Green extractivism and financialisation in Mozambique: the case of Gilé National Reserve

ABSTRACT

With the global environmental crisis intensifying, capitalism has extended the reach of financialisation through the creation of new financial assets that rely on further commodification of nature. Using the case of a national reserve in Mozambique, the paper examines the emergence of green extractivism as a consequence of deepening financialisation, an extractivism which is building on pre-existing relations of unequal and asymmetric exchange between industrialised and extractive economies. The article focuses on the linkages between financialisation and extractivism and nature-based financial mechanisms, whose operationalisation impacts on rural social reproduction. It is argued that the emergence of green extractivism, supported by green funds and loans, is intensifying the extractive character of the Mozambican economy. The case study shows, that with the support of philanthrocapitalism, the process of financialisation led by mature economies supports the appropriation of nature through green extractivist programmes in the periphery, with adverse implications for development and for rural subsistence.

RESUMO

Com a intensificação da crise ambiental global, o capitalismo alargou o domínio da financeirização por meio de criação de novos activos financeiros baseados em uma maior comodificação da natureza. Com enfoque no caso da Reserva Nacional do Gilé, o artigo explora a emergência de uma nova variação de extractivismo, o extrativismo verde, como consequência do aprofundamento da financeirização; que também se baseia em relações pré-existentes de intercâmbio desigual e assimétrico entre economias industrializadas e economias extractivas. O enfoque do artigo recai sobre as ligações entre financeirização e extrativismo e os mecanismos financeiros baseados na natureza, cuja operacionalização impacta a reprodução social rural. Argumenta-se que o surgimento do extrativismo verde, apoiado por fundos e empréstimos verdes, tem intensificado o existente caráter extrativista da economia moçambicana. O estudo de caso mostra que, com o apoio do filantrocapitalismo, o processo de financeirização liderado por economias maduras acomoda a apropriação da natureza por meio de projectos extrativistas verdes na periferia, com implicações adversas para o desenvolvimento e principalmente para a subsistência rural.

KEYWORDS:

• Green extractivism
• financialisation
• land grabbing
• rural livelihoods
• Mozambique

PALAVRAS-CHAVE:

• Extractivismo verde
• financeirização
• usurpação de terras
• subsistência rural
• Moçambique

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the two anonymous reviewers who provided helpful and productive feedback and suggestions. All possible errors remain mine. A special thanks to Professor Carlos Nuno Castel-Branco and Dr Elisa Greco, for the support and for the feedback that contributed to the improvement of the paper. A very special thank you to the Observatório do Meio Rural for their positive support during my fieldwork.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) is the Mozambican national institute of statistics. Their databases are available at their website (http://www.ine.gov.mz/).

2 The database from Centro de Promoção ao Investimento (CPI) was collected directly in 2017. It presents the list and data (name of the company, data of approval, volume of investment, number of jobs to be created, and much more) of all the country’s approved investments. CPI, whose name was recently changed to APIEX (Agência para a Promoção de Investimento e Exportações) is a governmental institution, established by Decree no. 60/2016, that aims to promote and facilitate private and public investment and exports, in accordance with the objectives and goals of the government's economic policy.

3 According to their website, the ‘Conservation Finance Alliance (CFA) is the leading global professional alliance of conservation finance experts, practitioners, and organizations’. Its ‘mission is to promote awareness, expertise, and innovation in conservation finance globally’. In addition, ‘Conservation finance instruments and solutions seek to leverage and effectively manage economic incentives, policies, and capital to achieve the long-term wellbeing of nature and the services nature provides to society’ (https://www.conservationfinancealliance.org/what-we-do).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Natacha Bruna

Natacha Bruna holds a PhD in Development Studies (Political Economy of Resources, Land, Environment and Population) from the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam. She is currently a researcher at the Observatório do Meio Rural, focusing on political economy/ecology issues within critical agrarian studies. Her research interests include models of development, agrarian change (green) extractivism, climate change policies and narratives, rural livelihoods and social reproduction.