Villages without villagers

PhD. study examines how domestic investors acquire land for tree planting and the impact is has on the local communities of Southern Highlands Tanzania

- Land has been a bait for rich urban dwellers to invest in tree planting activities. In this way, land has been sold extravagantly with or without legitimate procedures. Some people have sold all land and lack plots for crop production, making them the hungry families, says PhD. student Justin Lusasi when explaning the importance of his work in the Timber Rush project.

- To many Tanzanians land is life, an asset, a natural resource, which even a poor family can rely on for survival and sustainable life. It is important to understand, monitor and moderate land business between villagers and tree planting domestic investors to avoid adverse impacts of land scarcity to local communities, says Justin Lusasi and talks about the ultimate risk of village land used for plantations to the extend where villagers no longer find a living in the villages. The landuse will change and some of the villagers will move.

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Justin Lusasi is a PhD. student at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and the University of Copenhagen (KU). The studies are funded by the Timber Rush project, which is run by threesome of institutes; SUA, KU and the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS).

DIIS Eksperter

Esbern Friis Hansen
Sustainable development and governance
Senior Researcher
+45 9132 5434