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.
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