Press Releases

Oakland, CA — The Return of Erik Prince: Trump’s Knight in America’s New Crusade? a new brief from the Oakland Institute, exposes the comeback of the founder of Blackwater, the notorious private security company. An ardent detractor of Obama/Clinton foreign policy during the presidential campaign, Prince is now set with access to unique assets, to be a key player in Trump’s foreign policy.

Oakland, CA — Ahead of World Bank’s release of the 2017 “Enabling the Business of Agriculture” (EBA) report this month, 157 organizations and academics from around the world denounce the Bank’s scheme to hijack farmers’ right to seeds, attack on food sovereignty and the environment. In a letter to the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and EBA’s five Western donors, the group demands the immediate end of the project, originally requested by the G8 to support its industry-co-opted New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition.

Today, as Trump's cabinet hearings begin on Capitol Hill, the Oakland Institute proudly stands with 50+ progressive organizations in opposing the Trump administration as part of the United Resistance Campaign.

Letter from US Senators Patrick Leahy and Jeff Merkley to Prime Minister Peter O’Neill calling for action to end land grabbing and illegal logging in PNG.

“Given agriculture was absent from the COP21’s Agreement, this renewed attention to the sector should come as good news,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. “Unfortunately, the solutions offered fail to address the key drivers of the climate crisis. Industry-coopted ‘climate smart agriculture,’ which is supposed to help farmers adapt to rising weather shocks, is dependent on fossil fuel-based inputs and fails to uphold small-scale, localized food production. World leaders should stop getting in the way of a radical transformation of our food system, moving away from industrial agriculture to agroecology, which is crucial to tackle climate change.”

As months of protests and civil unrest hurl Ethiopia into a severe political crisis, a new report from the Oakland Institute debunks the myth that Ethiopia is a model economy and the “African Lion.”

Logging camp in Fergusson Island, Milne Bay. Credit: Paul Hilton/Greenpeace. Oakland, CA — Communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG) are celebrating milestone victories against land grabbers. In two separate cases, on August 25 and 30, 2016, PNG’s National and Supreme Court invalidated the lease of customary lands to foreign companies through the controversial Special Agriculture Business Leases (SABLs). The court decisions will return a total of over 150,000 hectares to the landowners in East New Britain and East Sepik provinces.

Oakland, CA—As the Cameroonian government decides whether or not to extend Herakles Farms’ lease for a palm oil plantation this November, a new report by the Oakland Institute reveals how bullying by US government officials may have played a critical role in the initial granting of nearly 20,000 ha in 2013, instead of the cancellation of a clearly flawed project. Herakles Farms made international headlines in 2012 when the company embarked on a plan to deforest over 73,000 ha of pristine rainforest to create a palm oil plantation in southwest Cameroon.

Oakland, CA — Threatened and despaired, a group of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Sri Lanka petitioned the Oakland Institute this year to help them return home. This inspired the Institute’s latest report released today, Waiting to Return Home: Continued Plight of the IDPs in Post-War Sri Lanka.

Oakland, CA—The Unholy Alliance, Five Western Donors Shape a Pro-Corporate Agenda for African Agriculture, a new report released today by the Oakland Institute, exposes how a coalition of four donor countries and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is shaping a pro-business environment in the agricultural sector of developing countries, especially in Africa. “‘Enabling Business’ has become a buzzword for development agencies, but it is vital to understand what this entails,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.