The trees of discord: from Emilia Romagna to Madagascar for carbon credits

LeDéfi.Mg | 11 December 2024

Investigation carried out with the support of Journalismfund Europe

Authors: Daniela Sala, Sara Manisera, Lova Andrianaivomanana

Collaborator: Riana Raymonde Randrianarisoa

 

During the dry season, on the Ihorombe plateau, in southern Madagascar, the fresh wind blows incessantly, caressing the tall golden stems of dried grass in waves. In the Malagasy language, Ihorombe comes from the combination of two words: “horo”, a species of pasture grass endemic to Madagascar, e “pray”, zebu.

It is no coincidence that this flat expanse, a savannah almost devoid of trees, dotted with herds of cattle, in constant search of the best “horo” pastures, takes the name of “zebu pasture”. And hundreds of years, in fact, the life of the inhabitants of this region remote, two days’ drive from the capital Antananarivo, it rotates around free grazing and subsistence agriculture.

Zebu breeding is the main economic activity in the region. An activity that marks the daily lives of families, to the point that the value of these animals, considered sacred and necessary like a bank, has taken on profound symbolic and ritual values, which accompany the life of the community, from birth to death.

Every morning, at the first light of dawn, the family of Mr Riceand meets for breakfast, based on boiled rice, cassava and coffee. When the sun begins to warm the damp night grass, the zebu enclosure is opened, a task that usually falls to the family’s teenagers, under the watchful eye of Ingahy, the family’s elder.

Accompanying the animals to the pasture are Ingahy’s sons, Razily and Rabega. After almost an hour of walking in the fields of punishment, and after crossing the only asphalted road in the province, the RN7 state road, the zebu stop in their usual grazing area. Razily and Rabega, lying in the sun, pass the time by smoking natural tobacco cigarettes, dozing, talking about music and what is happening in the surrounding area.

Recently, the recurring topic of their conversations is always the same: an Italian multinational based in Emilia Romagna. “This piece of land, where we have always taken our animals to graze, now belongs to Tozzi Green. There have been many meetings but they continue to insist”, explains Rabega.

In recent years, they say with concern, several farmers have been fined or hunted with dogs because their zebu were caught grazing on the lands where the company had started planting corn. “If Tozzi Green goes ahead with his projects – says Rabega – not we can more come here. I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

The legal case: the accusation of land grabbing

This conflict, apparently so distant, landed directly in Italy on 13 October 2023, when the non-governmental organization ActionAid, together with the Malagasy associations BIMTT and Collectif Tany, filed an application at the OECD National Contact Point in Italy against Tozzi Green and its Malagasy subsidiary JTF (Jatropha Technology Farm Madagascar).

According to ActionAid, this is the first dispute in Italy relating to land grabbing, that is, the illicit grabbing of land. In addition to Tozzi Green, they were involved with Belgian and Finnish governments, which they have financed the agro-industrial projects of the Italian multinational through their public development banks.

The crux of the conflict is precisely the ownership of land: of state property, according to the Malagasy state and Tozzi Green; of local communities, according to the associations that presented the request.

“Land grabbing is a practice whereby, for the profit of foreign multinationals, local public authorities take away lands from the legitimate occupants, from local communities – and this almost always happens within the framework of apparent legality”, explains Luca Saltalamacchia, lawyer specialized in civil cases concerning human rights and the environment and who follows the case on behalf of associations.

Formally, Tozzi Green has signed two contracts obtained and viewed by IrpiMedia: one in 2012 and one in 2018, for the rental of 11 thousand hectares of land in various municipalities in the province of Ihorombe, at the price of 63 thousand euros per year, for 30 years.

In Madagascar the question of land ownership is closely linked to the French colonial occupation, which lasted until 1942. The land titles established by the colonial regime effectively excluded Malagasy citizens from the possibility of formally purchasing land: for decades therefore possession of the land was passed down orally.

In 2005, an agrarian reform recognized the rights of those who occupy land even without a formal ownership deed, but in practice things are still confusing, even because in most provinces, including that of Ihorombe, there is no land registry office, although it is provided for by law. Second the associations therefore, Tozzi Green, would have taken advantage of unclear legislation and the connivance of the Malagasy state and local politicians.

The question of land grabbing in Madagascar it is particularly sensitive: in 2008, an agreement between the government of then president Marc Ravalomanana and the South Korean logistics multinational Daewoo for the use of 1.3 million hectares of land for 99 years, to be allocated to the cultivation of corn for export, caused a national scandal. The agreement, about which local communities had been kept in the dark, was cancelled. But a series of protests across the country, culminating in the 2009 coup, led to the overthrow of Ravalomanana’s government, and the seizure of power by Andry Rajoelina, the current president. Rajoelina, despite having promised to put a stop to the plundering of Madagascar’s resources by foreign multinationals, has done very little in this sense, on the contrary.

The Collectif Tany was born precisely in the wake of the indignation caused by the Daewoo case: “Shortly afterwards we learned about the Tozzi Green case directly from some local activists, because in this region the population’s resistance to exploitation has always been stronger than elsewhere ”, says Mamy Ratrimoarivony Rakotondrainibe co-founder of Collectif Tany.

The fact that the extension of the lands rented by Tozzi Green is decidedly smaller than that which had been promised to Daewoo makes no difference, according to Rakotondrainibe: “The problem is the failure to respect the rights of local communities and the illicit methods, the pressure, with which Tozzi Green and the local authorities try to extort their consent”.

The Ihorombe plateau is a peripheral region, historically marginalized by central institutions, with a poverty index of 78,2 %, seven points above the national average and sparsely populated. In the three main municipalities (Andiolava, Satrokala and Ambatolahy) live around 35 thousand people, without access to health infrastructures and basic public services: most of the agglomerations do not have access to running water and electricity. To get an idea of the scarcity of economic resources, just look at the budget of the largest municipality, Ambatolahand: about 8000 euros per year.

In this context, various investment and exploitation projects of natural resources by foreign multinationals have been inserted. Even before the arrival of Tozzi Green, the vast lands of the Ihorombe plateau had been identified by the local administration as privileged investment areas and assigned to the Indian agribusiness multinational Landmark, which however abandoned the project in 2008, paving the way for road to the arrival of the Italian multinational.

Leaving behind the capital Ihosy, the RN7 state road climbs up the Ihorombe plateau with a series of wide hairpin bends. A checkpoint of gendarmerie, the state police, delimits the entrance on the plateau. After about half an hour of driving, halfway between the checkpoint and the Isalo National Park, we turn right, near a modest restaurant, taking a dirt path which, in three quarters of an hour, leads to Satrokala.

Just before entering the urban center, the surrounding landscape suddenly changes. The uncultivated pastures give way to orderly rows of trees that trace the border of dozens of parcels of land cultivated with geraniums, with a modern drip irrigation system. Further along, along the course of a river, a small dam was built: part of the water used to irrigate the plants comes from this artificial basin, in which women wash dishes and clothes. Not far away, a wind turbine and a repeater stand out, guaranteeing electricity and internet connection to the Tozzi Green compound: it is here that the Romagna company has established its operational headquarters since 2012.

Continuing for a few hundred meters between the houses, we reach the Town Hall, a low and bare building, overlooking a dirt clearing, where the Mayor welcomes us in a small room, with a desk occupied by a computer and a printer, two rare items nearby.

Joel Jean De Diea, 36 years old, is a man with a distinguished appearance, and an apparently cautious and polite manner. “We are proud that a large company like Tozzi Green has decided to establish itself here in Satrokala,” he begins, while busily arranging a stack of papers on the desk.

De Diea worked as an accounting administrator for Tozzi Green until 2016 but, he assures, this is not why he defends the company: “It is a company that brings development and improvement for our Municipality. If he went away, it would be a catastrophe.” Those who are against it, says De Diea, are for exclusively ideological reasons: “They are culturally backward, closed people: they reject all forms of development for a question of mentality.”

TOZZI GREEN , FROM RAVENNA TO MADAGASCAR
Tozzi Green, based in Ravenna, is a company active in the renewable energy and rural electrification sector. In 2023, it recorded revenues of 97.8 million euros, down from 109.3 million in 2022, mainly due to lower energy prices, partially offset by a 28% increase in electricity production. The company employs around 400 people and operates both in Italy and internationally, with 60.3% of revenues coming from abroad, particularly from South America and Africa. Recent projects include wind farms in Sicily and photovoltaics in Peru, where it installed 222,000 solar kits for rural electrification.

In order for the trees planted by Tozzi Green to be translated into financial credits to be sold and traded on the voluntary carbon credit market, the project must be verified and approved by Verra, the main private organization that certifies greenhouse gas emissions offsets.

Tozzi Green estimates that it will be able to obtain certification in one or at most three years.

In total, 4 million trees have already been planted on 3,700 hectares of land, the goal is to reach 5,000 hectares by 2029: the plants are of different species: acacias, eucalyptus, jacarandas, mainly non-native varieties, chosen for growth speed and the ability to adapt to a semi-arid climate.

The company estimates it can generate 2.7 million credits of carbon in 30 years, which based on market fluctuations they could be worth from 16 to 70 million euros.

“I think we all agree that a tree pollutes less than an internal combustion engine,” says Davide Giachero, manager of Tozzi Green’s activities in Madagascar. “We are doing something positive for the world, the environment and society and I believe it is better to invest in reforestation projects rather than not doing so.”

The problem, however, is that the potentially positive impact on the climate resulting from the ability of trees to capture CO2 it is significant only if the long term is taken into consideration, well beyond the companies’ planning times. Like many other reforestation projects aimed at the carbon credit market, Tozzi Green’s also leaves open the question of what will become of these trees in 50, 100 or 300 years.

A journalistic investigation published in 2023 by the Guardian, Die Zeit and SourceMaterial revealed that 94% of the credits generated by rainforest protection projects, in South America, Africa and Asia and certified by Verra, are in reality heavily overestimated because they are linked to projects that do not the difference in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Because of this and other scandals, within a year the overall value of the global voluntary credit market fell by 61 percent, from almost 2 billion dollars in 2022 to 723 million in 2023

And then there is the question of the local community which, according to the criteria established by Verra, should show that they have welcomed the project and are benefiting from it.

At the moment, Tozzi Green provides some services to the population of Satrokala, specifically a medical clinic opened since 2012, which however is not part of any memorandum of understanding in the framework of giving back to the local community.

However, since Tozzi Green arrived in Ihorombe more than 10 years ago, the disagreements with the local population, arising from the dispute over the ownership of the land, have never completely subsided. Indeed, in recent years, in some ways, things have gotten worse. If, in fact, the mayor of Satrokala is clearly in favor of the activities of Tozzi Green, from the nearby municipality of Ambatolahy, complaints and protests arrive regularly.

The cluster of houses, made of rammed earth and sheet metal, which constitutes the center of the municipality is located south of the provincial road, on the opposite side from Satrokala. Tall cacti, carefully arranged, delimit the courtyards of humble homes. The central square, where the Town Hall overlooks, is a rather desolate dirt clearing, brought to life by stalls and a swarm of people on the weekly market day.

In the municipality there is no electricity or public lighting. The “development” promised by the Italian company boils down to a street lamp powered by a solar panel. At the entrance to the municipal offices, a large room with a crumbling ceiling, a local police officer, wearing a Tozzi Green hat, lazily checks who is coming in and out. A gray wooden box, fixed to the wall and closed by a padlock, decorated with the logo of the Romagna company, is used, they explain, to collect advice, complaints and job applications from residents.

In the middle of the square, waiting for us, is Dame Jean Daré Ratolonjanahary, a young man of 27, with an attentive look and a shy and spontaneous smile. He takes us to his house, un a single room of a few square meters with a tin roof, where he lives with his wife, Raherina, and their two-year-old daughter, Arena.

Jean Daré grew up with his mother and uncles, without a father, taking care of the family’s zebu together with his cousins. At school he was always considered one of the most dedicated and gifted students. At the age of 23, in 2020, after saving some money, he moved to Fianarantsoa, a day’s journey from Ambatolahy, to study agronomy: it is here, at the university, that he meets his wife.

In the same year, while he is home for the holidays, his brother-in-law convinces him to follow him to a meeting between the local community and Tozzi Green (which Darè had never heard of). “The company representative spoke only in French – recalls Jean Daré – and no one understood what he was saying, so I intervened. Since then, the lonaki, one of the elders, decided to trust me: he told me that I was good at explaining things to people and that I had to continue doing so.” Jean Daré thus began to do some research and delve deeper into why the local population was against it.

Together with other people he created the association Land Defense Committee: “It is essential that there is solidarity between the people of the community, and the association was born precisely for this reason,” he says.

Jean Daré’s activism also and above all translates into making often complex but crucial information understandable to the members of his community. In a series of video published by the think tank Green Finance Observatory a few months ago, Jean Daré explains in Malagasy what carbon credits are and what the tree planting project started by Tozzi Green consists of: “Carbon credits – he explains – are an excuse to continue destroying nature in exchange for money”.

Madagascar is the fourth country in the world most exposed to the effects of the climate crisis. With 80% of the population who has an income below the poverty line and who is forced to survive on less than 2 dollars a day, the effects of extreme climatic events, such as cyclones and floods, are disastrous. Between 2021 and 2022, due to the drought in the south of the country, over a million people suffered the consequences of an unprecedented famine.

“Carbon credits do not give us back what has been destroyed. We are not against trees, but against a system that leaves us with the damage, the effects of the climate crisis, while the profits go to foreign companies”, he concludes Jean Dare.

From his office in Ihosy, the capital of the Ihorombe plateau, Jean Parfait Tovositrakasoamahafaly, director of the Ministerial Department for Agriculture and Livestock in the Region, looks with concern at the growing distrust between the local community and the company Italian: “Here people are used to negotiating, discussing, dialoguing, before making decisions or accepting projects. People are not against reforestation in itself, but against a project that they perceive as imposed from above, with a colonial approach and methods.”

According to Tovositrakasoamahafaly, the public consultation arrived too late and was superficial: “You cannot think of copy-pasting an agro-industrial project: it must necessarily be adapted to local culture and customs, in this case those of the Bara community, which is founded on ‘zebu breeding’, he concludes.

Even among those who initially welcomed Tozzi Green and his projects there are already those who have regretted it.

Meky Eduar, lonaki, that is, an elder from Satrokala, welcomes us into the strawberries, the hall where community meetings are held. Around him there are at least two dozen people, young and old from the community who want to listen and participate in the conversation.

Sitting cross-legged on a mat, Eduar gesticulates vehemently, leaning towards his listeners, as if wanting to scrutinize them in the eyes and secure their attention. “When Tozzi Green arrived here, in 2013, we gave away 250 hectares of our land for free: we were convinced that in exchange we would have an advantage: a job for our children, schools, infrastructure”, he says.

While he speaks, Eduard has a series of documents, maps and contracts in front of him which, he explains, he has signed on behalf of the community. He doesn’t know exactly what is written there, because they are all in French, without any translation into Malagasy: he was forced to trust what he was told verbally at the time. “We are simple people, and we open our hearts to those who make promises to us. But today we are disappointed,” he explains.

Even in Ivaro West, an agglomeration of a few huts, whose inhabitants almost immediately accepted the presence of Tozzi Green on the land for community use, a certain discontent can be felt.

“We agreed to give up our land for free because we thought it was an advantage to work with the ‘whites’, we thought they would open a school in French… but nothing”, says Fiharia Rayamandreny, lonaki of the community.

Tozzi Green, according to Rayamandreny, simply purchased a tin roof and six wooden desks for the local school. The only teacher (for around fifty students) has been without a salary for months because, the elderly man always says, this is a forgotten area, in which state institutions do not invest.

If Tozzi Green wants to secure authorization from Verra to sell carbon credits, it will have to demonstrate, among other things, that the project is well received by the local community. According to the Collectif Tany, this has recently led to a tightening of repression against those most opposed to the project: “We are very worried about the continuous pressure and attempts at persuasion, also carried out through the intervention of the gendarmerie,” he wrote in May 2024 the Collectif Tany in an open letter signed by a dozen peasant organizations and Malagasy civil society associations.

Tozzi Green responded to this letter by saying that these are “slanderous and defamatory accusations”, adding that “the presence of the gendarmerie at certain meetings had the sole purpose of guaranteeing a serene and impartial climate for all participants, unless you want to question the integrity of the local police.”

In a context marked by a colonial past and complex tensions between the various minorities, it can be very risky to underestimate the role of the security forces and the perception – by local communities of gendarmerie, the public security body that indirectly inherited the legacy of the French colonial police.

Maherilio is an activist originally from the Ihorombe plateau, where he now returns only occasionally and with the utmost discretion. We meet him in a location that he prefers not to reveal to safeguard his safety.

“I have always seen my role as that of a simple mediator, doing everything to inform people of their rights,” he says. “Threre are intimidations towards the local community and especially those like me who expose themselves personally, began immediately, through verbal pressure and the presence of the police at the various meetings”.

In February 2020 the authorities took action and Maherilio. was arrested in Ihosy. They freed him after just ten days after a series of protests. At the end of 2023 he was sentenced for extortion, abuse of office to two years in prison and a fine of 100 thousand Ariary (about 20 euros) by the criminal court of Antananarivo, the capital. Also the human rights organization Front Line Defenders took care of his case.

In recent times, Maherilio he has been forced to become more cautious but continues to denounce corruption: “Whoever changed their mind about the project did so because of pressure. Or in exchange for money: it is not a decision of the people but of the money,” he says. “They also offered me money to keep quiet. But, I swear on the heads of my ancestors, I will always refuse,” he says proudly.

The request filed in Italy against Tozzi Green is proceeding slowly: 12 months have already passed without a response – a singular case according to the lawyer Saltalamacchia who is following the case. Meanwhile, in the Ihorombe plain, where the forest had disappeared for 500 years, the trees of Tozzi Green continue to grow. But as a local proverb says, “the egg broken from the outside breaks, the egg broken from the inside leads to true development”. If it is true that in the imagination trees represent the regeneration of a territory, here they are more than ever a symbol of discord.

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With regard to this article, Tozzi Green firmly reaffirms the correctness of its actions by emphasizing that, contrary to what is reported, all the areas where Tozzi Green is active have been obtained in full compliance with and in accordance with Malagasy laws and with the participation of the state of Madagascar, as well as with the involvement of the population through numerous public consultations always working together with the authorities. In addition, the company has for years promoted many important economic, social and cultural initiatives for the benefit of local communities in the areas where it operates in Madagascar. To cite just a few examples: the construction of school, hospital, and playground infrastructure, the creation of local associations, and donations of school and sports equipment.

In fact, the company rejects any accusation regarding alleged pressure or threats to the local population: no representative, employee or collaborator of Tozzi Green has ever held or will hold intimidating and/or aggressive conduct towards any person. In this regard, we reiterate that the presence of the gendarmerie at some of the meetings had only a guarantee function for the benefit of the people participating.

Regarding the reforestation project, it is essential to point out that in recent years the results of agricultural activity have been compromised by a massive reduction in rainfall that is still affecting the whole of southern Madagascar. The alternative project pursued by Tozzi Green was designed precisely in order to protect all the stakeholders: the reforestation activity will undoubtedly contribute to solving the serious problem of climate change by bringing about an improvement in the microclimatic conditions of the area through the planting of carefully selected and non-invasive tree species. In addition, it is important to point out that the carbon credit mechanism is recognized worldwide as one of the most effective systems to facilitate the fight against climate change. The system is tightly controlled by strict regulations and requires a great deal of documentation, local inspections, and continuous checks on the creation and management of initiatives.

Finally, to clarify all aspects related to the Petition submitted to the NCP, please refer to the in-depth page entitled “Focus Madagascar” available on Tozzi Green's website at the following link: https://www.tozzigreen.com/focus-madagascar/.”