to the revenues from natural resources found within their territories, pushing for a global redistribution of natural resource wealth. In particular, the two cosmopolitan founders of the contemporary liberal debate on global justice – Charles Beitz and Thomas Pogge – have both developed proposals for such redistribution in important essays. Their proposals, in turn, have spurred extensive and still ongoing debate regarding the conceptualization of natural resources, the moral force of national claims to such resources, and their global taxation. It is possible to ask whether in a perfectly just world in which all agents complied with their moral duties, separate political communities (if they existed at all) should be allowed to claim exclusive rights to the revenue from natural resources within their borders. Yet I will bracket this ideal theory” question for the most part, and focus on the more practical context of our actual, highly non-ideal world. In this context, the main purpose of a global redistribution of natural resource revenue would be to alleviate extreme poverty. In turn, the main reason for the enduring cosmopolitan interest in the redistribution of natural resource wealth as a way to ameliorate poverty derives from the thought that natural resource wealth is morally arbitrary . Natural resources, the common cosmopolitan claim goes, are morally arbitrary in the sense that no people can claim special moral desert to the revenue deriving from them. Thus for example, the mere fact that a people happens to have abundant oil, coal, or gas within its borders does not say anything about its moral status or about who should own the revenue from these resources. Their apparent moral arbitrariness makes natural resources a seemingly obvious choice for cosmopolitans who seek sources of wealth that could be marshalled to ameliorate global poverty. Notwithstanding this appeal to arbitrariness, however, I will argue here that a global redistribution of natural resource wealth would be a liability, not an asset, in the fight against global poverty. Following preparatory remarks (section 1), I develop this thesis in two stages. I begin by arguing that a global redistribution of natural resource wealth will achieve little that is of importance from a poverty perspective, for both empirical and normative reasons (section 2). I then contend that, at least from a mainstream liberal perspective, a global redistribution of natural resource revenue would not only contribute little to efforts to curb global poverty, but in fact undermine them (section 3). The reason is that a mainstream liberal who challenges the principle of national revenue ultimately has to undermine the deeper claim that a state’s natural resources belong to its people, thus also undermining the justification for a reform that presents a more theoretically and practically convincing way to combat global poverty: a withdrawal of dictators’ trading privileges in state-owned natural resources. I conclude by anticipating the objection that my focus on present national ownership ignores the tainted history of all national property.

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The global game and global justice: on soccer, natural resource trade, and global reform

Author: Nili, Shmuel (Yale University)

This article uses the globalization of soccer to shed new light on the much-discussed proposal to end dictators’ ability to sell their peoples’ natural resources to any willing buyer (resource reform”). I argue that this proposal must confront the challenge from soft authoritarianism: that moderate dictatorships distribute the bulk of the natural-resource revenue they control to their peoples, and that, as long as there is no proof that distributive dictatorships are systematically using this revenue for purposes that are completely alien to their people, the fact that they do not allow for democratic control of natural resources is not sufficiently disturbing to warrant the drastic step of boycotting them. Those who argue for boycotting dictators’ resource exports should try to defeat this challenge from soft authoritarianism” by showing that even distributive dictatorships” do in fact systematically use significant sums out of natural-resource revenues for purposes that are completely alien to the interests of their people. However, this task is more difficult than it may seem. The key difficulty is that, on the one hand, almost all domestic expenditure of natural-resource revenue can be classified as familiar "morally grey" patronage, even when it is quite public and visible. On the other hand, if natural-resource revenue is taken abroad, in a way that clearly has nothing to do with any public interest, then it will often be secret. Proponents of resource reform therefore need to find creative strategies to identify systematic spending of natural-resource revenues that is clearly detached from any public interest, that is occurring beyond the state's borders, but that is also highly visible. I demonstrate such a creative strategy, by examining the systematic purchases of foreign soccer teams and sponsorships by resource-rich dictators. Most prominently in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Russia, formal government bodies, entities or agents that are either heavily associated with or integral to the regime pour billions of dollars into purchasing foreign soccer teams and players, and into securing soccer-related sponsorship. Thus the globalization of soccer helps proponents of resource reform provide the kind of proof of alien spending that the challenge from soft authoritarianism requires.

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Extractivism as catch-all concept for Latin America? Commodity rents and politics in Brazil, Chile and Venezuela

Authors: Jäger, Johannes (University of Applied Sciences bfi Vienna); Schmidt, Lukas; Leubolt, Bernhard

In the article we examine recent socio-economic developments in Latin America. The continent has witnessed an increase in economic growth over the last decade and has managed to withstand the world financial crisis without a dramatic economic breakdown. This trend has largely been described as being based on the ongoing commodity price boom and on the intensification of resource extraction in Latin American economies. In some cases, these developments have been combined with rising investments into social policies. These developments, initiated by centre-left governments resulted in significant social improvements. Although this new- or progressive extractivism” is therefore to be separated from the old extractivism” where the generated profit went to a small elite, critics of this process see some main contradictions of the recent development: The dependence on the world market for commodities is intensified and the environmental damages are high. Based on these arguments, the extractivist alignment is diagnosed for the whole continent. Our aim is to question this assumption and to develop a differentiated understanding of the Latin American extractivism by using a political economy approach. Regulationst- as well neo-Gramscian considerations will be combined to work out the different characteristics of economic and political developments in Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, three countries usually characterised as (neo-)extractivist. We will challenge this characterisation based on the analysis of the dominant accumulation-models and the political conflicts concerning its regulation. In this context, the role and distribution of commodity rents is crucial for evaluating socio-political impacts of extractivist strategies. Additionally, we highlight the importance of accumulation strategies which not necessarily do rely on extractivist strategies, despite the commodity boom.

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A proposal for global water use targets

Authors: Lutter, Stephan (Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU)); Giljum, Stefan

Increasing resource efficiency as a means to achieve overall decoupling of resource use from economic growth and higher well-being has reached the highest levels of European as well as global economic-environmental policy agendas. Strategies like the European Commission’s Roadmap to a resource-efficient Europe” call not only for a measurement of resource use and an increase in resource efficiency, but also identify the need for target setting as a means to evaluate progress towards the overarching policy goals. However, so far only in the case of greenhouse gas emissions a clear threshold of a maximum of 2°C temperature increase per year has been identified and translated into a maximum allowance” of GHG emissions on the country level. The other three resource categories as specified in the EU Roadmap, i.e. materials, land and water, so far still lack such thresholds, as research is not yet as advanced and environmental thresholds and related limits for sustainable resource use not identified yet. Hence, there is a significant discrepancy between demand for thresholds to be met by humanity as a whole as well as individual country on the one hand and the already available thresholds and limits on the other hand. This paper focuses on the development of targets for global water use. The resource water plays a crucial role for a sustainable living and survival of our societies on the planet. Although a renewable resource, the availability of water is limited throughout the year due to climatic variations. Within as well as outside the EU water withdrawal exceeds in many regions – at least temporarily – the amounts of available water resources. This leads to a reduced water flow in rivers, lowering groundwater levels as well as polluted water bodies. In addition, the international trade of water embodied in products (virtual water”) is rapidly growing, with developed regions, such as Europe, being significant net-importers of virtual water from other regions, including developing countries. As a consequence Europe indirectly becomes a competitor for water resources abroad, which is specifically critical in areas with prevailing water scarcity. When discussing targets for water use different aspects have to be born in mind, which are of high relevance and specific for the resource water. These aspects cover, among others, the different types of water (blue, green, and grey), the different types of water flows (abstraction vs. consumption) and the necessary spatial, temporal and sectoral differentiation. This paper discusses existing approaches for deriving water use targets on the European and international level such as the Water Exploitation Index of the European Environment Agency, the Water Stress Index or the approach taken by Rockström et al. in their Planetary Boundaries”. Based on this discussion, we propose a methodology for defining global water use targets for direct and indirect water appropriation on the country and watershed level, including blue and green water flows as well as a significant number of relevant industrial sectors. Thereby, the paper contributes to the elaboration of concrete proposals for managing this key resource on the global level in a sustainable and fair way.

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Consumption-based approaches to fair land use: How to reduce impacts of distant land use related to EU consumption

Authors: de Schutter, Liesbeth (Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU)); Bruckner, Martin; Giljum, Stefan; Lieber, Mirko

Land is a finite resource and, in contrast to most other natural resources, the amount of available land resources is well known. However, it is not only the scarcity of land, but also the capacity to supply its services that threatens human wellbeing. Land services range from economic functions such as food and energy supply, housing and GDP contribution, to biological functions such as water purification, carbon sequestration and the preservation of biodiversity. With economic development, land resources for economic functions continue expanding at the expense of natural areas. The EU is now one of the most intensively used continents on the globe with the highest share of land used for settlement, production systems and infrastructure and, although crop yields are amongst the highest in the world, a growing land demand outside the EU: rom the total of around 450 million hectares cropland, grassland and forest area required to satisfy EU final demand for goods and services in 2007, almost 50% can be related to land areas embodied in imports to the EU. Continuing growth of population and affluence in developing regions, as well as increased use of biomass for energy and biomaterial purposes in developed markets, will continue to support a growing demand for land and its services. As a result, global land demand for agricultural purposes is projected to grow between 2.7 and 11 million hectares annually in the coming decades. A similar amount of cropland would be needed to compensate for land sealing (buildings) and land degradation. However, research shows that the growing amount of land for economic functions is often in conflict with sustainable tenure of agricultural soils and natural areas, and that an increase in land demand contributes to global or distant environmental and social impacts such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, loss of bio-productive capacity, malnutrition and land conflicts following expropriation in rural areas. This paper addresses the challenge to distribute the benefits of land use and services in a fair way while reducing negative environmental and social impacts. This challenge is complex as (1) both the capacity and the priority of land functions differ with each local context, (2) the relation between drivers and impacts is blurred by distance and supply networks between producing and consumer markets and (3) the lack of consistent datasets prevents adequate monitoring of impacts. To overcome most of these hurdles, we propose a consumption-based perspective of land use which allows to reduce land pressures generically and to shift (some of the) responsibility for environmental and social pressures to consumers. A land footprint approach is applied to measure the EU’s land use and carbon appropriation in comparison to the global average. Based on these fairness indicators, we develop policy targets supporting a reduction of social and environmental impacts related to EU consumption.

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Regional common concern for water security : An inspiring concept for international resource fairness

Author: Magsig, Bjørn-Oliver (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research)

The world’s freshwater supplies are squeezed by rapidly increasing demand, the impacts of global climate change and unsustainable management. Given the fact that water is the gossamer linking various other security issues – e.g. energy, food and environment – it seems obvious that ‘business as usual’ in transboundary water management will threaten future global stability and endanger the very foundation of international security. Yet, the much longed for radical new approach is missing. This is mainly due to the fact that addressing water insecurity is a highly complex task where multilevel and polycentric forces must be balanced and coordinated. The absence of law in much of this emerging debate highlights the necessity for further understanding and elucidation, especially from the legal perspective. This paper builds on earlier work which has examined international water law through a security lens and revealed two main weaknesses of the current system: (1) the tension between the task to provide for ‘security of expectations’ and the needed innovation to meet fluctuating demands and supplies; and (2) the tension between the ecological unity of the water resource and the diverging sovereign interests of states. In order to address these shortcomings, the present mindset of prevailing rigidity and state-centrism has to be challenged by examining how international legal instruments might be crafted in a way that advances a more flexible and common approach towards transboundary water interaction. Here, the concept of considering water security as a matter of ‘regional common concern’ is introduced in order to help international law play a more prominent role in addressing the challenges of global water insecurity. At a time when international environmental law is said to be losing relevance, the growing complexity and interdependence between states demands us to break with the prevalence of thinking in silos and within national borders. What is required instead is a renewed effort to foster international cooperation on all issues shaping our common future. This paper analyses transboundary water interaction – the fault line of international conflict in the 21st century – as a ‘case study’ for advancing public international law in order to fulfil its responsibility of promoting fairness in sharing the world’s transboundary natural resources.

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Taking the Complexity of Scarcity for Granted

Author: Kester, Johannes (University of Groningen)

Unlike concepts such as power and sovereignty, scarcity is not seen as a contested concept in International Relations and International Political Economy literature. That is not to say that the concept is not used a lot, only that scarcity is one of those facts of life that we seem to take for granted. It is precisely this ‘clarity’ that is remarkable, especially when one considers the renewed” attention to scarce natural resources following events that range from the food crisis in 2008 to the current friction between Russia and Ukraine. Instead, most scholarly attention is paid to individual cases and natural resources within distinct fields and disciplines, and, more importantly, most often scarcity is subject not object of study. It is possible to take scarcity as an object of study by asking how the concept of scarcity works and by analysing what it actually does. To answer these questions this paper takes a theoretical and reflexive driven stance that analyses how scarcity is seen and studied in a number of fields, ranging from economics, development studies to philosophy. Taking such an approach, the initial paper so far hints at three important lines of argument that deserve closer scrutiny: first, the often overlooked distinction between absolute and relative scarcity. Where relative scarcity has mostly replaced absolute scarcity, the debate is still mainly geared towards the search for technical solutions (applicable on absolute scarcity) for what actually should be approached as a social problem (relative scarcity). In fact, the focus on fear and absolute scarcity removes any incentives to debate the ethics and morality behind relative scarcity. This relation with security is a second point. By approaching scarcity as a speech-act, in line with Securitization Theory, we see that scarcity is actually the closure of a problem identification. In other words, most research starting from the issue of scarcity miss out on the real issues at hand. For them what remains is the need to act. And we act through markets, the third aspect. While markets offer conflicts over natural resource distribution a non-violent way out, one can also see that scarcity is the necessary condition for markets to work. In other words, abundance is ultimately the anti-theses of markets, which if we push the argument, means that we actually need hungry and energy poor people in the world. A set of paradoxical and controversial conclusions, but one that hopefully adds another much needed layer to the theoretical and empirical debates on natural resource governance.

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Complexity thinking in a Natural Resource-use conflict: the case of Nigerian Oil Extractive Territories

Authors: Ibeh, Lawrence (University of Munich); Mauser, Wolfram

Scholarly works on empirical analysis of natural resources and violence on global scales are drawn mainly from two known theoretical perspectives: the non-renewable resource abundance-focus, promoted by Paul Collier, and the renewable resource scarcity-focus promoted by Thomas Homer-Dixon. Recent fine-grained but aspatial studies such as Michael Watt’s works on the Niger Delta took root from political ecological theories. In both terrorization of territories by militia/belligerents groups, and village based resource violence linked to social identity, race/ethnic groups, place, space and environmental characteristics, the role of geography remains evident. The interplay of physical location of natural resources (renewable and non-renewable), and the social systems is however missing. Less attention is given to an alternative conception based on complexity theory, though complexity theory is increasingly concerned with natural and socio-economic systems linkage. We argue that complexity theory can be used as a new perspective for understanding this complex interplay. We identify key notions of ‘complexity and geographies of resource violence’, and ways these can inform the relationship between natural (non-renewable and renewable) resources and socio-economic processes and the resource violence likeliness using fuzzy logic modeling inference systems in a spatially explicit context. We conclude with how complexity thinking and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) may be applied in future fine-grained studies on natural resource conflicts. Keywords: Niger Delta; Renewable resources; Non-renewable resources; Resource-Violence; Fuzzy logic model; Geographic Information Systems.

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Western Sahara: Classical colonial resource extraction in the 21st century?

Author: Orischnig, Tobias (Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance; African Development Bank)

This paper gives a brief overview on the history of Western Sahara and the history of resource extraction in the area. The focus is on the early and long-existing phosphate extraction in Bou Craa (with a reference to the Madrid Agreement, where Spain already secured a better control of fishery and phosphate) and on the increasing international (EU) demand for fishing goods and petrol, which are at the core of current policies with regards to international treaties and investments in the occupied areas of Western Sahara.It will try to evaluate the losses for the local Sahrawi population due to illegal resource extraction. In recent years, the EU signed several treaties with Morocco on fishing rights in the occupied territories of Western Sahara. Other conflicts evolved around possible petrol claims in the Western Sahara and US companies investing in exploring them. (Norwegian) ethical funds put pressure on these US companies not to invest in this area. Furthermore, resources are not only restricted to fishery and petrol, but also include possible deposits of iron, niobium, zirconium, tantalum, silver, uranium and rare earths. Tourism and (solar) energy can also be seen as resources in the Western Sahara. The consequences of these (possible and existing) resource extractions, which are illegal from an international law perspective, are an unresolved territorial issue, the existence of the last colony in the world according to UN descriptions, and hundred thousands of refugees stuck in the middle of the Algerian desert without any hope for a fast return to their country.This paper will also show further possible ways of getting out of the gridlock by referring to other international examples and to possible initiatives as the extractive industries transparency initiative. This outlook includes possible changes in the refugee camps, where Algerian resource extraction might offer hope for employment in the area.

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How can global value chains be fair? Possibilities and limitations of standards and product certification mechanisms for the mineral and agricultural sector.

Authors: Kister, Jutta (Universität Innsbruck); Ruiz Peyré, Fernando

From a (economic) geographical perspective, the production of different goods of global demand (as well as their impact on the territorial development) has been analysed from the perspectives of chains and networks (Gereffi & Korzeniewicz 1994). The Global Value Chain (GVC) approach focuses on the relations between the actors in the chain as well as the control over the transactions. The Global Production Networks (GPN) approach includes social embeddedness of the actors as well a the political and social framework into the analysis of power relations (Bathelt & Glückler 2012, Franz & Hassler 2010). Private and public standards play an increasing role in regulating the global market, especially when value chains are reaching into countries offering less public regulations (Bernzen and Dannenberg 2012). While the Fairtrade standard is regulating (mainly) food production and trading networks on a global scale since the 1960s, there is much less efforts on creating certification mechanisms for mineral resources. Nevertheless there are several analogies i.e. the production sites located in the global South and the consuming areas located in the industrialized countries in the global North. What does the term fairness” stand for in these chains and networks and how can it be defined, analysed and evaluated according to these approaches, is the main question for this presentation. On the basis of literature research on international standard mechanisms (Global Compact, Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, etc.) we evaluate in which way they try (and success or not) to influence the production and trade of mineral resources in a widely unregulated global market. In comparison, the private Fairtrade certification system is analysed as an example of a private standard being considered as fair”. The standard is analysed for food products based on empirical studies carried out in Germany (end of 2013) and Nicaragua (2014). This paper aims to analyse the Fairtrade system as a well-known fair” standard for global production and trade on the one hand. On the other hand the question is raised, if there do exist adequate certification or standard mechanisms for mineral and agricultural resources. Furthermore it aims to inquire the particular interests behind the presented mechanisms and the rising critiques both in North and South.

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Agribusiness and Green Economy in Brazilian Amazonia: economic synergies and socioenvironmental impacts

Author: Schmidlehner, Michael (UNINORTE - União Educacional do Norte - Faculdade do Acre)

This presentation will discuss and analyze the recent expansion of two economic modalities, its interactions and effects on resource governance in Brazilian Amazonia: agribusiness and certain market mechanisms based on environmental compensation and promoted under the lable of green economy”. First, dynamics of agribusiness and its local impacts will be discussed and exemplified by soy production in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso. In this state 32 percent of the Brazilian and nine percent of the world´s soy is grown. Although various studies show that the rapid growth of this industry has led to land concentration, deforestation, rural exodus, contamination of soil and water, amongst others, government agencies with strong ties to the industry and local oligarchies keep pushing for its further expansion. Second, the creation of the System of Incentives for Environmental Services in Acre through the state law 2308 from 2010 (SISA law) shall illustrate the local implementation of green economy policies in Amazonia. The SISA law enables REDD-type projects and the creation and commercialization of various types of eco-credits. Despite harsh critics on behalf of Brazilian civil society groups, SISA is being strongly promoted by the state government, big NGOs (Worls Wildlife Fund - WWF, Environmental Defense Fund - EDF, Instituto de Pesquisa Ambiental da Amazônia - IPAM, amongst others) and Banks (mainly the World Bank, Interamerican Development Bank - IDB, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Economico e Social - BNDES, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau - KFW) as a pioneer example for the implementation of Green Economy in tropical rainforest regions. In a third step, certain regulations created by Brazilian Law No. 12,651 of 2012 (the so called New Forest Code) will be explained. Besides loosening environmental standards for big landowners and partially granting them exemption from fines for deforestation, the New Forest Code marks a transition from a policy of environmental restoration to a policy of environmental compensation and thereby creates strong synergies between agribusiness and REDD-type projects. It will be shown that the new standards implemented by regulations like SISA in combination with the New Forest Code endorse multiple possibilities of new compensation deals and favor the now merged interests of big landowners, industries and financial capital. At the same time, these standards tend to further shift control over natural resources away from smallholders and traditional communities. Finally, it will be argued that these new economic mechanisms introduce a new cycle in an ongoing coercive and hegemonic process that marks the history of the Amazon region since the beginning of colonization.

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The contribution of Fair Trade market to the implementation of ¿good agricultural practices¿ and sustainability of small-scale farms in Brazil

Authors: Araújo, Guilherme (Innsbruck University); Magalhaes, Daniel; Tôrres A. Gomes, Edvânia

The Good Agricultural Practices Program (GAP) created by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) aims to direct agricultural production through a set of sustainability principles that prioritize food safety by instituting preventive actions against crop contamination. Thus, private international organizations developed standards based on FAO’s guidelines for exporters to ensure food safety and preserve the environment. Fairtrade is among others an alternative market that uses consumer purchasing power to change business practices in order to increase small farmers’ sustainability and resilience in developing countries. Through the establishment of a minimum price and premium for investments, Fairtrade allows improvements in livelihoods, market competitiveness and natural resources management. In order to obtain the Fairtrade label, cooperatives must comply with standards set by Fairtrade Labelling Organization International (FLO) and national environmental and labour legislation. Few years ago, FLO first entered in the Northeast Brazil in the agricultural polo Petrolina/Juazeiro with the certification of local mango cooperatives. Through agribusiness both cities stand out in the semi-arid region, which presents lower GDP and HDI than Brazilian average. The region is seasonally affected by droughts, presenting also a desertification zone, which affects significantly the agricultural sector. Adherence to FLO standards contributed to integrate cooperatives into global market and enabled improvements in production practices by regulating pesticides and optimizing agricultural resources use. These measures contribute to avoid soil and rivers contamination and the salinization process frequently found on fields with sprinkler irrigation systems. Other benefits are found by improvements in socioeconomic and working conditions. Although the organization contributes with good agricultural practices” adoption, some negligence with the agreement fulfilment in the year 2009 was identified which led to a significant production loss for farmers. The region between Zona da Mata Mineira and Caparaó Capixaba in Southeast Brazil is also a rural peripheral region with lower socioeconomic indicators than Brazilian average that presents five Fairtrade certified coffee cooperatives. It is a priority area in Atlantic Forest restoration plans due to its high biodiversity and importance to regional water supply. The premium received from Fairtrade sales is crucial to finance the cooperatives’ activities to improve production processes of contributing farmers, product quality and environmental management. The certification has allowed partnerships with Fairtrade USA and other national institutions (i.e. Bank of Brazil) for investments in water management by implementing septic tanks and small treatment units in members’ properties and others infrastructure demands. This article aims to investigate the impacts of Fairtrade certification in natural resources management (i.e. preserving permanent protection areas, sustaining water provision, reducing risks of erosion and avoiding soil and water contamination) and socioeconomic conditions of producers, workers and communities in these two peripheral agricultural poles. Acknowledgement: CAPES Foundation, University of Innsbruck

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Assessment of Spatial Justice in the Distribution of Urban Public Services in Khartoum city

Author: Mohamed Abdalla Wagialla, Mariam (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Institute of Landscape Planning)

In last three decades urban sprawl of Khartoum city swallowed large tracts of agricultural land and infrastructure failed to keep pace with it, thus created a scarcity in the land suitable for development around the urban area, as the prices of land in the central areas increased to unbelievable figures. In order to address this problem, urban planning authorities in Khartoum have been pursuing a policy of condensation to accommodate the increasing demand for housing, knowing that about 93% of residential area are simple houses (Murillo et al., 2008), and have been followed two types of policies, the first is to raise the density by increasing Floor Area Ratio (FAR) with increasing the proportion of the built up area within the plot and the number of floors permitted according to buildings regulations 2008.The second policy is to fill the vacant spaces within the existing urban boundaries. Both policies lead to increasing of population in specific area. But in contrast, the urban public facilities and open spaces are decreasing due to the infringement on the open spaces and reserved land for future uses in side old neighbourhoods. That is evident in the allocation of these lands for investment purposes, ignoring the considerable need to accommodate urban public facilities inside old residential areas. This situation threatens the sustainability of the urban fabric, in the context of weakness of the executive planning bodies, corruption, lack of knowledge, and absence of public participation. This study tries to answer the main question is that how can the intensification process in Khartoum be managed in a way that promote justice spatially? The main objectives of the study are assessment of spatial justice in the distribution of urban public facilities in Khartoum city after the changes in densities of some old areas and it's reflection on sustainability of the whole city with special attention to amount of greenery and landscaping. The study adopted a multi disciplinary approach, descriptive, analytical, and superlative approach to identify differences between the past, the present and the proposed future of Khartoum old residential areas, using the change in the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and residential density as tools for analysis and assessment, while taking into account the existing and historical context of the built environment, and the natural environment

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Corporate Social Responsibility - a globally applicable tool to standardise and manage community-company relations in the extractive sector?

Author: Sydow, Johanna (Universität Bielefeld)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a concept that the UN, the EU and several other institutions strongly promote in the context of extractive industry. Academics and NGOs have, for several years, criticised voluntary CSR as an insufficient method for the promotion of social development at the site of extraction, dismissing it as a tool for public relations. Some scholars go further, arguing that CSR can be used as a strategic tool to shape and influence social relations around the mine according to their interest. This paper ask: to what extent can CSR be used by mining companies as a standardised tool to gain control over surrounding population? Until now there have been few comparative studies of the same mining company at different locations. Consequently, the extent to which corporations in the mining industry actually shape social relations in their interest by using CSR as a standardised tool has not yet been researched in detail. Based on my field research in Ghana (2009) and Peru (2010) on community-company relations in the extractive sector and the analysis of social media, newspapers and the companies CSR documents I will provide further insight into the working of this corporate agenda. The mining corporation Newmont, which the paper will focus on, seems to be welcome in Ghana; however, this same company faces huge protests in Peru, resulting in the suspension of the mining operation, despite the fact that the same strategy is applied at both places of extraction. This observation questions the assumption of predictable control through CSR. The comparison of the implementation and impact of the same strategy by the same mining company, on different continents implying a temporal and a geographical dimension gives unique insights into the power and limits of CSR. This comparative analysis will show that local specifics, the temporal dimension, agency and counter-conduct are often underestimated by scholars and the mining company itself. There are no standardised effects of domination. Contextual factors, agency, and counter-conduct shape the effect of standardised techniques.

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Equality Beyond Dimensions of Sustainability Regarding Carbon in Soil Resources

Authors: Kühnen, Lukas (Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU)); Stagl, Sigrid; Soja, Gerhard

Human actions on land resource systems strongly affect a variety of environmental factors such as the functions provided by ecosystems. Soil management has an imminent important role especially for maintaining the basis of a sovereign biological food production as well as the recycling of carbon and oxygen into natural processes. However, beside all conventional ways of modern practices, agricultural activities still can help to avert or at least contribute to minimise negative side effects. Such kinds of unconventional strategies which try to improve the influence on the environment are easily confronted with a range of socioeconomic barriers. Addressing just and equal shares of expenditures and gains are difficult to become determined. But to foster satisfying solutions for these hindrances, it is necessary to overlook the dynamic complexity of socio-ecological and economic processes that are connected to them. The processes of the natural dimension related to carbon cycling in soils are usually extremely slow and last for a very long time (therefore they are irreversible and soil is basically non renewable). A screening of literature in relevant natural and social disciplines shows a picture of a very heterogeneous field of approaches and theories towards research on sustainability and global warming in regard to soil related theories and practices. Typically for multi-objective agendas natural carbon sequestration in arable land, through altering the patterns of land use and land use changes, can not be limited to a single valid answer. Because of the complex matter it appears to be often the case that supporting and opposing claims are even made by one and the same group of commentators. Besides being an individual expert topic it is also an open public question of evaluation, validation and valorisation of formulations and methods. It has to be debated particularly in great detail of how to use the stock of resources which are not in a life time able to renew themselves, and what to hold back for the coming generations. Of course such considerations are always closely connected to factors of uncertainty which have to be therefore also reflected and accounted on as well which implies again, that there is not just one correct way to design and come up with an answer. Therefore the multifaceted, multi-scale and multi-stakeholder topic is emphasised to transform it into a more transparent case model, which also integrates people from different sides relating to the topic. The sequestration of carbon out of the atmosphere has become a highly contested one which has gained attraction and interest in different disciplines and industries. Beside the fact that the causes of climate change would be more effective to be altered instead of fighting the symptoms of climate change and its possibly disastrous effects for human population, there is in any case the need to plan also alternative strategies. Climate mitigation measures (fewer emissions) are in the meantime as necessary as climate adaptation measures, after all the climate summits have failed to provide robust programme how to mitigate global warming. It is time to think more than ever about how we manage our natural resource base of land and soil, which can adapt to a changing climate through restoring the former capacity and strength of resilience that were present before anthropogenic overuse began, despite the risk of changing our environment even more. Climate justice is an important part for a comprehensive public agenda and societal interaction with soil resources. Klein, R.J.T., Schipper, E.L., Dessai, S. (2005): Integrating mitigation and adaptation into climate and development policy: three research questions. Environmental Science & Policy 8 (2005), pp. 579-588. Leifeld, J. and Fuhrer, J. (2010): Organic Farming and Soil Carbon Sequestration: What Do We Really Know About the Benefits? AMBIO, Volume 39, Issue 8, pp 585-599.

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Why Reforestation fails: Institutional Change and Migration in Colonia Yucatán, Mexico

Author: Schneider, Lysann (University of Bern, Institute of Social Anthropology)

This proposal for paper deals with the issue of institutional change and resource management in the forestry and agrarian sector in Mexico. The project further expands as it links the topic to issues of migration and environmental and climate change and asks how these changes reinforce and interact with each other and how this influences strategies of human actors in this field. It uses insights from New Institutional theory but makes linkages not just to rational choice but to issues of identity and belonging under stressful environmental conditions. It focuses on the multiple emic perceptions on forest, state policies and property issues under situations of pressure, which re-enforce each other: Reforestation does become difficult because of institutional transformations, local perception on resources and conflicts, making long term options insecure and do not rise incentives to invest in reforestation. On the concret case study Colonia Yucatán, a comunity in the northeast of the Yucatán Peninsula, this main topic will be invastigated in detail. The peninsula Yucatán is a focal point of social and ecological change. Processes such as continuous deforestation, soil erosion, inadequate supplies of surface water and increasing desertification are affecting particularly the northern part. These conditions affect the livelihood of local population slowly and insidiously, forcing them to adjust in new ways. What are the innovative strategies of local actors and how do they legitimate their action in the context of the environmental resource discourse? From different angles of view the project is investigating how the affected population evaluate environmental changes and the related discourses and incorporate them into their decisions in the context of institutional change. Considered in more detail are ecological, socio-cultural and economic factors, migration patterns and the political handling of these changes. Of special interest is the fact that state’s reforestation schemes fail despite of supporting property regimes and other institutions. The link between institutional change from common property to state property and private property and changes in household structures will be discussed as it is a puzzle to theory that in this area of Yucatán private property and state support for reforestation leads dies not show successful regrowth. Based on this consideration the problem of climate and environmental changes will be better analyzed in the spezific case and localized in a global context and thereby bridging historical and economic change with emic perceptions. For this PhD project I carried out fieldwork on the peninsula of Yucatán, especially in Colonia Yucatán, using anthropologic empirical and ethnographical research methods.

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Large-scale agro-investments in Ethiopia's Oromia region: Exaggerated expectations?

Author: Posluschny-Treuner, Myra (University of Basel)

The ongoing global discourse on drivers of large-scale agricultural land investments as well as raised questions on impacts and appropriate guidelines for investors remain, so far, more or less on a macro-level. Although such macro-level analyses are essential to understand the relatively new phenomenon of large-scale agrarian land investments, micro-level studies are inevitable to complete the whole picture. Thus, micro-level studies contribute to an understanding of effects on local populations, their role, the role of investors on site as well as of local authorities. In this respect, this paper provides insights into micro-level de-facto effects of an international large-scale agricultural investment project in Ethiopia’s Oromia region. Until now, most r esearch focusing on Ethiopia concentrated more on investment sites in Gambela region, due to the attention catching investments above 100'000 ha. However, Oromia region is one of the main targeted regions and at the same time densely populated. Given this, farm investments on a large-scale have a high potential to trigger conflicts, but also could facilitate the Ethiopian government approach of agricultural modernization and development of the rural area. Based on recent empirical research with strong emphasis on qualitative field research, this paper illustrates and analyzes socio-economic impacts of large-scale land investments in Ethiopia by means of a case study of one major foreign investment project in Oromia region. This paper argues that different perceptions and unfulfilled mutual expectations of all actors involved trigger conflict between all actors and thus contribute strongly to the failure of the respective investment project. This, in turn, does prevent any intended positive socio-economic effects by the Ethiopian government. A phenomenon which deserves much more attention in future research.

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The political ecology of lithium mining in Argentina from a global perspective - capitalist society-nature relationships, territorial transformation and asymmetries of power

Author: Anlauf, Axel (Roskilde University)

Lithium has long been used for a variety of applications and gained significance as a nearly irreplaceable input for energy dense batteries. With a transition towards renewable energy, storage systems to power electric cars and stabilise electric grids are projected to become the major market for lithium application. In the current multiple crisis, electric or hybrid cars not only represent an opportunity to maintain fossil fuel consumption patterns, such as individual automotive mobility, in spite of climate change and peak oil, but they also provide new possibilities of accumulation for an otherwise sluggish car market. Against this background, a global lithium rush has set in, whose primary target is the lithium-triangle in South America. Relative to its neighbours, Chile and Bolivia, Argentina has the most business friendly mining law and is home to a number of salt lakes, where lithium resources are only recently being valorised, often following the logic of accumulation by dispossession” (Harvey 2003). One of the most promising new lithium projects is located at the Salar de Olaroz in the Jujuy province, historically one of Argentina's most peripheral regions. This paper builds on previous works of social anthropologist Barbara Göbel (2013a; 2013b) who analyses the local conflicts in a horizontal perspective comparing dynamics at different locations; however, here I will assume a vertical perspective along the value chain. That means studying the specific Olaroz project, its extraction methods with regard to their environmental and socio-economic impact, the actors involved, their interests and position in global value chains. The provincial state of Jujuy, which is pursuing a mining development strategy, has declared lithium a strategic resource to generate socio-economic development for the whole province. For this purpose a state-owned enterprise was created that is participating in a strategic alliance with the Australian mining company Orocobre and Toyota Tshusho, raw material supplier of not only the Toyota group, but also the lithium-ion battery market leader Panasonic. While the provincial state's initiatives for increased revenue and industrial transformation are likely to fall short of their goals in the wake of asymmetric power relations, these asymmetries are even more explicit at the local level. In the affected territory, the lithium extraction produces a territorial transformation alongside exclusion and socio-environmental disruption as the valid norms are barely respected, particularly regarding the rights to information, consultation and participation of the local indigenous communities. Living largely off of pastoralist activities in one of the driest regions of the world, their concerns regarding the immense consumption of water in the lithium extraction are merely channelled through co-opted leaders, who nowadays often-times work for the mining companies. Studying the political ecology of lithium mining in these regions contributes to an understanding of the continuity of capitalist society-nature relationships (Brand/Wissen 2013) within green growth strategies. It furthermore allows for a critical assessment of the question what difference post neoliberalism (Grugel/Riggirozzi 2010) makes on resource governance in Latin America (cf. Burchardt et al. 2013). During a field trip in March and April 2014 extensive data was gathered at a business conference; by conducting expert interviews and problem based interviews with government officials, company managers and employees as well as community members; and through participatory observation in communities. Together with news articles, business reports and legal norms, these represent a rich database from which to launch an encompassing analysis. The paper is based on a MA thesis completed for the Erasmus Mundus Global Studies programme to be handed in at the University of Roskilde by June 2014.

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Looking for alternatives: Participatory approaches as a way to more resource fairness?

Authors: Schmitt, Tobias (University of Hamburg); Singer, Katrin

International Resource Fairness can´t be discussed without considering the distribution and the access to resources on a local level. To receive more resource fairness, participatory approaches are often cited as an alternative. By integrating all actors, the concept of a participatory resource management promises to gather all interests to reach a compromise that is supposed to be beneficial for all. However a conceptualization of non‐hierarchical spaces is particularly problematic. Participatory approaches are always structured due to situated knowledge formed by race, class, gender and geographic location which are in turn constituted by shifting fields of power. To illustrate how and why power relations, discourses and concepts of nature are deeply involved in negotiations of resources we combine approaches of poststructuralism, political ecology and postcolonial theories by including fieldwork results from Brazil and Peru focusing on water. One of our empirical case studies is dealing with the concept of an Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM), promoted by the World Bank and installed in the semi‐arid region in the Northeast of Brazil. The integration of all stakeholders, water uses and regions shall contribute to a just distribution of the scarce resource. But without taking into account the land owner structure, the infrastructure system and the power relations, the IWRM leads most likely to an unfair resource distribution and the stabilization of unequal social structures. By exporting fruits to the consumer markets in Europe and the USA, the scarce water is even distributed on an international level and therefore strengthening the water scarcity in the region. A participatory approach, that only focuses on the distribution of a given amount of water for a given demand and doesn´t question the entire development and production model, may lead to a relatively fairer distribution of water, but not to a juster society. Watersheds are often treated as common property in rural areas in the Peruvian Andes (Cordillera Blanca/Ancash). Water uses are organized in a participatory manner by so called Juntas Administradoras de Servicio y Saneamiento (JASS) (communal water provision) and Comités de Riego (irrigation associations). The research reveals among others two main points affecting the selected rural communities: (i) neoliberal tendencies on the privatization of water and (ii) the effects of climate change discourses. In the first place it is important to outline local participatory organization structures and a comprehension of water uses to understand how currently constructions of concrete channels underpin these participatory forms of organization. These concrete channels can be seen as a first materialization of water privatization in the region. Secondly, it is necessary to combine these findings with (inter‐)national and regional politics in relation to climate change and the forecast of a scarcity of water which allow technical and economical interventions in the region. The theoretical reflections as well as the empirical results underline the importance of property rights, narratives and power‐relations for the evaluation of participatory processes to reach more resource fairness.

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"Water Fairness" in a Changing Global Economy

Authors: Fulton, Julian (University of California, Berkeley); Norgaard, Richard

Water is both a fundamental resource for human security and a critical input to global production systems. This multifunctionality of water is apparent in international codes such as the Dublin Principles, GATT, and the UN’s Human Right to Water. However, the tensions between water’s functions are increasingly unresolved in the face of climate change, ecological degradation, rising populations, and expanding economies. This paper will review emerging policies and programs that seek to balance water’s multiple functions in the global hydro-social cycle, and discuss the politics of resources distributing mechanisms with respect to water. Specifically, we question whether water fairness” efforts may challenge the political dynamics that have historically deepened tensions in water’s multiple functions. The field of Industrial Ecology, with its methodological sub-disciplines of Life Cycle Assessment, Water Footprint Assessment , and Input-Output Analysis, etc., has made headway in recent decades to analyze and describe, through indicators, the connections between water’s functions, and at different temporal and geographical scales. For example, researchers have characterized the relationship between the monetary values of many agricultural products and the amount of water used to produce them. These analyses, in turn, have been used to guide a range of responses under the banner of resource fairness,” green economics,” or some version thereof. We will develop a typology of water fairness policies and programs such as direct aid, tech transfer, certification, and offset credits, which will aid in our political analysis. Next, we will identify how political processes shape this science-policy transition at three key stages. The first is the politics of indicators, that is, how interactions between water’s functions are measured and described. The second is the politics of interpretation, that is, how those indicators portray tensions between water’s functions, how and where imbalances exist, and who or what are the culprits. The third stage is the politics of response, or how governance mechanisms come into play around certain types of imbalances. Fundamentally, the distribution of resources and the functions they serve is a political process involving diverse actors and interests. Water resources are particularly complex due to the many functions they serve in social and ecological systems. Policies and programs that seek to create water resource fairness are therefore not immune to water politics, which has historically created winners and losers. Ultimately we (expect to) argue that water resource fairness cannot be achieved through incremental programs but requires more transformative changes in the relationship between social and ecological systems and a moral valuation of natural resources in the global economy.

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Contested resources in Africa - access to and control over land and other resources in the current food regime

Author: Salzmann, Philipp (FIAN)

Although globalized capitalist production and consumption patterns, especially within the food system, are highly dependent on natural resources they ignore and/ or undermine temporal and spatial characteristics of nature. (Cf. Brand/ Wissen 2011) The steadily expanding commodification of land arising from capitalism’s expansionary dynamic and the enclosure of non-capitalist territories linked to it currently manifest in the so called phenomenon land grabbing” reproducing inherent contradictions as well as (resource) inequalities. By using the food regime approach this article discusses both land grabbing as one form of prevalent resource extraction strategy, its enabling policies and interlinked conflicts as well as alternative forms of resource usage derived from the concept of food sovereignty. Which and in what way do policies enable” dominant resource extraction that materializes in land grabbing and how can these processes be analyzed from a critical emancipatory perspective? Most land grabbings currently are taking place in Africa and are historic-specific expressions of power, dominance and exploitation relations, again inscribed in society-nature relationships. (Cf. Brand/ Wissen 2011; Engels/ Dietz 2011) Shaped and perpetuated by particular policies and actors these relations determine who has access to and control over natural resources and are heavily affecting food (in)security of African peasants. As a matter of fact land grabbing practices aggravate resource conflicts and explicitly show the crisis-prone character of the current neoliberal food regime. In a first step the emergence of this regime will be described focusing on relevant actors within the African context. Overall the current food regime (development/ valorisation, production, transportation, processing, preparation, consumption, disposal) is based on non-sustainable resource (over-)use and on the accumulation by dispossession that - especially within the context of land grabbing in Africa - is realized via neo-colonial and imperial appropriation of resources and interlinked with evictions of former land users (e.g. peasants) and suppression of alternative and/or indigenous forms of production and consumption patterns. (Cf. McMichael 2012) Despite of its dominance, the food regime is in a phase of crises and fractures and therefore is highly contested. Especially resistance against land grabbing can be observed on a daily basis in concrete struggles of peasants as well as of transnational movements that are striving for a different food system built on solidarity and food sovereignty. In what form resistant practices based on food sovereignty are developed as counter models to dominant extraction strategies in Africa in order to achieve an equitable access to and control over natural resources? Currently land is literally fought back. Within these struggles various forms of resource fairness and justice are developed. This article also contrasts demands of the food sovereignty movement in Africa with existing concepts of the democratization of nature-society relationships. References: Brand, Ulrich/ Wissen, Markus (2011): Die Regulation der ökologischen Krise Theorie und Empirie der Transformation gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse. In: ÖZS 36 (2), 12–34. Engels, Bettina/ Dietz, Kristina (2011): Land Grabbing analysieren: Ansatzpunkte für eine politisch-ökologische Perspektive am Beispiel Äthiopiens. In: Peripherie, Nr. 124, Vol. 31, 399-420. Holt Giménez, Eric/ Shattuck, Annie (2011): Food crises, food regimes and food movements: rumblings of reform or tides of transformation? In: The Journal of Peasant Studies 38 (1), 109-144. McMicha el, Philipp (2012): The land grab and corporate food regime restructuring. In: Journal of Peasant Studies, Vol 39:3-4, 681-701.

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Stakeholders' frames: analysis and understanding of environmental conflicts in Wadi El Gemal Protected Area / Egypt

Author: Ibrahim, Aziza (Freiburg University)

The establishment and management of protected areas in Egypt have given rise to environmental conflict. These conflicts contribute to the cloudiness of the ecosystem management paradigm of the protected areas and impede nature protection efforts in Egypt. In this context, in Wadi El Gemal Protected Area (WGPA) – with its diverse ecosystem services and its management plans, extending across different organizations and encompassing cross sectoral institutional arrangements, there are different types of conflicts among resource users. These conflicts revolve mainly around the failure of ecotourism development on one hand and the non compliance of the indigenous Bedouin community to the management practices on the other hand. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to understand how the different stakeholders of WGPA perceive and frame the reasons and dynamics of environmental conflicts in WGPA. After revealing the different dimensions of the conflict, a feedback was provided to participants about their frames of the conflicts. The objective of this process was to explore how knowledge about differences in framing can contribute to possibly reaching a consensus or mitigating the conflict. Snow ball technique was used to identify the main WGPA actors. 40 semi structure interviews and 2 focus group discussions were held with WGPA actors including government officials in Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Tourism, tourism investors, staff of the local NGOs in addition to members of the Bedouin community. Legal pluralism which justify the claims of the different actors on the resources of the park, asymmetric institutional interplay and manipulative participation in which local community is perceived as merely passive consultees rather than being drivers of change were found to be the main reasons beyond the intractable conflicts in WGPA.

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The Renegotiation Window: Resource Contract Renegotiations in the Extractive Industries in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2013

Author: Katz-Lavigne, Sarah (Carleton University)

Why did some countries in sub-Saharan Africa review and renegotiate their extractive-industry contracts from 2000 to 2013? As of March 2013, a minimum of eleven countries in sub-Saharan Africa had announced their intention to renegotiate their contracts with international companies, particularly in mining (Besada & Martin, 2013). Mining contract renegotiations are not new, but the spate of government-led renegotiations during the period under study – January 2000 to December 2013 – points to a clear trend. This is puzzling given that over the decades since the 1980s, under pressure from the international financial institutions, African governments have increasingly liberalized their mining codes and stepped back from regulation of mineral extraction. As a result, states became increasingly unable to regulate their own industries, leading to a shift in structural power from countries to international mining corporations (Campbell, 2010). The dependent variable in this study is whether contract renegotiation has occurred in a given country. Making use of official government releases, media reports, and civil society publications, I propose a tentative framework to explain contract renegotiation in sub-Saharan Africa. I draw on John Kingdon (2010)’s work on the making of public policy and the opening of policy windows. I argue that Kingdon’s three key elements – a perceived problem (inadequate benefits from mining), a policy (contract renegotiation), and dynamics in the political stream – have combined to create a window of opportunity for African governments to demand more favourable terms from mining companies. I extend Kingdon’s domestic-level theoretical framework to suggest that favourable political dynamics have converged at the international, regional, and domestic levels. I make the case that countries in sub-Saharan Africa are currently situated within an international and regional environment more favourable to renegotiation than in past decades. Moreover, I hypothesize that characteristics at the domestic level – specifically emergence from conflict and/or regime change, and a strong civil society presence calling for companies to sign agreements more in line with country interests – are vital determinants of country leaders’ renegotiation decisions. Case study analysis using structured, focused comparison provides insight into the selected cases, characterized by differing levels of fragility: Ghana, Tanzania, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This iterative, heuristic case-study approach (George & Bennett, 2005) yields greater insight on why some African countries decided to renegotiate their mining contracts, representing the first steps toward the development of a coherent explanation that moves beyond rent-seeking accounts.

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The raw material-related challenges of the European Union and the possible contribution oft the East- and South-East Europe

Author: Maier, Alfred (Montanuniversitaet, Chair Mining Engineering & Mineral Economics)

The raw material-related challenges of the EU are tackled by a package of European initiatives and - for the first time since the European Community on Coal and Steel - positive signals for the raw materials sector and a political willingness for a re-industrialization of Europe can be observed. Compared with the world powers, the USA, China and Russia, the supply of the EU with existentially important mineral raw materials is clearly considerably lacking behind. Whereas, China, the USA and Russia produce about 47% of world trade of mineral raw materials (Iron and Ferro-Alloy, Non-Ferrous Metals, Precious Metals, Industrial Minerals & Mineral Fuels), the EU produces only 4.73%. These results do not only pose strategic risks to the EU´s supply, but also to the future industrial development of the EU, which, in any case, is in a critical phase of economic essential re-industrialization. In 2011 the reviewed group of 60 mineral raw materials showed a globally concentrated market (Herfindahl-Hirschmann Index > 2.000) for 33 mineral raw materials. More than 50% of the world mining productions of 48 mineral raw materials in this group are produced in only 3 countries. Whereas 75% of the world mining production of 27 mineral raw materials in this group are produced in also only 3 countries. Asia is the biggest producer of mineral raw materials. The ESEE region (East & South-East Europe – Region”, where almost 100 million Europeans live in countries like Albania, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia is of utmost importance to the European Union from a political point of view (cohesion, regional development, "Candidate Countries" and "potential candidates") and from an economic point of view (security of supply, economic value, employment). The ESEE region is of particular interest due to its unique geological potential and unique potential on secondary raw materials, which makes it also highly relevant in connection with the European commodity strategy.

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Empowering Degrowth by Degrowing Power? - Addressing Power Issues for a Resource-Fair Degrowth Society

Author: Stör, Lorenz (Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU))

Degrowth as a social movement as well as theoretical counterbalance of the socio-ecologically unjust depletion and distribution of resources gains increasing popularity in current times of multiple crisis. Being not merely an economic but a transdisciplinary realm, many perspectives on degrowth are emerging in research. However, the overarching question of power remains up to now surprisingly untouched although highly relevant for the political and democratic, the economic, the social and the ecological discussion of a degrowth society. At the same time, many predominant power structures need to be dissolved or at least restructured for a potentially functioning degrowth society. This paper aims to initiate a debate on the role of power for a degrowth society. Which conception of power serves best for understanding and supporting the dynamics released in a degrowth society? Developments in the power discourse from the 1980s on, prominently driven by Hannah Arendt, Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and others led to a highly diversified conceptualization of power. However, the juxtaposition of ‘power over’ vs. ‘power to’ by Hanna Pitkin (1972) still depicts a useful distinction and can serve as a foundation for entering the power discourse from a degrowth perspective. Unfair resource distribution and other socio-ecological problems fuelled by the capitalist growth regime reveals a strong ascendancy of ‘power over’ situations in society. Lukes’ (2005) theory of three-dimensional power in which power exists, where people are subject to domination is particularly interesting in this respect. This domination may lead people to acquiesce and even celebrate their domination by actively supporting the oppressive values. Other than the relativistic Foucauldian view in which social relationships – the dominated and the dominant alike – are subject to the same power of structural relations, Lukes’ view on power allows identifying and criticizing values that lead dominated people to acquiesce. This provides the bridge to many aspects of individual and societal acquiescence that need to be overcome in a degrowth society. Coercions of a growth economy such as consumerism, financial debt obligations and other seemingly without-alternative-treadmills and their devastating consequences such as environmental depletion and increasingly unfair global distribution effects can then be considered from the perspective of such underlying power relations. Analysing the role of power from a degrowth-perspective will not only help to understand existing power relations but also support a non-authoritarian transformation towards a degrowth society.

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Difference in meaning and political practice: The defense of territory in Guatemala's Northern Quiché Region

Author: Illmer, Patrick (University of Bradford)

Over recent decades a significant body of literature has examined the emergence of indigenous movements in Latin America and the central role culture play s in framing their agency (eg. Yashar 2005; Escobar 2008; Dagnino 2003). This has added a dimension to research that had examined the role of culture in social movements in Western contexts (eg. Melucci 1996) through a shift in focus towards the Global South and its production of knowledge, meaning and cultural difference in the course of organisational processes. In these approaches spacial dimensions around the defence of territory and local autonomy ha ve come to represent key aspects of analysis (eg. Ceceña 2008; Zibechi 2011). This paper will seek to build on these perspectives by examining what role culture and the differential production of meanings play in the antagonisms emerging around the exploitation of natural resources. To do this I will focus on a generation of agency in Guatemala, which has emerged over the last decade in opposition to projects that target natural resources. Building on various months of fieldwork in Guatemala I will focus on the case of a network of indigenous communities in the Northern Quiche Region in the municipalities of Nebaj, Chajul, Cotzal, Cunén and Sacapulas that have articulated around the antagonisms produced by the projection of national and transnational elites' interests towards natural resources in their territories. In the course of the chapter I will argue that the articulation of the community based network goes beyond highlighting a distribution conflict and that its defense of territory is based on a deeper rooted differential attribution of meaning which is also reflected in their communal political practices. Although this agency is focussed on the respective local contexts the communities put forward meta-political questions around the nature of democracy, as they seek to carve out spaces that can harbour their differential production of meaning and guarantee their collective reproduction as a people. Accordingly a series of demands are put forward that breach the limits of compatibility with the elite-structured order as they call for its inversion by taking the participation of the communities and their differential production of space and meaning as a starting point.

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Developing the woods Environmental protection, development and resource distribution in Yunnan province, China.

Author: Hanes, Emanuela (University of Vienna)

The Chinese government has a very clear position in the global development debate. In its White Paper 2005 it claims that even though it has great success in its development, China, with its large population, its weak economic basis and an asymmetric development is still the largest developing country in the world” (State Council 2005: I). Within China, there are still many unresolved issues of natural protection, distribution and usage of natural resources, particularly in rural and/ or border areas that are currently hotspots of developmental projects that try to develop both people and nature in the region (Büsgen 2006, Litzinger 2004). The increasing demand for resources and the urgent need for protection in order to prevent even larger environmental problems leads to legislative and administrative changes. My work draws attention to the weakest link on the chain of cultural, environmental and economic development: the local rural population - with a large percentage of minorities – living in Chinas border regions to Burma and Laos, in the province of Yunnan. I focus on the way new models of resource distribution, environmental protection and ecological development are carried out and how this creates conflicts of distribution and legitimation. While laws concerning natural resources have direct impact on minority communities living in the target area, they are the most vulnerable objects of legislation, whereas companies have strong ties with the state and often need not fear limitations. Nature is being divided up and changed in different ways by different actors with different agendas (abandoning or creation of resource extraction sites by private and public companies, establishment of nature reserves, tourist spots, building of roads) but is at the same time local people’s habitat and main source of income and food. Some models of state development suggest sensibility for these conflicts but in fact fail to achieve their own goals and virtually create a struggle between the state and the people” over access to natural resources, and in particular, forests” (Blaikie; Muldavin 2004: 534). This struggle is being aggravated by civilizational projects of Han Chinese towards backward” minorities living in many resource-rich sites. Large protests of mostly rural groups are due to this imbalance of powers and the prioritization of state and economical goals to community livelihoods, as became evident during different protests against dam-projects several years ago. Drawing on experiences from my Master thesis about development interventions in the Nujiang Prefecture, China and by using Actor-Network theoretical approaches and some of the methodological and theoretical possibilities it offers (Campregher 2010, Newton 2002, Neyland 2006), I want to show the interrelatedness of local communities, nature and the complicate web of national, local and non-local agents and groups that are either actively or passively trying to follow their agendas of resource distribution, environmental protection and ecological development as well as their consequences.

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Does post-neoliberalism make a difference for extractivist expansion? The case of Bolivian mining

Authors: Radhuber, Isabella (University of Vienna); Andreucci, Diego

The mining boom of the last decade has had important consequences for Latin America, fuelling economic growth and substantial political change, including sporadic nationalization processes oriented towards redistribution and new” social struggles. While research has focused so far mainly on the impacts of mining expansion, we centre our analysis on its drivers. Bolivia has been one of the first Latin American states to implement neoliberal restructuring, and it is now purportedly at the forefront of a left-turn” in the region. Through the case of Bolivian mining before and after Morales’s election, we aim to unpack the drivers of the continued extractive boom in a post-neoliberal context. Challenging the market-deterministic implications of some demand-side explanations, we explore the interplay of global and regional dynamics, changing national policies and laws and social struggles in re/producing mining expansion. Drawing upon regulation, critical state theory and neo-Gramscian insights, we argue that, while high commodity prices have provided an important incentive to growing investment, the conditions which have enabled mining expansion in Bolivia have been constituted and reconstituted through shifting political power correlations, that is social struggles and competing political projects at multiple scales. Through the analysis of the changing legal and politico-economic conditions for Bolivian mining, as well as a case study of multiple struggles around the renationalised Huanuni mining project in the Oruro region, we make three main claims. First, despite an increased state presence and a new set of policy principles informed by social movements’ demands for greater resource sovereignty and (plural) democracy, favourable conditions for transnational mining investment established with neoliberalism have not been significantly reversed by the current government. Second, even though the increased state presence led to the (re)foundation of several state companies, cooperative mining, which is intimately linked to private mining, has been granted increasing support by the government, becoming the largest subsector in terms of contribution to employment and exports. Finally, while employment in mining has been granted in the state and cooperative sector in response to unions’ demands, other economic forms (such as the communitarian) have not been equally supported as constitutionally dictated. Particularly, social movements’ demands for socio-ecological regulation of mining activities have not been granted. Resource extraction is explicitly prioritised over agricultural and subsistence activities, and companies are still allowed to avoid responsibility for their social and ecological impacts, due to limited institutional capacity, but also to a demobilised indigenous-peasant resistance movement. To conclude, while incentivised by high international commodity prices, mining expansion in Bolivia has been largely the result of past and present legal and politico-economic conditions, as well as emerging political power correlations based on social and political struggles, at the expense of popular demands for economic diversification and resource democratisation.

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The fire of the dragon – on the metabolism of the world factory - national framework and global implications

Author: Baum, Josef (University of Vienna)

China is expected to reach 2014 to overhaul economically the United States in 2014. However, the US has less than a quarter of the population of China. On the other hand the huge potential of further catching up is made clear. China all in all is not a poor in total resources. It has significant shares in global production of many (mineral) commodities. China can meet the domestic demand in 2010 at only eleven of 45 mineral resources, probably in 2020 only at nine, and at only two to three in 2030. By the foreseeable higher dependence on foreign resources still higher cost will arise. This "will seriously effect economic security and may cause complicated international relations and endanger political security". Key factors for understanding the resource situation of China are the very high population density in most eastern parts of of the country, the total size of the population, the sectoral dominance of the industry with a focus on export (world factory), rapid urbanization and the (time-compressed) rapidly industrialization and catching up together with other major emerging countries. Most resources that China buys and imports in general tend to rise in price, while the prices of most products currently sold and exported from China fall in general. However, the import dependence on raw material is somehow similar to other Asian countries, with the positive significant difference that China has a certain self-sufficiency for most commodities. The development of steel production in China as a very important energy- and resource-intensive sector has shown previously unseen dynamics as from about 2000 with significant effects on the global input and output markets and may also apply to other industries in China as a paradigm. The Chinese share of global steel production in 2013 was 48.5%, which were 779 million tons. The quantitative development in the last 15 years is stunning (and breathtaking is also the air in steel regions). The balance of the steel export currently is small in relation to the Chinese production, but is top in the global comparison. These very different relations of the shares related to China versus to the World Trade reflect a more general phenomenon, which is found more often at commodity markets: changes in the export-import balance, which can be small to the total Chinese production or consumption can have a serious impact on the world market. Ultimately, however, the global message of the dramatic take-off of the Chinese steel industry is that this is the first major non-OECD country that could realize large-scale full-fledged industrialization. After this paradigmatic breakthrough lowering the dams for other developing or emerging countries, further similar resource-intensive national development paths are highly probable.

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The International Seabed Authority and its Legal Regime for Deep Seabed Mining

Author: Brocza, Stefan (University of Vienna)

The International Seabed Authority was established in 1994 in order to oversee the exploration and exploitation of the deep seabed for minerals. The deep seabed is designated as the common heritage of mankind. The Authority is responsible for managing the mineral resources in this area on behalf of the international community. The legal framework for deep seabed mining is found in Part XI of the Law of the Sea Convention. However, the Convention does not contain a comprehensive framework for seabed mining and therefore, the Authority was also invested with powers to adopt rules and regulations to fill in these gaps.

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The Race for the Arctic Resources: Conflict or Cooperation for Limited Resources?

Author: Roncero Martin, Jose Miguel (University of Vienna)

In recent years, the massive natural resources of the Arctic have drawn great attention. Within its ground and seabed, the Arctic holds immense reserves of oil, gas and minerals (such as rare earths). It is also rich in marine resources, and industrial fishing, currently the world's main animal food source, is present throughout the region. The Arctic is also a relatively fragile environment, highly vulnerable to pollution. With climate change translated into melting ice and minimum ice sheet extension, the Arctic resources (including opening shipping lines) are becoming more and more accessible. Arctic and non-Arctic nations are competing to obtain their share of the Arctic resources. Resource extraction in the Arctic is however a highly complex endeavor. Its relative backwardness, vast distances, poor infrastructures, extremely low population density and a harsh environment and weather make any kind of economic activity in the Arctic a real challenge. Besides, and due to its rich natural resources, the Arctic has been the center of several international disputes in the last years. Six coastal nations (Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Russia and United States) dispute and claim ownership over most of the Arctic seabed and its resources. Their claims often overlap, which have already led to diplomatic conflicts. Albeit still a low-profile region in terms of instability or conflict, several analysts see the Arctic as a future for high-level competition among major international actors. Some of these even labelled the region as the new area for a "Great Game". The admission in 2013 of China, Japan and India into the Arctic Council (the intergovernmental forum and regional organization where Arctic nations address issues of common interest) as observers clearly shows the increasing interest of Arctic and non-Arctic states over the High North's natural resources. Despite territorial claims and colliding economic interests, cooperation in the Arctic is key for success. Several initiatives (such as the Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement) have been developed under meetings of the Arctic Council. Due to its harshness and remoteness, the Arctic might be an example of international cooperation and economic development of highly profitable and sought-after mineral and natural resources. Furthermore, non-state actors have raised their voices regarding the economic development and exploitation of the Arctic´s natural resources. These non-state actors include environmental groups, indigenous communities and transnational companies. While environmental groups claim for a total protection of the Arctic, transnational companies seek guarantees and protection to efficiently develop their activities. Indigenous communities, on the other hand, are often divided between the risks and advantages associated with economic development based on the exploitation of natural resources. This paper will analyze current policies towards natural resource extraction in the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions, with a focus on the geopolitical dimensions of cooperation and competition for limited and profitable natural resources. The paper will show that despite a relative increment in competition, the reality of the region is forcing cooperative approaches upon existing state and non-state actors. Finally, lessons from the Arctic could help to develop cooperation-based policies in other regions.

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Assessing the discourse on the Jevons paradox and efficiency from a complexity point of view: towards the application of the precautionary principle within resource policies

Author: Theine, Hendrik; Bettin, Steffen (Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU)

In recent years, over-simplistic economic approaches to informing resource and environmental policy are being increasingly acknowledged as fundamentally problematic. To improve this, we aim to critically assess the current theoretical and empirical discourse concerning the Jevons paradox as well as resource efficiency. By analysing the underlying ontological and epistemological commitments we argue that within these two largely opposing strands of thought, a reductionist approach to economics predominates. Within the efficiency literature we find a very narrow and technical understanding of socio-economic systems not account for complexity. More specifically, we critically examine the ceteris paribus condition and the role of projections within this context. We further question the theoretical foundations underlying the majority of rebound literature and the manner in which uncertainty is treated. In the subsequent sections, we further develop our findings and focus on: (1) What are the ontological implications of our critiques? (2) What are the consequences for policy making? Our explanations are divided into theoretical considerations and policy-level implications. At the first level, we find the need to take complexity as well as an evolutionary perspective seriously in order to overcome the shortcomings of the relevant theories. In this context, it can be recognised that systems may overshoot and collapse due to their non-linear nature. Because the use of resources is not incremental and marginal, but rather interconnected with different subsystems, this is particularly important. . Taking these non-linear dynamics into account thereby acknowledges instability. Within this framework, we reflect on the limitations of scientific evidence – especially with respect to predictions about future resource consumption. With respect to the realm of policy, we find that the precautionary principle must be core to any policy design. Once acknowledged, complex systems and their inherent instability can become a central policy tool capable of achieving a fairer distribution of resources between generations. Further, we analyse existing policies already accounting for the precautionary principle and subsequently develop suggestions to improve state-of-the-art policy designs. Keywords: complexity theory, evolutionary economics, economic resource policy, environmental economics, ecological economics, precautionary principle

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The impact of Chinese involvement in small-scale gold mining in Ghana

Author: Crawford, Gordon (University of Leeds)

Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASM) in Ghana has traditionally and legally been an indigenous activity. It is an important means of livelihood for relatively poor rural households, as well as making a significant contribution to Ghana’s gold output, estimated as high as 30% (Ghana Chamber of Mines, cited in Bloomberg 2012). The number of individual small-scale miners has been estimated at approximately 100,000 legal miners, with 1 million unregistered or illegal miners, often known as ‘galamsey’. Illegal small-scale mining has long been controversial in terms of environmental degradation and damage to forests, farm lands and water supplies. However, another controversial aspect has recently hit the headlines in Ghana: foreign involvement in small-scale mining, especially illegal Chinese miners. Chinese involvement has increased the scale of mining, with the introduction of mechanisation and new technology, and also introduced new forms of mining in water bodies. One consequence has been the intensification of externalities of pollution of water supplies and land degradation. Another consequence has been local conflict between Chinese and Ghanaian miners, with casualties and loss of lives on both sides, and a degenerating security situation. This led President Mahama to establish a high-level Inter-Ministerial Task Force on illegal small-scale mining on 15 May 2013, which was effectively aimed at foreign involvement and has led to deportations of significant numbers of Chinese miners. Despite such operations, it is stated by the head of the Task Force that Chinese miners are returning to some mining sites. This paper examines the origins and consequences of this recent phenomenon of widespread involvement of irregular Chinese migrants in illegal small-scale mining in Ghana. Regarding the origins, it focuses on international factors as well as the national contexts in Ghana and in China. Regarding the consequences, it explores the impact on the local economy and on rural livelihoods, issues of environmental degradation, and the effects of mechanisation on future small-scale mining. The paper also examines the risks of local conflict and the role of relevant state authorities in resolving or preventing such conflict. Further, it investigates the response of state authorities to situations of relative lawlessness and what has been described as a ‘culture of impunity’ (interview with environmental officer April 2014). The paper is based on fieldwork undertaken in April, July and August 2014 and responds to the conference theme of ‘Resource conflicts at various scales, their current handling, and the consequences’. It will also respond to the question of ‘resource fairness’ in this specific context of foreign involvement in local small-scale mining, taking into account the interests of the range of actors and institutions involved.

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The EU Raw Materials Initiative and Possible Effects upon Resource-Based Development

Author: Küblböck, Karin (ÖFSE)

The last decade has witnessed a global surge in demand for commodities, leading to increasing competition and rising commodity prices. Between 2000 and 2011 the prices of metals and fuels more than tripled. S ecuring access to raw materials plays an increasingly important role in growth strategies of industrialized and emerging economies. There is, however also an intensifying debate calling for more transparency in the mining sector. Several initiatives have been formulated in this context. At the same time, resource-rich developing countries step up their endeavors to increase the contribution of the mining sector to economic transformation and development . This paper first gives a brief overview of global resource use related to mineral resources. The second part analyzes the EU Raw Materials Initiative and its different modes of implementation as well as steps and initiatives the EU has taken to increase transparency in the mining sector. The third part sketches the debate on the role of the extractive sector in Africa. The last section concludes.

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Dirty, Clean Power? The Emergence and Implications of Municipal Waste as a Renewable Energy Source in Austria

Author: Behrsin, Ingrid ()

Most social science analyses of waste flows show arrows pointing both literally and figuratively ‘south’. In a Cartesian sense, waste moves ‘south’ to places like Agbogbloshie, a slum in Accra, Ghana where discarded electronics from the global North are manually processed, leaching toxins into the environment and bodies of workers engaged in this hazardous labor (Robbins 2012; see also Pellow 2007 and Pickren 2014). Waste has also moved figuratively ‘south’ to marginalized communities within the U.S. and other wealthy nations. Places like Warren County, North Carolina, where an African American community resisted a proposed landfill and its racist roots, are examples of what Schroeder et al. (2006) term the third world within”. For decades, environmental justice scholarship has explained these pernicious spatial patterns with references to weak regulation (Center for Investigative Reporting and Moyers 1990), low social capital (Aldrich 2010), racism (Kuletz 2001), and corporate greed (Pellow 2007). Yet recently, new geographies of waste distribution are emerging that challenge these explanations, seemingly turning theories about why garbage ends up where it does on their heads. For example, Norway and Sweden, two of the wealthiest countries (OECD), are in fact competing with one anther for municipal solid waste (MSW) imports (Tagliabue 2013). Similarly, Austria, which in 2008 barred MSW from Naples, Italy from crossing its borders on its way to Germany citing environmental concerns (Rosenthal 2008), recently agreed to import over 90,000 tons of Neapolitan waste to Zwentendorf, Austria (Foschum 2013). I hypothesize that waste-to-energy (WTE) production is key to understanding these emerging waste flow geographies. WTE refers to a process whereby household garbage is transported to collection centers, incinerated, and converted into electricity and sometimes heat. WTE is an increasingly important link connecting renewable energy policy and waste management policy in the European Union (EU). Directive 2009/28/EC demands that most member countries derive 20% of their energy from renewable resources by 2020. Directive 1999/31/EC requires that all waste with more than 5% carbon content be thermally or biologically treated prior to disposal in landfills. In sum, because the EU classifies MSW as a type of biomass,” a renewable energy category, WTE facilitates EU countries’ compliance with both waste and renewable energy mandates. Indeed, Austria now burns 5,000 tons of MSW daily to produce electricity and heat. While converting waste to energy is not a new practice, it is becoming increasingly championed as a climate change mitigation and energy independence strategy, despite vocal opposition. As this mode of energy production proliferates, it is essential to investigate the processes through which it has been recast as a carbon-reduction solution, and the social and environmental implications of this framing. My dissertation research thus asks three interrelated questions: 1) How did MSW come to be classified as a renewable resource within the EU? 2) How do local communities perceive the political, economic, and ecological implications of WTE facilities in light of this classification? 3) Why do community responses to WTE facilities vary? I address these questions through a mixed method approach that combines archival research, interviews, and case studies in three Austrian communities: Heiligenkreuz, Vienna, and Zwentendorf.

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Governance for sustainable development - a comparative analysis of national raw materials policy approaches in the European Union

Authors: Endl, Andreas (Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU)); Berger, Gerald

The achievement of sustainable development (SD) poses significant challenges for governance bodies on all political-administrative levels, which were originally established on the basis of more sectoral concerns. In this respect, the paper looks into concept of governance for SD (1) in the raw materials sector in several European Member States (Germany, Finland, Greece, Sweden, Portugal and Austria). More specifically, major building blocks or governance principles form the core of this concept on which the paper further explicates (2): (1) horizontal and vertical policy integration, (2) participation, (3) reflexivity, and (4) integrating long- and short term time scales. The EU is highly dependent on raw material importants due to a combination of factors, such as price volatility, geo-political regimes affecting trade, and a global surge in demand. Consequently, in 2008 the European Commission launched a process for the development of a policy framework (3) fostering the sustainable supply and use of raw materials. However, since many regulatory issues are in the competence of EU Member States, specific and tailor-made policy responses need to be designed and implemented on the national level. Therefore, this paper analyses national policy mechanisms (e.g. policy mixes, National Raw Materials Strategies, action plans, etc) in 6 EU Member States, that address sustainable supply and use of raw materials in the context of general raw materials and sustainability policy. It will shed light on policy instruments and governance procedures with regard to participation, reflexivity, and long-term vision as well as short term action. Hence, the paper’s remit lies in explicating the policy governance regime for SD and making a case for best practices with regard to different sustainable raw materials supply approaches. In this respect, we apply a two-pronged methodological approach: 1) desktop research on national policy documents, and 2) qualitative interviews with national policy-makers which will allow an in-depth analysis of the logic of concrete policy approaches and, more specifically, modes of governance for SD. First results show that, with regard to reflexivity of different national EU Member States strategies, informal (e.g. ad hoc steering group meetings) as well as formal monitoring and evaluation frameworks exist (e.g. qualitative evaluation reports or indicator sets). Furthermore, for policy implementation in the sense of long term visioning and short term actions, national raw material strategies show a rather diverse picture: in the case of Greece, for example, no concrete time planning is foreseen whereas Finland’s mineral policy is characterised by a differentiated and specific action plan in terms time frames and associated actions. Concerning participatory approaches in policy design, implementation and review, countries such as Finland and Sweden not only show a rather diverse mix of different state-actors (e.g. geological surveys or various ministries) but also non-state actors such as industry, academia and civil society representatives. The paper includes research carried out in the ongoing FP7 project COBALT (2013-2015).

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A Theoretical glance at energy policy of Iran towards the South Caucasus

Author: Gasparyan, Arman (Turpanjian Center for Policy Analysis)

The paper gives a theoretical glance at one of the most significant problems for the South Caucasus: energy. This commodity is essential for each of the states inhabiting the region, since Georgia has been experiencing energy blockade from Russia, Armenia is not receiving energy from Azerbaijan due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, while Azerbaijan, though an exporter of energy itself, requires diversification of natural gas supply, as this sphere is not as developed in the country as oil production. The trade of this commodity is, thus, the most crucial part of bilateral relations between Iran and the countries inhabiting the South Caucasus. The main argument of this paper is that material state considerations, not Islamic ideology define Iran’s energy policy in the South Caucasus. Neo-liberal theory, which favors the achievement of goals with the help of soft power and gaining comparative advantage for all parties, over absolute advantage for one side, is used as the main method for discussing the relations. A short background is provided to Iran’s relations with each South Caucasian country, followed by an extensive review of the current situation regarding those relations, as well as future prospects for development. It is demonstrated that Iran has managed to preserve normal relations with all the three countries, which supports the initial argument.

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Resource conflicts and struggles around water justice

Author: Koehler, Bettina (University of Vienna)

The growing geopolitical competition for raw materials comes along with various strategies to secure access and control over natural resources. While most national and international resource politics focus on resource extraction in the mineral and agrarian sectors there is also a growing attention for the interlinkages between different areas of resource usage, such as water, energy, food production. Common approaches highlight the importance of an integrated management of this "nexus" as part of an emerging green economy. However, from a political ecology perspective the contested nature not only of resource extraction but also of the related management approaches are discussed. This paper links this discussion to debates from the water sector. The concept of water justice has been mobilised in recent years in the context of struggles against water privatisation, especially in an urban environment and related to open claims for control of water resources. This paper will relate the concept of water justice in a political ecology perspective to intersecting ressources conflicts at a larger scale. From there it will discuss possible contradictions and prospects with regard to questions of resource fairness.

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The Agrofuels Project in Ukraine

Author: Plank, Christina (University of Vienna)

Agrofuels are considered to contribute to energy security, local development and to mitigate climate change, in other words to solve the multiple crisis. As a consequence, their production and consumption have evoked controversial discussions, which question the sustainable character of agrofuels. Worldwide, the agrofuels project is part of the agroindustry. In Ukraine, it gains of importance since the mid-2000s. According to McMichael the agrofuels project can be described as a state-capital nexus. In order to understand this tie as well as the project’s possible unfolding I examine social forces in Ukraine. By drawing on a neo-Poulantzian understanding of the state I address state-economy relations on different scales taking society-nature relations into account. Thus, I show that the oligarchs understood as an increasingly financialised inner bourgeoisie play a crucial role in shaping the agricultural and energy economic sector and policies since the 1990ies. They get increasingly engaged in agribusiness and therefore also foster the hidden privatisation of farmland as well as amongst other things the production of agrofuels feedstock (rapeseed and maize) for export. On the other hand, their attempts to enhance the production of agrofuels in Ukraine failed so far due to the fossil energy-driven conflicts among the oligarchs. This paper focuses on analysing those attempts (their strategies and failures), which try to implement agrofuels policies in Ukraine since the late 2000s. Although several laws and programmes got adopted, there is no important production of agrofuels taking place in the country at the moment. Instead, other forms of renewable energies”, especially solar and wind, find more support in form of centralised large-scale projects though they represent at the same time a marginal part of the country’s energy mix. The paper concludes that the field of renewable energy is highly contested in Ukraine and difficult to develop on a community level.