Project researcher interviewed by Swedish Newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet

Madagascar has a contenious history in relation to land ownership. The Tozzi Green project is run by an Italian company and co-financed by FinnFund and a development fund from Belgium. Currently, the project is planting trees in support of being able to sell carbon credits in the global market. However, there is controversy due to the local population, particularly cattle herders, feeling that the land on which the planting is taking place is not appropriate for the Malagasy government to lease for these purposes. There are accusations of land grabbing in addition to the feeling that some of the ambitious promises Tozzi Green made when they came to the area have not come to fruition. Jenni contributes to the article by highlighting that this situation is illustrative of the types of conflicts of interest that can arise when the focus of development work shifts from traditional aid work to investment support for companies. In the Tozzi Green case the partners are not civil society organizations, but rather companies whose ultimate goals are to generate profit. 

The article goes on to highlight some of the local complaints and the responses by Finnfund to these complaints. This includes their explaination of why they became involved and continue to be involved in the project despite the controversy. See below for the link to the original story which is published in Swedish and requires a subscription to the paper. 

More about Jenni - Jenni Mölkänen is currently a postdoctoral researcher working on the project Climate crisis and religious change in sub-Saharan Africa () at the University of Eastern Finland. Previously, she held a postdoctoral position at Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki, where her research focused on interplay of nature conservation and ecological restoration projects, and their distinct dynamics in southern rural Madagascar. Her PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Helsinki, focused on large scale environmental conservation efforts in rural northeastern Madagascar and engaged with discussions of environmental anthropology and political ecology. She is affiliated with interdisciplinary , as well as interdisciplinary research group Religion, Ecology and Diversity at the University of Helsinki.