George C. Schoneveld

Center for International Forestry Research | CIFOR · Sustainable Value Chains and Investment

The effect of industrial oil palm expansion on deforestation and peatland conversion in Southeast Asia has been well documented. Despite being the fastest growing producer group by area, the effects of smallholder expansion in contrast is yet to be fully understood. By combining spatial analysis with farm and farmer surveys, this article examines t...

Enhancing smallholder compliance with sustainability standards and good agricultural practices features prominently on the global sustainability agenda. Operating in a sector that bears intense public scrutiny, Indonesia’s oil palm smallholders are especially confronted by pressures to enhance their environmental performance. Because smallholders e...

The Post-2015 Development Agenda envisions a global economy with enlarged opportunities for low-income groups. Businesses are accordingly challenged to become more inclusive. What this involves in practice is anything but clear, however. This partly stems from weak and inconsistent conceptualizations of ‘inclusive businesses’ and their business mod...

To much of the development community, improving the inclusiveness of agrifood chains demands private institutional innovations that attenuate market failures confronting smallholders. How and how well such innovations contribute to sustainable rural development is still poorly understood, however, with research to date insufficiently generalizable...

Inclusive businesses (IBs) are promoted to alleviate poverty and contribute to sustainable development at the base of the pyramid (BOP). In the agri-food sector, there is limited evidence regarding what types of partnerships enhance IBs' value creation potential for low-income producers. This prevents policymakers from providing effective support t...

Cocoa production is a leading driver of deforestation in the humid-tropics of West Africa. Reconciling climate change mitigation with livelihoods of farmers requires identification of production strategies to concurrently improve yield and profit while curtailing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Using a 2021 plot-survey conducted in Ghana’s E...

Inclusive businesses (IBs) resonate with policymakers seeking to leverage private capital in support of poverty alleviation and sustainable development. In the agri‐food sector, which represents the largest segment of the base‐of‐the‐pyramid (BOP) market and a key source of livelihood for the rural poor, there is limited evidence on their diversity...

Integrated landscape approaches have been welcomed by scientists and development practitioners as a promising way to address commodity-driven deforestation and associated land degradation and greenhouse gas emissions. They present cross-sectoral approaches to manage trade-offs between multiple land uses and environmental and socioeconomic objective...

With increasing scarcity and spatial dispersion of tree resources, Uganda's forest sector – similarly to several other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa – has experienced a shift from the large-scale concessionary model historically used to access and harvest forests, to more versatile models involving smaller-scale operators. The timber they produce...

Tanzania’s dairy sector is poorly developed, creating reliance on imports for processed, value-added dairy products and threatening food security, particularly when supply chains are disrupted due to market volatility or armed conflicts. The Tanzanian Dairy Development Roadmap is a domestic development initiative that aims to achieve dairy self-suf...

Corporations and independent experts alike consider inclusive agribusiness (IAB) instrumental to achieving sustainable and equitable development for small farmers. As businesses that productively integrate small farmers into commercial agrifood chains, IABs could help resolve some of the coordination and market and input access problems confronting...

Smallholder farm-households produce most of the crop and livestock products consumed in developing countries. Equitable transitions to low emissions food production will depend on policies that promote a reduction of greenhouse gases (GHGs) whilst improving these farmers’ livelihoods. Here, using survey data and simulation modelling, we show that T...

An extensive set of policies, programmes, technologies and strategies have been implemented in the forest sector. Collectively, these 'levers' cover a diverse range of approaches, at a variety of scales and are governed by many different stakeholders. It is important for decision-makers to understand which levers might be most useful in achieving p...

We are living in a time of crisis on planet Earth. Urgent calls for transformational change are getting louder. Technical solutions have an important role to play in addressing pressing global challenges, but alone they are not enough. After all, who decides what kind of transformation is needed, of what, and for whom? What principles guide those d...

A growing body of evidence shows that more intensive dairy systems can be good for both nature and people. Little research considers whether such systems correspond with local priorities and preferences. Using a mixed methods approach, this study examined the effects of three intensification scenarios on milk yield and emission intensities in Kenya...

The Government of Brazil established their Sustainable Palm Oil Production Programme (SPOPP) in 2010, which sought to enhance the sustainability and inclusiveness of oil palm development in the Amazon. This paper evaluates how well oil palm contract farming promoted by SPOPP has delivered on its inclusive development objectives. Drawing on cross-se...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Context Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the agriculture sector – especially livestock – through low-emission development (LED) has attracted increased global attention. However, producers rarely prioritize emission reduction in their day-to-day practices, resulting in a mismatch between global and national environmental policies and lo...

We use an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) and simulation modelling to assess the effect of improved feeding practices and increased yields of feed crops on milk productivity and GHG emissions from the dairy sector of Tanzania’s southern highlands region. We calculated direct non-CO2 emissions from dairy production and the CO2 emissions re...

Due to its controversies, oil palm cultivation has been targeted by regulatory innovations. Among these, transnational efforts-such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) and corporate commitments to zero deforestation have been highly influential but often tend to overvalue environmental over socioeconomic outcomes. This article discusse...

We use an attributional life cycle assessment (LCA) and simulation modelling to assess the effect of improved feeding practices and increased yields of feed crops on milk productivity and GHG emissions from the dairy sector of Tanzania’s southern highlands region. We calculated direct non-CO 2 emissions from dairy production and the CO 2 emissions...

Contract farming has long captured the interest of scholars and development practitioners alike. Touted as an inclusive production model that helps alleviate the persistent market failures and barriers to market participation and sustainable intensification confronting the rural poor, contract farming is now inseparably connected to the Sustainable...

Successful inclusive business and value chain development generally involves private institutional innovations such as contract farming that can help attenuate the market failures pervasive in rural areas. How and how well such innovations contribute to rural development is still poorly understood, however, with most effectiveness studies to date s...

Tanzania's mining sector has long been dominated by two opposing scales of operations, large-scale mining (LSM), and artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). From the mid-1990s, changing governments promoted LSM as a key sector for the restructuring of the economy through the generation of much needed foreign capital and increased fiscal earnings. H...

The global palm oil value chain has grown in complexity; stakeholder relationships and linkages are increasingly shaped by new public and private standards that aim to ameliorate social and environmental costs while harnessing economic gains. Regulatory initiatives in the emerging policy regime complex struggle to resolve sector‐wide structural per...

Despite the existence of clear legal regulations governing the forest sector in Zambia, a peculiar value chain has developed in recent years around highly valuable trees, which are sold mainly on the Chinese market under the general name of ‘rosewood’ and known in Zambia as ‘mukula’. •• The Zambian government has acted on the value chain with a cyc...

The report aims to understand Chinese trade and investments in Africa’s rural economy in the agriculture, forestry and mining sectors. Based on data collected from over 700 surveys, 130 interviews and 100 focus groups. We find that Chinese and other newcomer investors employ a variety of business strategies that contrast with those employed by esta...

As China increases its engagement with Africa through trade, investment and aid, development researchers and practitioners are increasingly concerned about its potentially unique impacts on the continent’s development pathways, environment and marginalised populations. While the popular discourse is still largely polarised between win-win or neocol...

This research critically examines implementation gaps and externality problems associated with the recent proliferation of zero deforestation commitments (ZDC) by large commodity producers. By developing and employing a hierarchical framework, we evaluate the policies and strategies of 50 leading ZDC adopters in high forest-risk commodity sectors (...

In much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the informal economy rules supreme. Often defined as unregulated production, distribution and service provision, informal economic activities across SSA provide crucial cash income and employment for both rural and urban populations. Governing the informal economy is a key policy challenge for governments across...

• Despite its promotion of contract farming (widely considered to be a relatively pro-poor approach to agribusiness expansion), Brazil’s Sustainable Palm Oil Production Program (SPOPP) cannot be considered to be an inclusive development program in its current format. Findings suggest that land- and labor-constrained households are more likely to be...

Processes of globalization have generated new opportunities for smallholders to participate in profitable global agro-commodity markets. This participation however is increasingly being shaped by differentiated capabilities to comply with emerging public and private quality and safety standards. The dynamics within Indonesia’s oil palm sector illus...

This brief presents preliminary findings of research on sustainability, legality and productivity challenges arising from independent smallholder oil palm expansion in Riau, Central Kalimantan and West Kalimantan. Research demonstrates how frontier expansion is often driven by larger out-of-province and absentee farmers that engage in oil palm for...

The large social and environmental footprint of rising investor demand for Africa’s farmland has in recent years become a much-examined area of enquiry. This has produced a rich body of literature that has generated valuable insights into the underlying drivers, trends, social and environmental impacts, discursive implications, and global governanc...

The rapid expansion of Indonesia’s independent smallholder oil palm sector is posing important productivity, sustainability and legality challenges. As a result, the need to better regulate independent oil palm smallholders is increasingly being acknowledged by Indonesian polity. Because the sub-sector is comprised of highly diverse stakeholder gro...

This article examines land-use changes by large-scale plantations in Ethiopia and evaluates the impacts thereof on soil organic carbon, micronutrients and bulk density. Remote sensing analysis and field research activities were undertaken at four large-scale plantation projects in Benshanguel Gumuz, Gambella, and Oromia regional states. Results sho...

The recent influx of agricultural investment to Africa is increasingly equated with land grabbing by investors from emerging and Northern economies seeking to produce commodities to serve the needs of their own food and energy markets. This paper reflects on this discourse by unpacking agricultural investments in Mozambique – one of the largest rec...

This article examines land-use changes by large-scale plantations in Ethiopia and evaluates the impacts thereof on soil organic carbon, micronutrients and bulk density. Remote sensing analysis and field research activities were undertaken at four large-scale plantation projects in Benshanguel Gumuz, Gambella, and Oromia regional states. Results sho...

Background: As a result of rising global food and energy insecurity, investors are increasingly seeking new opportunities in tropical developing countries endowed with comparatively cheap and abundant land resources. Predominantly targeting the agriculture and forestry sectors, these investments could make valuable contributions to the economies of...

In response to recent accumulation crises, the development community has begun to call for greater focus on 'inclusive green growth' (IGG). African governments have accordingly been encouraged to develop mechanisms to leverage private sector investments that are both inclusive of the poor and that contribute to the development of the green economy....

Tis paper provides an analysis of the types of stakeholders participating in the Brazilian oil palm value chain, sector dynamics and the socioeconomic and environmental impacts associated with the sector’s expansion in the Amazonian state of Pará, where most oil palm investments are currently concentrated. In doing so, this paper aims to generate n...

In the context of globalization, market liberalization, and deregulation, many African governments are embracing the potential of private agricultural investment to address structural issues within their agricultural economies. Sustainably integrating these investments into target landscapes, however, poses a number of governance challenges since i...

Following the food and energy price crises of the mid 2000s, sub-Saharan Africa has become one of the largest recipients for large-scale farmland investments. While much has been written on the phenomenon, scant reliable empirical evidence is available as to the precise geographic and sectoral patterns and underlying drivers. Employing strict data...

Nigeria's once thriving plantation economy has suffered under decades of state neglect and political and civil turmoil. Since Nigeria's return to civilian rule in 1999, in a bid to modernize its ailing agricultural economy, most of its defunct plantations were privatized and large new areas of land were allocated to ‘high-capacity’ agricultural inv...

Since the confluence of the food and oil price crises of the mid 2000s, Ghana has become a prime destination for large-scale farmland investments. While this trend could make valuable contributions to an ailing agricultural sector, the alienation of rural land for commercial ends could conversely have far-reaching implications for customary land ri...

Growth of emerging economies, policy commitments to biofuels and volatility in commodity prices have contributed to a marked increase in the pace and scale of foreign direct investment in land-based enterprises in the global South. This paper explores the relationship between policy and practice associated with customary rights protections in the c...

The rapid expansion of biofuel production and consumption has raised concerns over the social and environmental sustainability of biofuel feedstock production, processing and trade. The European Union (EU) has thus balanced its commitment to biofuels as one option for meeting its renewable energy targets with sustainability criteria for economic op...

Concerns about domestic energy security and global climate change mitigation have led the European Union, the United States, and others to introduce policies to enhance the use of biofuels in the transport sector fuel mix. While countries throughout the global South are positioning themselves to capture the economic benefits of this fuel transition...

Some of the costs of proving sustainability compliance for biofuels will fall on developing countries and/or small farmers, which can be difficult for them to absorb in financial, technical or administrative terms. Technical and institutional capacity building programmes, possibly through bilateral or multilateral agreements could offer a way to ad...

The 2000s witnessed the rapid expansion of biofuel plantations in the global South in the context of a growing trend of crop plantation expansion. This trend has been spurred by policies in the European Union, United States, Brazil, and other countries favoring the use of biofuels in the transport sector to enhance energy security and reduce carbon...

The rapidly growing biofuel sector in Africa has, in recent years, been received with divided interest. As part of a contemporary wave of agricultural modernization efforts, it could make invaluable contributions to rural poverty. Conversely, it could also engender socioeconomically and environmentally detrimental land use changes as valuable land...