Land grab: Tozzi Green’s carbon plantations in Madagascar
“Carbon credits don’t restore what’s been destroyed.”
Tozzi Green is an Italian company, that describes itself as “one of Italy’s leading operators in the renewable energy sector”. The company’s CEO, Andrea Tozzi, says, “Today we provide clean energy to communities that still lack it, working together with them to shape the history of the third millennium.”
It sounds great. But the company’s operations in Madagascar paint a very different picture. In 2012, the Malagasy state leased an area of almost 7,000 hectares of land to a Tozzi Green subsidiary called JTF Madagascar (Jatropha Technology Farm Madagascar) in the Ihorombe region of Madagascar. In 2018, the company signed a second lease covering almost 4,000 hectares.
The land is leased for a period of 30 years.
JTF Madagascar started planting jatropha, as a biofuel crop. The jatropha plantations failed and by 2014 the company had turned to planting maize for poultry feed. JTP Madagascar also planted geraniums to produce essential oil for export.
After two years of poor maize harvests, Tozzi Green is now planting acacia and eucalyptus trees on the land as a carbon offset project. So far, Tozzi Green has established about 3,600 hectares of monoculture plantations. By 2029, it plans to increase this area to about 5,200 hectares. The company estimates that this could generate 2.7 million carbon credits.
Since 2019, JTF Madagascar has received €7.5 million in loans from public development banks in Belgium (BIO) and Finland (FINNFUND).
OECD complaint
Local communities have been protesting against Tozzi Green’s land grab for more than a decade. In particular they are concerned at the lack of participation, information, and adequate compensation for the loss of their land.
Local communities have been protesting against Tozzi Green’s land grab for more than a decade. In particular they are concerned at the lack of participation, information, and adequate compensation for the loss of their land.
On 13 October 2023, ActionAid and two Malagasy organisations BIMTT and Collectif Tany filed a complaint with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development against Tozzi Green and JTF Madagascar. The complainants demand that the company leaves the Ihorombe region and returns the land to the communities.
Tozzi Green describes the complaint as “erroneous and incomplete” and describes the accusations as “unfounded”.
Recently, two Italian journalists, Sara Manisera and Daniela Sala travelled to Madagascar to investigate. Their article, written with Andrianaivomanana Lova, a Malagasy field coordinator, creative designer and documentary contributor, is published by New Lines Magazine.
Manisera and Sala are co-founders of the FADA Collective, an independent group of journalists founded in 2020.
They report that more than one year after the complaint to the OECD was filed, no one involved has received any response from the National Contact Point in Italy, which is supposed to facilitate dialogue and encourage a consensual resolution.
In May 2024, Collectif Tany and several Malagasy civil society groups wrote an open letter to Tozzi Green, BIO, FINNFUND, and the Italian government. The letter states that,
The communities of Ambatolahy claim that the company's activities have not brought development to the majority of the population, but rather increased hardship. The areas where livestock can move and graze have now become restricted. The livestock are not in good health and no longer calve every year as they used to. The penetration of zebus on the company's plantations has caused various problems, and led to harsh financial penalties.
Tozzi Green dismissed the letter, calling it “defamatory”.
“Blatant disregard for local communities’ rights”
Part of the problem is the complexity of land rights in Madagascar. French colonial rule ended in 1942. Under colonial rule, Malagasy citizens were effectively barred from acquiring land.
In 2005, Madagascar started a land reform process that recognised landholders’ rights without formal land deeds. But many provinces, including Ihorombe, do not have cadastral offices to document and define land ownership boundaries. “Confusion reigns,” Manisera, Sala and Lova write.
ActionAid, BIMTT, and Collectif Tany accuse Tozzi Green of exploiting the lack of clarity on land rights.
Mamy Ratrimoarivony Rakotondrainibe, co-founder of Collectif Tany, told New Lines that,
“The issue is the blatant disregard for local communities’ rights and the illicit methods — pressures and coercion — that Tozzi Green and local authorities use to extract their consent.”
“Culturally backward”
Joel Jean De Diea has been mayor of Satrokala since 2020. He previously worked as an accounting administrator for Tozzi Green. “This is a company that brings development and improvement to our commune,” he told New Lines. “If they were to leave, it would be catastrophic.”
He added that the people opposing the company are driven by ideology and that,
“They are culturally backward, closed-minded people. They reject all forms of development simply out of a mentality stuck in the past.”
“We feel betrayed”
Meky Eduar is the Ionaki, or elder, of Satrokala. In 2013, villagers handed over about 250 hectares of land to Tozzi Green. They believed they would get jobs, schools, and infrastructure.
Eduar told New Lines that,
“I signed the contracts on behalf of the community. We opened our hearts to their promises. Now, we feel betrayed.”
In Ivaro West, villagers also gave community lands for free to Tozzi Green. Fiharia Rayamandreny, an elder, told New Lines that, “We thought working with the ‘whites’ would mean a better future — perhaps a French school.”
Manisera, Sala and Lova write that the village school only received a tin roof and six wooden desks. There is one teacher and 50 students. Because there is no money for the teacher’s salary, the school is often closed.
The community in the village of Ambatolahy are zebu cattle herders. Manisera, Sala and Lova explain that the name “Ihorombe” is a portmanteau of “horo” (a type of grass) and “ombe” (zebu cattle). The forests on the Ihorombe plateau disappeared 500 years ago.
Zebu herding is economically and culturally extremely important to the communities living on the Ihorombe plateau.
Ambatolahy has no electricity. The only public lighting is a solar-powered street lamp donated by Tozzi Green.
Dama Jean Dare Ratolonjanahary is a community activist who lives in Ambatolahy. He co-founded the Comite de Defense des Terres to advocate for community rights. He told New Lines that, “Carbon credits are an excuse to continue destroying nature in exchange for money”.
He added that,
“Carbon credits don’t restore what’s been destroyed. We’re not against trees but against a system that leaves us with the damages of the climate crisis while profits go to foreign companies.”
