Biofuels Expansion and Their Differentiated Social-political Impacts in Developing Countries: A Comparative Account between Land Grabs and Social Sustainability in Honduras.

Abstract: The present study is concerned with the expansion of biofuel production and two revealing and contrasting impacts caused in Honduras. The biofuels complex emerges as a sustainable alternative to cope with pressing problems related to climate change, energy insecurity and environmental degradation. However such an argument becomes problematic as land expansion for biofuels entails land-use changes and limitations to land tenure and access to the rural poor. The latter is recently known as the phenomenon of land grabbing in developing countries. The problematic to tackle around these biofuels’ impacts is captured in two cases in Honduras. The first one, showing a case in which biofuel expansion has created political conflict, displacement and dispossession for rural communities and peasants struggling for land. On the other hand, another case shows a small-scale project that enhances sustainable development and socially inclusive results. The study compares the contrasting impacts based on empirical data from reports and studies about both cases. The aim is to understand the differences of both cases from a critique neoliberalism and a from a social sustainable development approach in order to analyse the reasons behind those differences. My argument draws on the assumption of an existent convergence of actors and approaches which are intrinsically materialized on the contrasting impacts. Therefore actors and approaches play key roles in those differentiated impacts. The study also reveals the emerging complexities around biofuels with key roles played by the state, governments and international organizations in developing countries.