Workshop on International Law, Natural Resources and Sustainable
Development
New Agriculture for Sustainable Development? Biofuels and Agrarian Change in Post-war
Sierra Leone
Elizabeth Fortin
School of Law, University of Bristol
In sub-Saharan Africa, commercial bioenergy production has been hailed as a new form of
‘green capitalism’ that will deliver ‘win-win’ outcomes and ‘pro poor’ development. Yet in
an era of global economic recession and soaring food prices, biofuel ‘sustainability’ has been
at the centre of controversy. This paper focuses on the case of post-war Sierra Leone, a
country that has over the last decade been consistently ranked as one of the poorest in the
world, facing food insecurity, high unemployment and entrenched poverty. Following a
recent government strategy to secure foreign direct investment in biofuels production in
agriculturally rich regions of the country, the largest foreign investment in Sierra Leone since
the end of its civil war has been secured: a Swiss company is to invest US$368 million into a
large-scale biofuels project over the course of 3 years, and promises to simultaneously
stimulate an enabling environment for investment, provide job opportunities for youth and
increase food production. For multiple actors involved in the project, the concept of
‘sustainability’ is crucial but accordingly there are varying interpretations of its meaning.
Such differences in interpretation and the complex contradictions within discourses of
sustainability are in turn framed by the various scales within which these actors are
situated. While attempts have been made to manage these contradictions through global
sustainability standards, the unequal power relations between different actors will
ultimately determine the ways in which they are likely to be resolved. The paper concludes
by reflecting on how these processes may be contributing to a changing governance
landscape and wider global political economy within which bioenergy is being produced,
processed and consumed.