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Varieties of Capital Cities
The Competitiveness Challenge for Secondary Capitals
David Kaufmann
Kendra E. Dupuy
Community development funds drawing from resource revenues are increasingly used to address issues of revenue distribution and local development in resource production regions. Comparing two West African mining revenue distribution policies, Ghana’s Mineral Development Fund and Sierra Leone’s Diamond Area Community Development Fund, this chapter shows how local elite capture coupled with limited transparency and accountability, led to fund misuse and embezzlement. Though such funds are usually established with good intentions, their ability to uplift mining communities through improved incomes, social services and infrastructure tend to be undermined by local power dynamics. Keywords: Ghana, Sierra Leone, community development funds, mining revenues, local power dynamics
Corruption, Natural Resources and Development
From Resource Curse to Political Ecology
Edited by Aled Williams and Philippe Le Billon
Joseph Perfect Mrema
Community-based natural resource management is frequently presented as a way to increase local representation in decision-making processes and reduce the risks of corruption. Revisiting a well-known 'success story' of community-based forest management in Tanzania, this chapter reflects on the effects of the capture of such projects by local elites. Despite being designed to conserve dwindling resources, community-based conservation programmes ended-up being captured by patronage and collusive networks. Contrasting with evaluations considering this project a success, these findings point at the importance of longitudinal evaluations sensitive to intra-community power relations. Keywords: Tanzania, community-based forest conservation, elite capture, intra-community power relations, patronage, collusion
Odd-Helge Fjeldstad and Jesper Johnsøn
Resource discoveries often result in expectations of rapid growth, but also major concerns for increasing corruption. In the context of Tanzania's recent offshore gas field discoveries, uncoordinated public policy and a lack of regulation on lobbyism are important challenges for petroleum governance. The Tanzanian government failed to reach a unified, coordinated policy position and bureaucratic competition was rife. Citizens in general felt bypassed in the process of developing three new petroleum laws, while local businesses and the local chapter of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative came out ahead in the ‘lobby game’. Keywords: Tanzania, offshore gas, lobbying, resource discoveries, petroleum governance, EITI
Tanya Wyatt
Corruption often thrives in contexts of prohibition. This chapter outlines the corrupt actors along the smuggling chain of the illegal wildlife trade, showing how various forms of corruption are employed to launder and hide wildlife whilst buying off and/or deceiving law enforcement agencies. As a multi-stage crime straddling national boundaries and seeking to bypass domestic laws, regulations and enforcement actions, the illegal trade in wildlife is highly dependent on corruption for its success. Emerging case evidence suggests a combination of approaches is required, including initiatives that seek to reduce consumer demand in countries that are major importers of wildlife products, and improved policing at global transit hubs. Keywords: Illegal wildlife trade, commodity laundering, smuggling, corruption, organized crime
Connor Joseph Cavanagh
Green economic policies are not immune to corrupt practices. While corruption can undermine the implementation of a 'green agenda', green policies can themselves also be instrumented for corrupt purposes. Reflecting on the small but growing literature on the ‘green resource curse’, this chapter confirms that increased financing for green initiatives threatens to replicate problems in the extractive industries. The struggles of indigenous communities suggest that the antidote to a green resource curse in Kenya does not simply rely on supporting improved governance and the rule of law but depends too on locally rooted movements for environmental justice. Keywords: Kenya, green resource curse, corruption, illegal forest trade, environmental justice, indigenous peoples
Grizelda Mayo-Anda
A combination of massive royalty funds and institutional context influenced biased funding choices by local government in the case of the Malampaya natural gas project in Palawan, Philippines. A public inquiry into the Malampaya scandal demonstrated the vulnerabilities of existing governance arrangements to undue political and personal interests. This case reflects the importance of alternative and strategic mechanisms of natural resource revenue sharing that can prevent funds from falling prey to the self-interest of local politicians. Keywords: Philippines, natural gas, royalty funds, revenue sharing, corruption, local politics