NEWS EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 am EDT DEC. 6,
2011 MEDIA CONTACTS: Liam
O'Donoghue, lodonoghue@fenton.com, (415) 901-0111
Investigation Reveals that Bad Energy and Development Policies
Contribute to Famine and Conflict in Africa
Reports Showcase Bad Energy Policies from US and EU, Expose
Development Approach that Puts Control in Hands of Foreign Investors
Oakland, CA--At the same time that individuals across the US and EU
offer support to victims of famine and conflict in Africa, their
countries' energy policies and development agendas take food and other
resources away from Africans--while also harming the environment.
Research released today by the Oakland Institute demonstrates that
land grabs--largely unregulated land deals involving foreign
corporations and speculators--continue to be promoted as a
"development" solution for African nations. Development agencies
including USAID and the World Bank Group are often the architects of
these deals that promise benefits for Africans but fail to deliver.
Furthermore, the research shows that US and EU energy policies that
tout the benefits of agrofuels and carbon credits--key elements of
these land deals--are actually making climate change a bigger problem.
"The energy policies of these governments--along with the growing
Western market for agrofuels--is harming both the people of Africa and
the environment," Oakland Institute Executive Director Anuradha Mittal
said. "This approach of 'developing' Africa is neither just nor
sustainable. It is displacing people by taking over their land and
natural resources that produce food and provide livelihoods while
making climate change worse."
Mittal noted that people can follow the supply chain to identify the
bad actors--who claim benefits for Africa but seldom deliver: so-
called developers who determine how land will be used (such as Iowa-
based based AgriSol Energy and Texas-based Nile Trading Development),
companies that grow non-food crops on the land (including Sun Biofuels
and Addax Bioenergy), and groups that buy up agrofuels and timber
(including major western airlines such as Lufthansa).
The second phase of the "Understanding Land Investment Deals in
Africa" (www.oaklandinstitute.org/special-investigation-two-land-deals-africa
) report series focuses on these issues as well as the specific
nations of Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Zambia. The reports
expose documents and actors promoting policies behind the deals that:
* Create additional food insecurity: The current trend of large-scale
land investments is taking away land and water from local populations
and transforming valuable grazing land, natural forests, and food-
producing fields into plantations for agrofuels and trees for export.
* Promise jobs but fail to deliver them: A close look at the actual
business plans dismantles the myth of job creation through
agricultural investments in Africa. For instance, Iowa-based Agrisol
claims to be "identifying local farm project managers" for a project
in Tanzania. However, managing director and political powerbroker
Bruce Rastetter has admitted the company plans instead to import white
South African farm managers for this work.
* Tout the promise of agrofuels: Although United Nations officials
have called the widespread agrofuel development in Africa a "crime
against humanity," fertile African lands are being turned into
agrofuel plantations with governments and corporations promoting
agrofuels as a solution to climate change. The United States and the
European Union have set targets to replace 30 percent and 10 percent,
respectively, of their gasoline with agrofuels.
* Create loopholes that help foreign investors but further impoverish
many African nations: Research exposes details of strategic investor
status and Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements that provide
extensive tax holidays, minimal fees for land and water usage, among
other incentives.
"In our research of over 50 land deals in seven African countries, we
did not find the evidence that such investments will provide fair
financial returns for the countries or their populations," Oakland
Institute Policy Director Frederic Mousseau said. "Even the IMF has
said that the generous tax incentives should be minimized since these
tax holidays and other breaks are saddling local governments with more
burdens than benefits."
Previous reports in this series were instrumental in stopping one
shady land deal in Southern Sudan by exposing how corrupt U.S.
investors were trying to enrich themselves through an exploitive
agreement. However, land grabs across the continent continue, despite
widespread opposition.
Environmental impacts also are detailed in the reports and include
problems such as:
* Displacing food crops to grow agrofuels such as jatropha--reducing
the amount of food available and requiring twice the water that cereal
needs to grow.
* Clearing native forests and grassland to replace to replace them
with tree plantations. For example, a Norwegian timber company, Green
Resources Ltd, plans to replace almost 7,000 hectares of natural
Tanzanian grassland with monocultures of pine and eucalyptus.
* Promoting the use of agrofuels, which researchers are now saying
increase, not decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
* Harming lakes and rivers, the lifeblood of many African nations, and
possibly driving them to extinction. Waterways like the Niger River
have decreased by 10 percent in just 10 years. In Ethiopia, the
construction of a large dam and the irrigation of adjacent sugar
plantations will result in Kenya's Lake Turkana, the world's largest
desert lake, to drop by two meters in the first year, increasing
salinity levels, adversely impacting fish stocks, and condemning the
lake to a not-so-slow death.
These reports, as well as briefs on other aspects of land grabs, are
available at www.oaklandinstitute.org/special-investigation-two-land-deals-africa
.
###
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mission is to increase public participation and promote fair debate on
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--
Anuradha Mittal
Executive Director
Mailing Address: The Oakland Institute, P.O. Box 18978, Oakland CA 94619
Physical Address: 4173 MacArthur Blvd., Suite 9, Oakland, CA 94619
Phone: 510-469-5228
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