Privatising development and environmental management: undermining social license in the Ugandan plantation forest sector

Abstract

Conceptually located within the literature on privatisation of forestry, and environmental initiatives more broadly, this article examines how companies such as Green Resources in Uganda are achieving legitimacy, or failing to do so, in communities, thereby threatening what is understood as their Social License to Operate. Green Resources makes strong claims related to positive community investment, aimed towards social and environmental outcomes, recognising the importance of such investment for ongoing legitimacy both at a community level, and in terms of numerous licenses and certifications in the context of devolved environmental governance. Drawing on case study field research during 2011–2014, findings indicate that the SLO of Green Resources is under significant stress due to various forms of community response. Our findings lead to a discussion and conclusions about the contradictions and tensions emerging between the privatisation of development processes and corporate-led community investment, such that SLO becomes ever precarious. Our article builds on prior literature that applies SLO to analysis of the extractive industries, by arguing for the importance of including industrial large-scale plantation forestry into the lexicon of extractivist industrial development studies.