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Paper short abstract:

Focusing on land use planning, a key tool of rural and urban governance in Tanzania, the paper analyzes conflicts related to a carbon forestry project in Lindi. It illustrates how climate mitigation interventions shape resource access, governance and landscapes of vulnerability in Africa.

Paper long abstract:

The dominant narratives on the social impact of climate change in Africa tend to put emphasis on risks related to "natural" hazards without addressing social and political processes that put people at risk. While African governments and policy makers promote adaptation and climate mitigation as policy solutions, little attention is being paid to how climate related interventions help fuel local conflicts and shape vulnerability in rural (and urban) contexts in Africa. Focusing on Lindi District in Tanzania, this paper will analyze conflicts generated by a market-oriented carbon forestry project, whose goal is to reduce deforestation and forest degradation to help mitigate climate change. The paper shows that despite their orientation towards international carbon markets and their reliance on financial and developmental incentives, carbon forestry projects rely on establishing stable territories and establishing control over land, forests and inhabitants. Land use planning, as a tool of governance of space, population and environment plays a key role in the visualization and establishment of this territorial control. Yet, while they seem to minimize the financial risks for project implementors and carbon investors alike, these practices of territorialization increase the risk of igniting old land conflicts or of creating new ones. The paper analyzes the conflicts associated with land use planning in rural areas in Lindi and looks at its impact on access to land and forests and local democratic decision-making.