Press Releases

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--- August 2, 2018 Media Contact:Anuradha Mittal [email protected] +1 510-469-5228 Oakland, CA — Today, the Oakland Institute releases Kuipoteza Serengeti, Ardhi Ya Wamasai Iliyopaswa Kudumu Milele, a Kiswahili translation of the report Losing the Serengeti: The Maasai Land that was to Run Forever.

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--- June 11, 2018 Media Contact: Frédéric Mousseau, the Oakland Institute, [email protected], +1 510-512-5458 (USA) Almuth Ernsting, Biofuelwatch, +44-1316232600 (UK) Nele Marien, Friends of the Earth International, +32-488652153 (Belgium) Oakland — 88 organisations from 35 countries have called on the UN’s International Civil Aviation Agency (ICAO) to ditch plans for aviation biofuels and carbon offsets, as the Agency’s governing body convenes in Montreal to finalise proposals for a controversial “Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme”.

On June 7, the East African Court of Justice will hear a case brought by four Maasai villages against the Tanzanian government for its responsibility in the August 2017 burning of homes, which left tens of thousands of Maasai homeless and livestock displaced.

A partial listing of the media coverage generated by Losing the Serengeti in the first 10 days since its publication.

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--- May 10, 2018 Media Contact:Anuradha Mittal [email protected] +1 510-469-5228 Mercy Albaran [email protected] +1-510-816-0486 In the past year, tens of thousands of Maasai have been left homeless and have faced starvation as their homes were burned and livestock displaced under government orders to preserve ecosystems and attract more tourists.

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--- April 17, 2018 Media Contact: Frédéric Mousseau, [email protected], +1 510-512-5458 Oakland, CA — As government officials from around the globe descend on Washington D.C. this week for the World Bank’s spring meetings, a new brief by the Oakland Institute urges member states to deliver the final blow to the Bank’s ranking programs — the Doing Business Report (DBR) and Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA). The DBR and EBA face a growing crisis of legitimacy and confidence.

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--- April 3, 2018 Media Contacts: Anuradha Mittal, Oakland Institute [email protected] +1 510-469-5228 (PST) Nyikaw Ochalla, Anywaa Survival Organisation [email protected] +44(0)7405972145 (GMT) Oakland, CA — Today, charges against Pastor Omot Agwa, an indigenous land rights defender from the Gambella region of Ethiopia, were finally dropped by an Ethiopian court. In March 2015, Pastor Omot was arrested in Addis Ababa while attempting to travel to Kenya to attend a food security conference.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contacts: Anuradha Mittal, [email protected] Oakland, CA — On February 14, 2018, Mr. Okello Akway Ochalla, an indigenous Anuak leader, Norwegian citizen, and the former Governor of the Gambella region of Ethiopia, was released after being held as a prisoner on trumped up charges in an Ethiopian jail for nearly four years. In March 2014, while visiting relatives in South Sudan, Mr.

Media Contact: Anuradha Mittal [email protected] +1 510-469-5228 OAKLAND, CA — The revelations that led to this week’s resignation of World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer point to flawed methodology and political manipulation in the World Bank’s Doing Business report. Romer admitted that the Doing Business rankings may have been manipulated to make Chile’s economic environment look worse under the sitting socialist president Michelle Bachelet. These revelations add to a long list of concerns that have been raised by civil society in recent years.

Media Contact: Anuradha Mittal [email protected] +1 510-469-5228 Oakland, CA — Until yesterday, the Ethiopian government refused to even acknowledge the presence of scores of political prisoners in the country. Then on January 3, 2018, the government announced that it would release all of its political prisoners and close the notorious Maekelawi police station. The surprise announcement came after years of political suppression that saw the deaths of over 1,000 people and the arrest of over 26,000 in 2016-2017 alone, as well as the imposition of a 10-month state of emergency.