Small is beautiful? The impacts of small-scale bio fuel production on people's access to land in the Koulikoro Region, Mali

Abstract

The objective of this study is to answer the question: Does small-scale Jatropha production result in changes in the differentiated access to land and which institutional factors account for this? The hypothesis is that Jatropha commercialisation for bio fuel production will generate an increase in land value and will trigger a demand for land. If this occurs, it is expected that people’s access to land will change and that local institutional factors such as ‘indigenousness’, ‘gender’ and ‘seniority’ and national institutional factors such as the Land Laws of 1986 and 2000 might account for this change. This exploratory research was carried out for Mali Biocarburant in six villages in the Koulikoro Region in Mali and has shown that there are important differences in land pressure between the six villages. This study concludes that small-scale Jatropha production has not changed people’s access to land. There are no indications that the introduction or extension of small-scale Jatropha production has worsened the unequal access to land of vulnerable groups, or has led their losing access to land. The study does conclude that there is unequal access to land for founding families and later families, men and women, and older and younger members of the community, and that powerful groups are more involved in Jatropha production than vulnerable groups.