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モザンビーク第一人者による貧富格差・土地問題・プロサバンナ・食料主権に関する記事

 世界的なモザンビーク研究者・情報提供者であるJoseph Hanlon教授(UK/Open Univ.)の情報誌に、プロサバンナに関する興味深い記事が掲載されました。
→MOZAMBIQUE 209 - News reports & clippings – 14 December 2012 - 4
 貧富の格差から、土地問題、プロサバンナ、食料主権までが包括的に報道されていて、とてもタイムリーです。世界と現地でモザンビークの開発がどう議論されているのが、勉強になると思うので是非ご一読ください。
 なお、承知のとおり、ジョセフ・ハンロン教授は、独立後のモザンビーク紛争の問題について、沢山の著書を出版し、同紛争の理解において世界的に大きな影響を及ぼしてきた人物。"Who Calls Shot"は、モザンビーク紛争が国内紛争と報道されているけれど冷戦構造の影響が強いこと、"Begger Your Neigbor"は隣国南アフリカのアパルトヘイト政権の周辺諸国への武力介入の問題などを、インタビューや一次資料等を使いながら実証的に暴いた本。
 ポスト紛争期のモザンビークにおいては、民主化や開発に関する問題に取り組んできた。特に、貧富の格差問題についての造詣が深い。
 2000年の大洪水に際しては、"Mozambique Great Floods 2000"で、大規模災害へのモザンビーク内外機関の取り組み、洪水要因に温暖化の問題や周辺諸国の大規模ダム問題があること、緊急支援の問題について鋭く切り込んだ。私が洪水発生後すぐに立ち上げた「モザンビーク洪水被害者ネットワーク」で、同書を部分訳して『モザンビーク大洪水2000』として出版しています。(懐かしい!)
 この間、プロサバンナ問題についても、繰り返し取り上げているようですが、今回はほかにも関連する面白い記事が掲載されたので、ここに転載します(転載フリー媒体です)。

1.貧富の格差問題
 急速な開発によるモザンビーク国内の貧富の格差に関する、ゲブーザ現大統領とルーラ元ブラジル大統領
の議論。ルーラ元大統領の主張は、①憲法で禁じられている三期をすることの問題、②同大統領がブラジルで導入したBolsa Familia(貧困世帯への現金給付)が、「成長後の所得分配」ではなく、「成長しながらの所得分配」であったこと、③モザンビークで富める者が貧しい者のことを無視してどんどん富を求める問題に関することです。それに対して、ゲブーザ大統領らは「貧富の格差は広がっていない」と主張しています。モザンビークでも現金給付を取り入れる議論があるが、現政権関係者は、「貧困者は怠け者すぎる」と反論。なお、急速に進む資源開発の問題が中心的に取り上げられています。

2. 中国による土地争奪と日本ブラジル援助によるプロサバンナ問題
 カソリック司教は外国投資によるメガ(大規模)プロジェクトによって、農民らの土地が奪われていることを警告。中国企業が稲作のために1万2千ヘクタールの土地を取得したことに抗議。中国企業は灌漑をするし、8千人の農民を雇うというが、地元ガザの農民組織は、8万人の人たちの移転を強いることになると反対。
 そして以上と同じ文脈の流れで、日本とブラジルがモザンビークで展開しようとしているプロサバンナ計画の問題が取り上げられています。UNACの声明文などを参照して、ブラジルのアグリビジネスに土地が奪取される可能性が指摘。
 興味深い点は最後のパラグラフです。すでに、ナカラ回廊沿いの良い土地に余裕がなく、既に誰かが所有している状態で、農民たちは圧力を受けていること。そして、故に、このような大規模農家を導入するアプローチは再考されつつある、とのことです。本当なら良いのですが?

3. 国際NGOによるベイラ・ナカラ回廊農業開発への食料主権に関する非難声明
ナカラ回廊はプロサバンナの対象地域ですが、国際NGOによる強い非難声明が、特にDFIDやG8のアライアンスに対して行われています。*詳細はまた後日。各自で末尾のガーディアン等の記事をご覧ください。なお、当然ながら、日本もこのG8アライアンスに関わっており、米国と日本がモザンビークを担当することになってしまいました。それもこれも、プロサバンナのため・・・。
●プロサバンナについてはJICAの公式サイトを見つつ、以下を
→http://afriqclass.exblog.jp/16942666
 つまり、プロサバンナ問題は、日本一国の援助案件、あるいは日伯連携案件を超えて、日米同盟、G8関係を包含する高度に外交的な案件となってしまっているわけです。「デカい話」には必ず裏があります。というか、日本の援助は、冷戦構造下で、同盟国アメリカがおおっぴらに援助できない国(社会主義志向の国)を優先してやってきた背景があります。「善意の協力」の衣をまといながら、行われてきたことの背景に注目することは、ポスト冷戦期の当初はされ、それなりの反省があったのですが、何でもかんでも「儲ければよい」という風潮の中で忘れさられつつあります。
 詳細は、日本の援助の歴史的背景に関する別の投稿を。若い皆さんは知らないことだらけかもしれません。
●日本の援助の歴史的背景
→http://afriqclass.exblog.jp/16081930/ 
 もちろん、現場で一生懸命やられた援助案件も沢山あります。プロサバナ事業でも、中の人たちが一生懸命やっているのも知っています。しかし語られない大きな枠組み・背景を無視して、広報される現場の頑張りだけを宣伝することは国民主権、説明責任の面から考える際、妥当ではないと思います。皆、裏の歴史も知る。その上で未来に向けてどうすべきなのか・・・そのような議論が、岐路に立つ21世紀の今問われています。
 しかし、そもそも、この援助、本来の目的はなんだったのでしょうか?苦しい経済状況の中で、国際協力に税金を払う納税者の願いは何でしょうか?ここらへんは、大いに国民的議論があるべき点ですね。

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Did Guebuza call Lula a 'professional agitator'?
=================
 An increasingly intense debate about poverty is emerging, with President Armando Guebuza making an angry attack on his critics on 6 December. Noticias (7 Dec 2012) reported an extemporaneous speech to the congress of the OTM trade union movement, saying that Guebuza“launched strong criticisms against those he called professional agitators acting in bad faith, and inthe name of friendship with the poor [who are] alleging that only some people are benefitting fromnatural resources and from wealth.” Some foreigners "come here and say the gap between the richand poor is increasing."
Among the foreigners who make the claim is Roger Nord, IMF Deputy Director for Africa, who said that in Mozambique the poor "have benefitted less" than others from growth and that this is "an issue because it raises social tension." (News reports & clippings 198, 6 June 2012)
 But President Guebuza may have been referring, at least indirectly, to the ex-president of Brazil, Luiz Lula, who gave a talk on 19 November in Maputo entitled "the struggle against inequality". He was invited to Mozambique by Graça Machel, who introduced Lula by praising him for "making Brazil less unequal, creating millions of jobs, and lifting millions from poverty." By contrast, she said, Mozambique is a success in terms of economic growth, "but we are a society that is ever more unequal [and] economic growth is not transforming the well being of the majority of our people." Machel's and Lula's comments were published in Noticias (22 November 2012) along with photos of Machel with Lula and of Joaquim Chissano in the audience. Both are known critics of Guebuza within Frelimo, so Noticias was underlining that this was an attack on Guebuza.
 In his talk hosted by the Samora Machel Documentation Centre, Lula pointedly warned against leaders who try to extend to a third term and those "who are afraid to speak to the people". In a speech to businessmen later in the week, Lula said "No Mozambican can feel proud to open their car door and see a hungry person looking for something to eat in the rubbish." He went on to note that the hungry person is of no interest to businesspeople because he has no money to buy – but if he had money he would become a consumer and help businesses to grow. (O Pais 23 Nov2012).
 Lula's Machel Centre talk put stress on his experience of reducing inequality in Brazil, and said promotes growth. You must combat poverty at the same time as you promote growth. He stressed the importance of Brazil's family grant (bolsa família) in which 0.5% of GDP is redistributed to 50 million poor people. When they started, they were accused of simply giving "alms" (esmola) to the poor. But Lula says this is not an expenditure, but an investment, which people use to buy food and other goods and promote economic growth.
This seems to have been pointed particularly at the Frelimo leadership, which has repeatedly refused on the to do a similar cash transfer on the grounds that the government does not give "alms" and the poor will waste the money.
 Guebuza in his OTM comments said it true that wealth was not reaching everyone, but he argued that it was because farmers and fishermen were not working hard enough. Speaking in Xai-Xai on 10 November, he said "only the lazy believe we cannot end poverty". And he went on to criticise certain social sectors which say poverty is not ending. (Noticias 12, 23 November 2012)
 Guebuza may have been responding indirectly to Catholic bishops, who issued a statement after their 6-13 November conference that "notwithstanding that there is increasing wealth, the poor are increasingly poor." The gains from natural resources are not contributing to the improvement of conditions for ordinary people. It continued: "The people continue to have a hard life, marked by a situation of ever more severe poverty." (Savana, 23 Nov 2012; Canal de Moçambique, 28 Nov 2012)
 But the government sounds increasingly irritated by criticism. The new prime minister Alberto Vaquina told parliament on 22 November that "the government cannot be guided by a few critics to change policies and strategies it carries out." And on 13 December he told parliament "it is not true that poverty is worse today than it was yesterday.” (O Pais 23 Nov 2012, AIM 13 Dec 2012)

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Land conflicts in Tete and Gaza
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 The Catholic bishops also warned that people are being pushed off their land for the mega-projects. And there have been two recent protests about people being threatened with eviction for large farms being set up for foreign investors.
 The Chinese company Wanbao on 11 December signed an agreement with the state company Regadio do Baixo Limpopo (RBL, Lower Limpopo Irrigation) for 20,000 ha for rice and other crops.
 The agreement was signed in the presence of Agriculture Vice Minister António Limbau and Gaza Governor Raimundo Diomba. The company says it will invest $250 million to develop irrigation and will do contract farming with up to 6000 farmers in the area. (Noticias 12 Dec 12)
Anastácio Matavel of the local NGO FONGA (Fórum de Organizações Nacionais de Gaza) claims that 80,000 people will be thrown off the land by Wanbao. (Canal de Moçambique, 25 Oct 2012)
President Guebuza visited the project on 10 November and said that all the people living in the area have been told that all their interests will be safeguarded and they will be relocated into area with infrastructure and jobs. (Noticias 12 Nov 2012)
The project apparently grows out of a 2005 cooperation agreement between Gaza province and Hubei province in China to improve rice production. For three years (2008–2011), the project was partly financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and served as a test site for the Gates Foundation’s "Green Super Rice" programme. Hubei is also involved in the Mozambican agricultural research centre in Boane, near Maputo. (Brautigam & Ekman, African Affairs, 111/444,
483–492)
 
 And on 25 October the National Peasants Union UNAC (União Nacional de Camponeses) issued a statement criticising the Brazilian-Japanese ProSavana project in the Nacala Corridor. The statement sasy: "The project was inspired by an earlier agricultural development project implemented by the Brazilian and Japanese governments in the Brazilian Cerrado (savannah), where large-scale industrial farming of monocrops (mainly soybeans) is now practiced. This Brazilian project led to a degradation of the environment and the near extinction of indigenous communities living in the affected areas. The Nacala Corridor was chosen because its savannah has similar characteristics to the Brazilian Cerrado, in terms of its climate and agroecology, and because of the ease with which products can be exported."
They complain that the project is being done in secret, and conclude: "We condemn the arrival of masses of Brazilian farmers seeking to establish agribusinesses that will transform Mozambican peasant farmers into their employees and rural labourers. We are extremely concerned that ProSavana requires millions of hectares of land along the Nacala Corridor, when the local reality shows that such vast areas of land are not available and are currently used by peasants practicing shifting cultivation."
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/agrarian-reformmainmenu-36

The Brazilian newspaper Brasil de Fato (29 Nov 2012) quotes Charles Hefner of GV Agro, a subsidiary of Brazil's Fundação Getulio Vargas. as dismissing the idea that the project will displace Mozambican peasants. He says ProSavana is targeting "abandoned areas" where "there is no agriculture being practiced". "Mozambique has a tremendous area available for agriculture," says Hefner. "There is room for mega projects of 30-40,000 ha without major social impacts." In practice, although there have been no official statements, ProSavana is having significant problems finding large tracts of land. All of the good land in the Nacala corridor already belongs to someone. Peasants are under some informal pressure to move (which partly triggered the UNAC statement) but ProSavana is reportedly rethinking its approach, moving away from very large farms.

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British NGOs attack agriculture corridors
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 Two British NGOs last week issued reports strongly attacking the donor-funded Beira and Nacala Agricultural Growth Corridors. EcoNexus argues "that the corridors are part of a major reordering of land and water access and use in the global south not dissimilar to the enclosures that took place for example in the UK (eg Scotland – all over the UK in fact), where many of those who were driven off the land became labour for emerging industries or were forced to leave the country.
 Current patterns of land use, such as shifting cultivation or other traditional forms of cultivation and use, already seriously threatened and often completely misunderstood, may cease to be possible across wide areas." The report is by EcoNexus co-directors Helena Paul and Ricarda Steinbrecher.War on Want sees the corridors as part of "DFID's support for the corporate takeover of African agriculture" in its report "The Hunger Games". It argues that the DFID-sponsored Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) promotion of agro-dealers who supply hybrid maize seeds,fertilizer, and pesticides is a way of making peasant farmers dependent on international corporations, notably Monsanto. War on Want is critical not just of GM (genetically modified) seeds,
but also of conventional hybrids.
 An earlier War on Want report "Food Sovereignty" argues that "the UK’s Department for
International Development (DFID) has long championed a model of food security that is based on free trade, corporate-owned technology and greater private sector control of food production and distribution." In Mozambique War on Want calls for support for "collective farming" as it says is promoted by the National Peasants Union (UNAC, União Nacional de Camponeses). It continues: "food sovereignty … entails a radial change in the way society is organised so that power is taken away from local elites, who are so often aligned with corporate capital, and restored to the people."
Both reports are implicitly critical of the non-profit British company AgDevCo and the catalytic agricultural investment fund it manages, as well as SABMiller for its cassava beer programme. This is discussed in an article in the Guardian (11 December 2012)
War on Want also criticises DFID for funding its projects through companies based in Mauritius, which is the southern African tax haven. It concludes: "DID has been using hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money with the express purpose of extending the power of agribusiness over the production of food [and] to meet the commercial interests of major agribusiness companies."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/dec/10/uk-aid-africa-tax-haven-mauritius
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/dec/10/mozambique-growth-corridor-poverty
http://www.waronwant.org/news/latest-news/17763-dfid-and-agribusiness-in-africa-a-toxic-mix
http://www.waronwant.org/attachments/Food%20sovereignty%20report.pdf
http://www.econexus.info/
by africa_class | 2012-12-21 00:12 | 土地争奪・プロサバンナ問題
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