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Rights watchdog accuses the World Bank of complicity in rights abuses around Tanzanian national park

AP News

September 28, 2023

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — A rights watchdog is accusing the World Bank of enabling the Tanzanian government’s violent expansion of a national park through financing from the global lender.

The World Bank has failed to hold Tanzanian authorities accountable for serious rights violations, including extrajudicial killings and sexual assaults, relating to the expansion of Ruaha National Park in the south of the East African country, according to a new report by the Oakland Institute.

Investigation launched into killings and evictions on World Bank tourism project

The Guardian

September 28, 2023

The World Bank is investigating allegations of killings, rape and forced evictions made by villagers living near the site of a proposed tourism project it is funding in Tanzania.

The bank has been accused of “enabling” alleged violence by the Tanzanian government to make way for a $150m (£123m) project ministers say will protect the environment and attract more tourists to Ruaha national park.

The “resilient natural resource management for tourism and growth” (Regrow) project will almost double the size of the park, which is 130km (80 miles) from the city of Iringa.

Dams and Plantations Upend Livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo River Valley

Mongabay

May 16, 2023

Food insecurity, famine and malnutrition have blighted the agropastoralist communities of the Lower Omo River Valley in southwestern Ethiopia. Researchers and human rights advocates say the drought has only exacerbated fundamental changes to the cultures of these peoples brought on by the construction of a dam and the establishment of sugarcane plantations in the region.

Carbon Offsets: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

HBO

August 21, 2022

John Oliver explains what carbon offsets are, what they claim to do, how they might be making climate change even worse, and, of course, how Oscar Isaac is getting hotter.

“War and Theft”. Who and Why Is Seizing the Agricultural Lands of Ukraine?

ZN,UA

After the Ukrainian authorities opened the land market in the spring of 2020 and at the same time prevented farmers from building up their muscles by curtailing their financial support programs, it became obvious that the state, developing agriculture, would rely on agricultural holdings according to the Latin American version.
Ukraine Faces an Unhappy Ending Even If It Wins the War with Russia

South China Morning Post

Forget any rebuilding programme such as the Marshall Plan, by then mainly US commercial interests will have carved up agricultural land
Why’s the AfDB siding with the Agrochemical Industrial Complex?

African Arguments

Against the wishes of hundreds of millions of farmers, the bank is backing a model that can push economic dependence, soil depletion and pollution.
Europe’s Breadbasket and the Shock Doctrine

Truthdig

Will ballooning wartime debt allow agribusiness to make a feast of Ukrainian agriculture?
La Guerre en Ukraine, Un Révélateur de la Crise Alimentaire Mondiale

Le Monde

Flambée des prix et perturbations sur les chaînes de production : le conflit a eu des répercussions alimentaires immédiates, suscitant un élan international, mais peu de réponses à long terme.
After Violent Evictions, Indigenous Maasai Call Human Rights Investigation a Sham

Grist

In Tanzania, thousands of Maasai are being removed from their homelands for tourism and conservation.