The Ethiopian Land Giveaway

By Graham Peebles

It is a colonial phenomenon, appropriate land for the needs of the
colonists and to hell with those living upon the land, indigenous and at
home. Might is right, military or indeed economic. The power of the dollar
rules supreme in a world built upon the acquisition of the material, the
perpetuation of desire and the entrapment of the human spirit.

Africa has for long been the object of western domination, control and
usury, under the British, French, and Portuguese of old. Now the ‘new
rulers of the World’ large corporations from America, China, Japan, Middle
Eastern States, India and Europe, are engaged in extensive land
acquisitions in developing countries. The vast majority of available land
is in Sub-Saharan Africa where, according to The United Nations Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues report, ‘The Growing demand for Land, Risks and
Opportunities for Smallholder Farmers’  “80 per cent (of worldwide land)
–about 2 billion hectares that is potentially available for expanded
rain-fed crop production” is thought to be. Huge industrial agricultural
centres are being created, off shore farms, producing crops for the
investors home market. Indigenous people, subsistence farmers and
pastoralists are forced off the land, the natural environment is levelled,
purging the land of wildlife and destroying small rural communities, that
have lived, worked and cared for the land for centuries. The numbers of
people potentially affected by the land grab and its impact on the
environment is staggering. The UN in it’s report states “By 2020, an
estimated 135 million people may be driven from their land as a result of
soil degradation, with 60 million in sub-Saharan Africa alone.”

This contemporary ‘Land Grab’ has come about as a result of food shortages,
the financial meltdown in 2008 and in light of the United Nations world
population forecast of 9.2 billion people by 2050, and three main resulting
pressures. 1. Food insecure nations – particularly Middle Eastern and Asian
countries, seeking to stabilise their food supply. 2. To meet the growing
worldwide demand for agro-fuels and thirdly, by the rise in investment in
land and soft commodities, such as coffee, cocoa, sugar, corn, wheat, soya
and fruit. Often investors are simply speculators seeking to make a fast or
indeed slow buck, by ‘Land Banking’, sitting on the asset waiting and
watching for the price to inflate, then selling, the Oakland Institute in
its report ‘The Great land Grab’ found  “along with hedge funds and
speculators, some public universities and pension funds are among those in
on the land rush, eyeing returns of 20 to as much as 40%”. Land not as
home, land as a chip, to be thrown upon the international gambling table of
commercialisation.

*Chopping trees cutting Costs*



As well we know everything and indeed everyone ‘has its price’. Even the
people and land of a country, sold into destitution by governments
motivated by distorted notions of development, where people, traditional
lifestyles and the environment come a distant second to roads,
industrialisation and the raping of the land.  People too poor to hold on
to their dignity, too weak in a world built and run on power and might, to
protest and demand justice for themselves and their families and rounded,
responsible husbandry for the environment. And the price of land, well as
one would expect bargain basement, with 99 year leases the norm and various
government incentive packages. In some cases the land is literally being
given away, as the Oakland Institute (OI) states in its report ‘The Great
land Grab’ “In Mali one investment group was able to secure 1000,000
hectares (ha) of fertile land for a 50 year term for free. Elsewhere “$2.00
a hectare (roughly equal to two Olympic size athletic grounds) is the going
rate.” According to The Guardian (21/3/2011) “The lowest prices are in
Africa, where, says the World Bank, at least 35 million hectares of land
has been bought or leased. Other groups, including, Friends of the Earth
say the figure is higher.”



*Ethiopia. For sale*



The Ethiopian government, through the Agricultural Investment Support
Directorate is at the forefront of this African Land Sale. Crops familiar
to the area are often grown, such as maize, sesame, sorghum, in addition to
wheat and rice. All let us state clearly for export to Saudi Arabia, India,
China etc, to be sold within the home market, benefitting the people of
Ethiopia not.



The Oakland Institute research “shows that at least 3,619,509ha of land (an
area just smaller than Belgium) have been transferred to investors,
although the actual number may be higher.” The government claims that the
land available for lease is unused and surplus, this is disingenuous
nonsense. Large areas of land are in fact already cultivated by
smallholders subsistence farmers and pastoralists using land for grazing,
all of which are un-ceremonially evicted. Villages are destroyed and
indigenous people expelled from their homeland and forced into large scale
villagization programmes. Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its report ‘Waiting
Here For Death’ states, “The Ethiopian federal government’s current
villagization program is occurring in four regions—Gambella,
Benishangul-Gumuz, Somali, and Afar. This involves the resettlement of
approximately 1.5 million people throughout the lowland areas of the
country—500,000 in Somali region, 500,000 in Afar region, 225,000 in
Benishangul-Gumuz and 225,000 in Gambella.” Imposed movement then, often
applied with force, in order to provide pristine land, free of any
inconveniences to the corporate allies.



*Level growing field*



There are five areas of prime, fertile land up for grabs. Gambella is the
largest where unbelievably *a third* of the region (around 800,000
hectares) is available. Indian corporations have already snapped up 352,000
hectares (ha) and around 900 foreign investors have so far taken advantage
of this giveaway. Afar, The Southern Nations Nationalities and Peoples
Region, where 200,000 hectares has been leased or sold, Oromia, where three
Indian companies have leased a total of 138,000 ha and Amhara, make up the
reduced to clear rail.



With the land grab crucially goes water – and the appropriation of this
vital resource, both surface and ground water. Investors are allowed to do
what they will with the land they lease, this includes diverting rivers,
digging canals from existing water sources, building dams and drilling bore
holes. The Oakland Institute in its report ‘Land Investment in Ethiopia
quotes Saudi Star stating “that water will be their biggest issue, and
numerous plans are being established (including the construction of 30 km
of cement-lined canals and another dam on the Alwero River).” There are no
controls imposed on foreign corporations whatsoever and no payment
structure for ‘appropriating’ water is in place. These politically favoured
investors are being offered carte blanche. Water supplies in Ethiopia are
poor, even in the capital, where irregular mains flow is common in many
neighbourhoods. There is water galore 90% of the Nile e.g. flows through
Ethiopia, distribution though is inconsistent, maintained to be so some
say, the people drained, exhausted and kept firmly in their place.



In Gambella the government in 2011 offered huge areas of land to
Bangalore-based food company Karuturi Global for the equivalent of $1.16
per hectare, to lease more than 2,500 sq. km (1,000 sq. miles) of virgin,
fertile land for more than 50 years. This cost compared to an average rate
of $340 per ha in the Punjab district of India, no wonder then that the CEO
of Karuturi described “the incentives available to the floriculture
industry in Ethiopia as “mouthwatering,” including low air freights on the
state-owned Ethiopian airlines, tax holidays, hassle-free entry into the
industry at very low lease rates, tax holidays, and lack of duties,"
reports Oakland in its Ethiopia report. Up to 60,000 workers will be
employed by Karuturi, who are paying local people less than $1 a day, which
is well below the level of extreme poverty set by the World bank. The
company will cultivate according to The Guardian 21st March 2011 “20,000
hectares of oil palm, 15,000 hectares of sugar cane and 40,000 hectares of
rice, edible oils and maize and cotton… “We could feed a nation here”, says
Karmjeet Sekhon, Karuturi project manager. Land and people for a few
rupees, cushioned by a cocktail of sweeteners offered by the Ethiopian
government, allowing the decimation of the environment and the destruction
of lifestyles – generations old. And in a hurry, The Guardian found “the
[land] concessions are being worked [by Karuturi] at a breakneck pace, with
giant tractors and heavy machinery clearing trees, draining swamps and
ploughing the land in time to catch the next growing season. Forests across
hundreds of square km are being clear-felled and burned to the dismay of
locals and environmentalists concerned about the fate of the region's rich
wildlife.”



*Unstable supply of staples*



Around five million people in Ethiopia rely on food aid and live with
constant food insecurity that will only increase under the land grab
bonanza. According to the Oakland Institutes report  “commercial investment
will increase rates of food insecurity in the vicinity of the land
investments” and Open Democracy reports an interview with Ethiopia’s Prime
Minister Meles Zenawi, for the *Financial Times* (7 August 2008), in which
he ‘predicted that “large-scale farming could bring some employment, but
“not much”. It would not solve the problem of food insecurity.”
Intensifying food insecurity is the transfer of vast areas of land used for
the cultivation of traditional staples such as Teff to other crops. This is
largely responsible for costs of Teff (used to make injera – the daily
bread) quadrupling in the last four years. The Guardian (Monday 23 April
2012) reports Friends of the Earth International "The result (of land sell
offs) has often been … people forced off land they have traditionally
farmed for generations, more rural poverty and greater risk of food
shortages" Food security will be realised when local smallholders are
encouraged to farm their land, given financial support, machinery and the
needed technology, as Oxfam in its report ‘Land Power Rights’ points out,
“Small-scale producers, particularly women, can indeed play a crucial role
in poverty reduction and food security. But to do so, they need investment
in infrastructure, markets, processing, storage, extension, and research.”

Keep development small, for, of, and close to the people in need, and see
them flourish.



*Land rights, human cost, environmental damage*



The land rights of the indigenous people of Ethiopia are, as one would
expect somewhat ambiguous. As a legacy of the socialist dictatorship of the
1960s and ‘70s, the government technically owns all land. However
there* is*protection in law for indigenous people. The Ethiopian
constitution Article
40, 3 states “Land is a common property of the Nations, Nationalities and
Peoples of Ethiopia and shall not be subject to sale or to other means of
exchange. And 4) “Ethiopian peasants have right to obtain land without
payment and the protection against eviction from their possession.” And in
regard to pastoralists affected by the land sell off, paragraph 5)
“Ethiopian pastoralists have the right to free land for grazing and
cultivation as well as the right not to be displaced from their own lands.”



The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Ethiopia
signed in 2007, making it a legally binding document, states in Article
26/1. “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and
resources, which they have traditionally owned, occupied or other- wise
used or acquired.” And paragraph 2.”Indigenous peoples have the right to
own, use, develop and control the lands, territories and resources that
they possess by reason of traditional ownership or other traditional
occupation or use, as well as those which they have otherwise acquired.”
The declaration also outlines compensation measures for landowners. Article
28/1. “Indigenous peoples have the right to redress, by means that can
include restitution or, when this is not possible, just, fair and equitable
compensation, for the lands, territories and resources which they have
traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used, and which have been
confiscated, taken, occupied, used or damaged without their free, prior and
informed consent.” Paragraph 2. “Unless otherwise freely agreed upon by the
peoples concerned, compensation shall take the form of lands, territories
and resources 10equal in quality, size and legal status or of monetary
compensation or other appropriate redress.”

The law it would appear is clear, implementation and respect for its
content is required, and should be demanded of the ruling EPRDF by the
donor countries to Ethiopia.



*Land and People*



People are not being consulted or democratically included in the decisions
to transform their homeland. This contravenes the Ethiopian constitution,
that states in Article 92/3. “People have the right to full consultation
and to the expression of views in the planning and implementations of
environmental policies and projects that affect them directly”. Hollow
words to those being evicted from their land, like Omot Ochan a villager,
from the Anuak tribe whose family has lived in the forest near the Baro
river in Gambella for ten generations. Speaking to The Observer Sunday 20
May 2012, he “insisted Saudi Star had no right to be in his forest. The
company had not even told the villagers that it was going to dig a canal
across their land. "Nobody came to tell us what was happening." He goes on
to say "This land belonged to our father. All round here is ours. For two
days' walk." Well that was the case until the Government in their
infallible wisdom leased some 10,000ha to their friend, the Ethiopian born
Saudi Arabian oil multi millionaire, Sheik Al Moudi (In 2011,
*Fortune*magazine put his wealth at more than $12bn) to grow rice for
his Saudi Star
Company. Omot continued, "two years ago, the company began chopping down
the forest and the bees went away. The bees need thick forest. We used to
sell honey. We used to hunt with dogs too. But after the farm came, the
animals here disappeared. Now we only have fish to sell." And with the
company draining the wetlands, the fish will probably be gone soon, too.
Sheik Al Moudi plans to export over a million tonnes of rice a year to
Saudi Arabia. To ease relations with the Meles regime and as The Observer
states “to smooth the wheels of commerce, Amoudi has recruited one of
Zenawi's former ministers, Haile Assegdie, as chief executive of Saudi
Star.”



Traditional land rights for people who have lived on the land in Gamabella
and elsewhere for centuries are being ignored and in a country where all
manner of human rights are routinely violated, legally binding
compensations are not being paid.



Government drafted lease agreements with investors state the Meles regime
will hand over the land free of any ‘encumbrances’ – people and property
that means, anyone living or using the land to graze their livestock or
pastoralists moving through. The Independent 18th January 2012 reports
“Ethiopia is forcing tens of thousands of people off their land so it can
lease it to foreign investors, leaving former landowners destitute and in
some cases starving.” The Government says any movement is voluntary and not
enforced, a clear distortion of the facts. HRW in their report confirms the
government’s criminality “mass displacement to make way for commercial
agriculture in the absence of a proper legal process contravenes Ethiopia’s
constitution and violates the rights of indigenous peoples under
international law.”



A price worth paying it would seem, to the Ethiopian government and those
multi nationals appropriating the land, seeing a market and capitalizing on
the countries need for dollars. Desperate in a world propelled by growth to
maximize the value of every so called asset, even if it means prostituting
the land, sacrificing the native people and destroying the natural
environment.

This article was published at NationofChange at:
http://www.nationofchange.org/ethiopian-land-giveaway-1338992783. All
rights are reserved.


-- 
-Laye
==============================
"With fair speech thou might have thy will,
With it thou might thy self spoil."
--The R.M


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