organization:oakland institute

Maasai herders driven off land to make way for luxury safaris, report says | Environment | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/10/maasai-herders-driven-off-land-to-make-way-for-luxury-safaris-report-sa

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ca06524b1a395bdd3a9d092c9e80133cc542c05c/0_293_5735_3441/master/5735.jpg?w=1200&h=630&q=55&auto=format&usm=12&fit=crop&crop=faces%2Centropy&bm=normal&ba=bottom%2Cleft&blend64=aHR0cHM6Ly91cGxvYWRzLmd1aW0uY28udWsvMjAxOC8wMS8zMS9mYWNlYm9va19kZWZhdWx0LnBuZw&s=319f768e8b8b3dad2557702121d3907b

The Tanzanian government is putting foreign safari companies ahead of Maasai herding communities as environmental tensions grow on the fringes of the Serengeti national park, according to a new investigation.

Hundreds of homes have been burned and tens of thousands of people driven from ancestral land in Loliondo in the Ngorongoro district in recent years to benefit high-end tourists and a Middle Eastern royal family, says the report by the California-based thinktank the Oakland Institute.

Although carried out in the name of conservation, these measures enable wealthy foreigners to watch or hunt lions, zebra, wildebeest, giraffes and other wildlife, while the authorities exclude local people and their cattle from watering holes and arable land, the institute says.

#tanzanie #safaris

Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever | The Oakland Institute
▻https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/tanzania-safari-businesses-maasai-losing-serengeti

Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever is based on field research, never publicly-seen-before documents, and an in-depth investigation into Tanzania’s land laws. This report is the first to reveal the complicity between Tanzanian government officials and foreign companies as they use conservation laws to dispossess the Maasai, driving them into smaller and smaller areas and creating a stifling map of confinement.

The report specifically exposes the devastating impact of two foreign companies on the lives and livelihoods of the Maasai villagers in the Loliondo area of the Ngorongoro District—Tanzania Conservation Ltd (TCL), a safari business operated by the owners of Boston-based high-end safari outfitter Thomson Safaris; and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Ortello Business Corporation (OBC), which runs hunting excursions for the country’s royal family and their guests.

According to local villagers, TCL has made their lives impossible by denying them access to water and land and cooperating with local police who have beaten and arrested the Maasai. Meanwhile, for 25 years, the OBC had an exclusive hunting license, during which time there were several violent evictions of the Maasai, many homes were burnt, and thousands of rare animals were killed. Although Tanzania’s Ministry of Natural Resources cancelled OBC’s license last year, the OBC remains active in the area, while the local villagers live in fear.

#Serengeti #Maasaï #Tanzanie #évictions_forcées #terres #plaisirs_du_prince #safari #chasse

FACTBOX-Why are large land deals in Africa under scrutiny?
▻http://news.trust.org/item/20171128120956-jd5kf/?cid=social_20171128_74859427&adbid=935520496996687872&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15

Here are some facts about large land deals in Africa:

More than 117 large-scale land deals totalling about 22 million hectares, an area the size of the U.S. state of Utah, have been recorded in 21 African countries in the last 12 years.

The land areas range from 1,000 hectares to 10 million hectares.

East Africa accounts for 45 percent of these deals, with Ethiopia making up about 27 percent of all deals.

About 45 percent of investors are Western and North American companies; Asian firms make up 26 percent of investors.

Lease prices range from $1-$13.80 per hectare per year.

Lands are primarily used for food crops, industrial crops including biofuels, and for carbon sinks and carbon trading.

* Following conflicts, Tanzania has announced ceilings on the size of land deals – up to 5,000 hectares for rice and 10,000 hectares for sugarcane.

Sources: Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the Oakland Institute, GRAIN.

▻http://news.trust.org/item/20171128120855-guttc
#terres #Afrique

Erik Prince: Trump’s Knight in America’s New Crusade? | The Oakland Institute
▻https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/erik-prince-trumps-knight-press-release

https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/styles/large/public/prince-cover.jpg

Prince’s post Blackwater maneuvers – acquiring logistics capacity in Africa, the Mediterranean Region, and Asia, and networking with high-level individuals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launch a private equity fund, Frontier Resource Group (FRG).

“According to our findings, Prince’s connections range from top Emirati businessmen to Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Court,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. “The first investor in the Frontier Resources Group was a company linked to Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of Abu Dhabi’s ruler itself,” she added.

The UAE is a country where both Trump and Prince have business interests and unsurprisingly was not included among seven predominantly Muslim nations impacted by Trump’s travel ban. The UAE is also a key US ally in the wars that are raging in the Muslim world.

Illegal Logging in Papua New Guinea: Taking On the Logging Pirates | The Oakland Institute
▻https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/illegal-logging-papua-new-guinea-speak-out-palm-oil-corruption

https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/styles/thumbnail/public/png-testimonies-cover.jpg?itok=h638azrE

A landmark report from the Oakland Institute, Taking On the Logging Pirates: Land Defenders in Papua New Guinea Speak Out! elevates the voices of communities across the country who are opposing the theft of their land, made possible by the corrupt practices of local officials and foreign companies.

In recent years, Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs)—a government scheme—has been instrumental in fueling land grabs all over the country, with over 5.5 million hectares given away to foreign companies. Considering the pre-existing logging concessions, now over 15 million hectares—more than one third of the country—are in the hands of foreign firms

Taking On the Logging Pirates follows two previous reports and a film by the Oakland Institute, that have documented land grabbing and widespread tax evasion by a handful of Malaysian firms, including the multi-industry conglomerate Rimbunan Hijau.

#Papouasie_Nouvelle_Guinée #bois #forêt #déforestation #terres

Miracle or Mirage? Manufacturing Hunger and Poverty in Ethiopia
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/miracle-mirage-manufacturing-hunger-poverty-ethiopia

http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/styles/large/public/miracle-mirage-cover.jpg?itok=L921H_hw

As months of protest and civil unrest hurl Ethiopia into a severe political crisis, a new report from the Oakland Institute debunks the myth that the country is the new “African Lion.” Miracle or Mirage? Manufacturing Hunger and Poverty in Ethiopia exposes how authoritarian development schemes have perpetuated cycles of poverty, food insecurity, and marginalized the country’s most vulnerable citizens.

#Éthiopie #terres #agro-industrie #eau #souveraineté_alimentaire

I Speak without Fear: Where Are Our Loved Ones Who Have Been Abducted, Arrested, and Disappeared? - a report by Anuradha Mittal (Oakland Institute)
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/i-speak-without-fear

http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/styles/thumbnail/public/Missing_cover.png?itok=h__h0hji

In December 2014, the Oakland Institute carried out research and fieldwork in #Sri_Lanka in order to understand and document the state of land conflicts and displacement amid accusations of land grabs experienced by the Tamils and other minorities at the hands of the Sri Lankan army and the government. While investigating the land grabs, the research team witnessed discrimination, harassment by the police, and horrors of the civil war that continue to torment minority groups, especially the Tamils, even today.

#répression #disparus

With a Little Help from Bill Gates, the World Bank Creates a New Aid Conditionality
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/little-help-bill-gates-world-bank-creates-new-aid-conditionality

An alluring cast of speakers including the First Lady Michelle Obama, Queen Rania of Jordan, John Kerry, and Ban Ki-moon, among others, spoke at last week’s World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC. Bill Gates was the guest star of the Bank’s final live-cast panel discussion, “A New Vision for Financing Development with Bill Gates.”

...

During the 1980s, the concept of “aid conditionality” was the arsenal used to implement the World Bank and IMF’s Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), which imposed policy reforms as conditions to provide loans to developing countries. The SAPs forced the withdrawal of state intervention in key areas such as agriculture and deregulation of economies, which impoverished millions in developing countries.

Even though the anti-SAP backlash forced the World Bank to terminate the program, the goal of driving market-based, pro-private sector policy reforms in developing countries was not abandoned. While officially withdrawing the SAPs in 2002, the Bank launched a new project: the Doing Business index, which ranks countries according to “the ease of doing business.” As documented in a series of reports produced by the Oakland Institute, the Doing Business, deceitfully labeled “knowledge project,” is used to influence policy-making and reduce or do away with developing countries’ economic, social, and environmental standards.

...

The Gates Foundation is among the five international donors bankrolling the EBA, which it deems a powerful tool to inform policymakers of the nature and extent of regulations they need to put in place to attract investments.1 Besides the EBA, the foundation is engaged in other agriculture-related policy advocacy, especially in Africa. The largely Gates-funded Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), for instance, advised and lobbied the governments of Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi, among others, to adopt pro-business seed and land policy reforms.2 And it continues to finance the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), an institution that coordinates research and advocacy work on new technologies in agriculture, including genetically modified crops.

#aide #développement #Fondation_Gates #agriculture

The Scramble for Africa Lives on in the 21st Century | Afrikan Post
▻http://afrikanpost.com/?p=2303

The food price spikes of 2007/8 showed just vulnerability of food importing nations in supporting its population. The Fluctuating fuel prices in the period 2007–09, urged companies to acquire land for the production of agro fuel or biofuel crops. The meltdown in international financial markets in late 2009 and subsequent recession caused investors to seek to invest in the more tangible asset of farmland, with the aim of having secure investment considering the rising demand for food and fuel.

Another reason why Africa’s land is being prone to grabbing is because the land is considered as cheap and almost free with governments willingly signing off these lands to buyers at highly insignificant commercial rates; again, with disregard to communities and individuals who own these lands.

Many of these land deals involve renewable leases for periods ranging from twenty-five to ninety-nine years, in return for small payments made to national, provincial or local government authorities. Sometimes once-off compensation for locals is included with promises of jobs. Yet after the land is acquired, enforcement of promises made remain a challenge, especially as investors’ choices about how and how much to invest are framed by factors far outside the control of host governments. A good example is the situation in Cameroon where Herackles Farms, a New York based investment firm is said to have acquired 73,000 hectares of land for palm oil production in the South West region of Cameroon in 2012 (according to a report by the Oakland Institute). However, according to the presidential decree granting Herackles this land, the company was expected to develop social facilities such as community schools, hospitals, health clinics, conduct environmental and social impact assessments in the new concession and pay land rents as stated in the presidential decree of November 2013. None of these were ever done as confirmed by SEFE (Struggle to Economize Future Environment) an organisation which has been investigating Herackles closely. Yet Herackles has still been operating in the area in clear violation of the laid down conditions in the presidential decree. Unfortunately, no significant action has been taken to address these outstanding issues.

#terres #Afrique

My Home, My Land - An Illustrated Overview of Land Grabbing
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/articles/my-home-my-land-an-illustrated-overview-of-land-grabbing

My Home, My Land is a graphic representation of much of the Oakland Institute’s work on land grabs. Illustrated by the Institute’s Intern Scholar, Abner Hauge, this publication dismantles the many...

My Home My Land
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/my-home-my-land

My Home, My Land is a graphic representation of much of the Oakland Institute’s work on land grabs. Illustrated by the Institute’s Intern Scholar, Abner Hauge, this publication dismantles the many myths promoted by so-called donor countries, development agencies, and corporations about the positive effects of foreign direct investments through large-scale land acquisitions.

Over the past seven years, the Oakland Institute has exposed the actual impact of the land grabs on indigenous, pastoralist, and smallholder farming families around the world. The powerful illustrations of My Home, My Land remind us of the beauty and complexity of the world’s ecosystems and indigenous cultures, and call upon us to take action now to stop exploitative land grabs internationally.

Ma terre, ma vie
▻http://issuu.com/oaklandinstitute/docs/myhomemyland_french?e=16633962/12612290
#terres #agro-industrie #bd

Harry Verhoeven | Why Ethiopia Is Africa’s Next Hegemon | Foreign Affairs

▻http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/143664/harry-verhoeven/africas-next-hegemon

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/files/imagecache/800x/images/Verhoeven_AfricasNewHegemon_1.jpg

In 1991, as the Cold War drew to an end, the only African country that had never been colonized by European imperialists was but a pale reflection of the Great Ethiopia that generations of the kingdom’s monarchs had pursued. A million people lay dead following two decades of civil war. Secessionist movements in the provinces clamored for self-determination. The economy was in tatters, and another catastrophic famine loomed. The world came to associate Ethiopia with images hoards of starving children, and the country’s regional and domestic decline opened questions about its very survival.

#éthiopie

We Say the Land is Not Yours: Breaking the Silence Against Forced Displacement in Ethiopia | oaklandinstitute.org
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/we-say-land-not-yours-breaking-silence-against-forced-displacement

Over the past six years, the Oakland Institute has been at the forefront of exposing the social, economic, and environmental impacts of foreign land grabs in Ethiopia. This work has been based on extensive fieldwork and research on human rights abuses against and forced evictions of indigenous populations in the Lower Omo and Gambella regions; detailed briefs on the impacts of specific land development projects, such as the Saudi Star Rice Farm and the Malaysian Koka plantation in Lower Omo;studies on the intersection between forced evictions and foreign aid by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and the World Bank; and more. These reports have led to numerous media articles, galvanizing public attention towards these issues, and legislative “wins” in the US, including specific language in the 2014 and 2015 Appropriations Bill that ensures US development funds to Ethiopia are not used to support activities that directly or indirectly involve forced evictions in Gambella and lower Omo.

However, human rights abuses resulting from a faulty development strategy adopted by the Ethiopian government with support of the donor countries continue despite these efforts.

▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/Breaking%20the%20Silence.pdf

#Éthiopie #terres #développement #droits_humains #peuples_autochtones

Engineering ethnic conflict: The toll of Ethiopia’s plantation development on the Suri people
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24195-engineering-ethnic-conflict-the-toll-of-ethiopia-s-plantation-de

Today, the Oakland Institute (OI), in collaboration with the Anywaa Survival Organisation (ASO), released Engineering Ethnic Conflict: The Toll of Ethiopia’s Plantation Development on the Suri People, the latest in its series of comprehensive investigative reports about land grabs and forced evictions in Ethiopia. The report uncovers the truth behind a reported massacre of 30 to 50 Suri people in May 2012 near the 30,000-hectare Malaysian-owned Koka plantation. Based on extensive fieldwork, Engineering Ethnic Conflict reveals the destabilizing effects of foreign investment in Southwestern Ethiopia and examines the role of international aid programs in supporting forced evictions in the country.

▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/engineering-ethnic-conflict
#Ethiopie #terres #massacre #paysannerie #pastoralisme #agrobusiness

Press Release: Papua New Guinea Losing Independence: Investigation Blames the Modern Land Grab | oaklandinstitute.org
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release-papua-new-guinea-losing-independence

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the latest known victim in a modern era of land grabs orchestrated by foreign corporations according to an investigative report and a film, On Our Land, released today by the Oakland Institute and the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG). In one of the swiftest and largest land grabs in recent history, close to a third of the country has now been appropriated by foreign companies. Thinly veiled illegal logging operations are destroying the world’s third-largest rainforest and taking away land and heritage from the people of PNG.

On Our Land reveals how the current devastating land grab is happening with the de facto approval of PNG’s government as well as the failure of the country’s prime minister, Peter O’Neill, to act on a government-sponsored inquiry, which revealed a shocking trend of corruption and mismanagement in recent land deals. The tabled report on Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs), the scheme used to free up customary land for so-called productive use, showed that the program had, in the prime minister’s own words, “failed miserably.”

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWoZmq1lYdw

#Papua_New_Guinea losing independence
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/22826-papua-new-guinea-losing-independence

Papua New Guinea (PNG) is the latest known victim in a modern era of land grabs orchestrated by foreign corporations according to an investigative report and a film, On Our Land, released today by the Oakland Institute and the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG). In one of the swiftest and largest land grabs in recent history, close to a third of the country has now been appropriated by foreign companies. Thinly veiled illegal logging operations are destroying the world’s third-largest rainforest and taking away land and heritage from the people of PNG.

On Our Land reveals how the current devastating land grab is happening with the de facto approval of PNG’s government as well as the failure of the country’s prime minister, Peter O’Neill, to act on a government-sponsored inquiry that revealed a shocking trend of corruption and mismanagement in recent land deals. The tabled report on Special Agriculture and Business Leases (SABLs), the scheme used to free up customary land for so-called productive use, showed that the program had, in the prime minister’s own words, “failed miserably.”

On Our Land
▻http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/on-our-land-film-press-kit

http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/sites/oaklandinstitute.org/files/uploads/OnOurLand_6.jpg

Ethiopia’s rights abuses ’being ignored by US and UK aid agencies’ | Global development | guardian.co.uk
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/jul/17/ethiopia-rights-abuses-us-uk-aid-agencies

The UK Department for International Development (DfID) and USAid, the American aid agency, have been accused of ignoring evidence of human rights abuses allegedly linked to their support for a multibillion-dollar social services programme in Ethiopia.

A report published on Wednesday by the US-based thinktank the Oakland Institute details a long list of grievances presented to aid officials from the UK and US by communities in the Lower Omo Valley in southern Ethiopia. They claim they suffered intimidation, beatings, rape, forced evictions and other abuses as a result of the government’s controversial “#villagisation” resettlement programme, which seeks to clear land to make way for commercial investments.

#Ethiopie #terres #agrobusiness #déplacements_forcés

Déplacements forcés Projets Industriel Etats-Unis Afrique Tanzanie Réfugiés

Une firme américaine soupçonnée de vouloir favoriser le déplacement forcé de 160 000 personnes (des réfugiés burundais en Tanzanie) pour un projet industriel

Iowa Firm Accused of Displacing Tanzanians for Profit

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/land-ownership-and-hunger/51777-iowa-firm-accused-of-displacing-tanzanians-for-profit.html?itemi

By Ethan Freedman
IPS
July 11, 2012

According to the Oakland Institute, a project by AgriSol Energy, a major U.S energy company, would displace more than 160,000 Burundian refugees in Tanzania, many of whom are subsistence farmers. The Tanzanian government supports the AgriSol project under an initiative that claims to “promote agricultural development through public-private partnerships.” This partnership is contingent on the government leasing the land to the company for just 25 cents per acre. While AgriSol is expecting to earn approximately 300 million dollars a year from the project, thousands of refugees in Tanzania are losing their lands and livelihoods.

A major U.S. energy company, AgriSol Energy, is accused of engaging in land grabs in Tanzania that would displace more than 160,000 Burundian refugees who have lived there for decades, according to a report by the Oakland Institute, an organisation focused on environmental issues.

An ethics complaint from the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) states that AgriSol is benefiting from the forcible eviction of the refugees, many of whom are subsistence farmers, and leasing the land — as much as 800,000 acres — from the Tanzanian government for 25 cents per acre. “All duty and tax free,” the Iowa CCI adds.

The project could net AgriSol, led by co-founder Bruce Rastetter, as much as 300 million dollars a year, according to the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

Lives on hold
►http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/20763

A new report by the Oakland Institute, Lives on Hold, exposes the consequences of Iowa-based AgriSol Energy LLC’s plans to lease more than 800,000 acres in Tanzania. The project initiated in 2007-2008 has moved forward without public debate or consent, and will evict more than 160,000 long-term residents of Katumba and Mishamo, who remain in the dark over compensation and relocation plans. The AgriSol land deal is a part of Kilimo Kwanza, or Agriculture First, the Tanzanian government’s scheme to promote agricultural development through public-private partnerships.

In June 2011, the Oakland Institute revealed how Iowa-based Bruce Rastetter, CEO of AgriSol Energy, leveraged the involvement of Iowa State University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences to provide legitimacy to this deal. Initially masquerading the project as responsible agricultural investment, the university completely withdrew any support or association with it in February 2012 under growing public pressure. While AgriSol claims to have halted operations in Katumba and Mishamo until the refugees have been relocated, Lives on Hold depicts how the relocation is to be accomplished.

#terres #Tanzanie #agrobusiness #réfugiés