Award Information
Biofuels have been widely promoted worldwide with arguments that they will address a wide range or problems- climate change, energy insecurity and under development. Yet emerging evidence shows that bio fuels are aggravating the very social and environment problems they were ostensibly supposed to alleviate. So why do we continue to observe large scale biofuel investments? Most studies on biofuels revolve around energy balance, carbon emissions, environmental cost benefits and devastating impact on food security and rural livelihoods. My proposed study to be carried out in Zimbabwe's South Eastern Lowveld and South Africa'' Eastern Cape using ethnography for data collection methods, will investigate the contestation surrounding biofuels by exploring the ways in which a few companies and communities are initiating and responding to biofuel projects.Previous experience and contacts established in the field sites will enable the researcher to triangulate the data with several sources.