inFRONT: A Research Program on Resettlement Inside Investment Frontiers
The ‘Inside the Investment Frontier’ project will offer a new perspective on investment-induced displacement and resettlement in the Global South.
The team pays particular attention to new investments made under the ideal of sustainability transitions, including expansion of nature conservation areas, acceleration of low carbon transitions and other ‘green’ initiatives in general.
How do these sustainable initiatives to address global sustainability problems lead to the sustainable place making on the ground?
A wide range of globally articulated investment projects – often aiming to achieve sustainable development – such as infrastructure development, mineral extraction, agribusiness and forestry, nature conservation and tourism development – have led to displacement of millions of people worldwide.
While much emphasis has been placed on compensation and livelihood restoration of the displaced and self-planned resettlement, it remains unclear whether and how these displacement experiences and new settlements could lead to sustainable community-rebuilding and local and regional development.
To find out the potential of sustainable place making through resettlement projects, the inFRONT project takes Mozambique as the case, a country that is dealing with various types of resettlement projects induced by foreign investments. The team looks into:
- Community rebuilding processes in conservation displacement and resettlement in Limpopo National Park (research funded by Toyota Foundation, 2018-2020).
- Mapping out spatial patterns of displacement and resettlement and vegetation change in expanding ‘green’ mining frontiers of Cabo Delgado (research funded by NWO,
2019-2023).
Research background > Responsible pathways to sustainability: How electric car production impacts Mozambican lives – Background – Universiteit Utrecht (uu.nl) - Exploring effects of existing mining frontiers over communities indirectly affected by the resettlement policies in Tete.
This programme will open a new research field of sustainable place-making in relation to displacement and resettlement in Africa and potentially beyond.
Funding
This research programme is funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) through an Aspasia Research Grant, and by the Toyota foundation.
