Natural Resources, Rural Poverty and China-Africa Trade: Equity and Sustainability in Informal Commodities Value Chains

该项目解决了当今非洲自然资源治理面临的两个关键发展挑战和机遇：日益增长的非正式商品贸易和与中国的接触。该报告重点关注了中国参与者在连接印度洋的两条快速发展的贸易走廊沿线的非正式农业、采矿和木材贸易中的影响。第一条走廊是刚果民主共和国（DRC）的木材和矿产等商品通过东非从肯尼亚出口的过境路线。第二条走廊连接非洲中南部（赞比亚和刚果民主共和国的加丹加省与莫桑比克的贝拉港，从那里出口农产品、木材和越来越多的矿产）。通过研究将非洲非正式自然资源部门与不断增长的中国市场联系起来的两条贸易路线，这项工作将为自然资源治理、全球贸易模式以及非正式资源开发对当地贫困和自然环境的积极和有害影响提供迫切需要的见解。它以IIED和CIFOR在这些主题方面的持续努力为基础，扩大和深化该领域的研究，并利用联系良好的政策网络实现影响。具体而言，该研究在36个月的过程中涉及四个工作流程：1)选定商品链的价值链分析，特别关注行动者之间的权力动态和利益分配；2)管理选定商品贸易的监管和习惯制度的政治经济分析；3)通过土地利用/土地覆盖变化进行环境影响分析；4)三个部门的研究结果和关键政策教训的跨部门综合。拟议的研究解决了DFID-ESRC中国和非洲研究项目呼吁的所有目标。首先，它以非洲的发展挑战（日益增长的非正规经济和日益枯竭的自然资源基础）为起点，考察中国在非正规商品贸易背景下的参与。作为对中国在非洲自然资源治理中微观层面活动的首次系统研究之一，本研究将提供严谨的证据，消除人们对中国在非洲非正式经济中的贸易和投资的误解。其次，它通过确定与非洲日益增长的非正式经济和中非商品贸易相关的减贫和可持续资源利用的机遇和挑战，使选定非洲国家的经济边缘化行为者（如农村资源使用者、未融入正规经济的妇女和青年）受益。通过按性别分类的价值链和生计分析，并将刚果民主共和国作为一个研究地点。第四，它通过生成中国、非洲和国际决策者、企业以及非洲农村资源使用者强烈要求的基于证据的知识体系来支持国家和国际政策制定——他们对准确信息的要求已经通过IIED、CIFOR、GEI和非洲机构之前的研究、个人沟通和政策参与工作得到了强调（见影响之路）。最后，它通过将现有方法扩展和采用到非正式经济研究中来增加发展文献，非正式经济研究在研究全球南方国家经济发展方面的重要性正在迅速增加。它还采取多学科方法，利用地理信息系统遥感进行环境影响评估，这对于全面了解与可持续发展有关的挑战和机遇至关重要。

This project addresses two key development challenges and opportunities concerning Africa's natural resource governance today: the growing informal commodity trade and engagement with China. It focuses on the impacts of Chinese actors in informal agriculture, mining and timber trade along two fast-developing trade corridors connected to the Indian Ocean. The first corridor is a transit route for commodities such as timber and minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) through East Africa for export from Kenya. The second corridor links central southern Africa (Zambia and DRC's Katanga province to Beira port in Mozambique, from where agricultural products, timber and, increasingly minerals are exported). Examining the two trade routes that link Africa's informal natural resource sectors to the ever-growing Chinese market, this work will provide urgently needed insights on natural resource governance, global trade patterns, and the positive and deleterious effects of informal resource exploitation on local poverty and the natural environment. It builds on ongoing efforts by IIED and CIFOR in relation to these topics, expanding and deepening research in the area and using a well-connected policy network to achieve impact. Specifically, the research involves four work streams over the course of 36 months: i) value chain analysis of selected commodity chains with a particular focus on power dynamics and benefit distribution among actors, ii) political-economic analysis of regulatory and customary regimes governing the selected commodity trade, iii) environmental impacts analysis through land-use/land cover change and iv) cross-sector synthesis of the three sectors' findings and key policy lessons. The proposed research addresses all the objectives of the DFID-ESRC China and Africa Research Programme Call. First, it takes Africa's development challenges (the growing informal economy and depleting natural resource base) as starting points to examine Chinese engagement in the context of informal commodity trade. Envisioned as one of the first systematic examinations of micro-level Chinese activities in Africa's natural resource governance, this research will provide rigorous evidence and dispel misconceptions about Chinese trade and investment in Africa's informal economy. Second, it benefits economically-marginalized actors (such as rural resource users, women and youth not integrated in the formal economy) in the selected African countries by identifying opportunities and challenges for poverty alleviation and sustainable resource use associated with Africa's growing informal economy and China-Africa commodity trade Third, it confronts two cross-cutting themes: gender and fragile states through gender-disaggregated value chain and livelihoods analysis and inclusion of the DRC as a research site. Fourth, it supports national and international policymaking by generating an evidence-based body of knowledge strongly demanded by Chinese, African and international policymakers, businesses as well as rural African resource users - their requests for accurate information have been highlighted through the previous research, personal communications and policy engagement work by IIED, CIFOR, GEI and the African institutions (see Pathways to Impact). Finally, it adds to the development literature by extending and adopting existing methodologies to informal economy research - a field that is rapidly growing in importance for studying economic development in the global South. It also takes a multidisciplinary approach through environmental impact assessment using GIS remote sensing, which is critical to obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with sustainable development.