Press Releases

In yet another exposé of exploitative practices associated with large-scale land acquisitions, the Oakland Institute examines Socfin Agricultural Corporation Sierra Leone (Socfin), controlled by the powerful French corporate titan Vincent Bolloré.

We at the Oakland Institute have read with interest the communiqué from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to our research and resulting reports exposing abuses that people in the Lower Omo Valley, Gambella, and elsewhere in Ethiopia face as a result of large-scale land investments that the Ethiopian Government is promoting. This prompted us to launch a petition to donor countries asking them to take action against forced relocations in Ethiopia. At the same time, we praise the recent move by the Ministry of Agriculture to suspend land allocations for investment purposes to take time for assessment.

Between April 1-4, 2012, hundreds of Sierra Leonean farmers, women, youth, landowners, and elders are coming together—in what will surely be a historic event—to challenge the impact of unbridled foreign land investment, commonly known as “land grabs,” in Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, most of the participants have no resources to cover travel and other costs. To ensure that the poorest have a voice in decision making, the Oakland Institute has pledged to raise $10,000. Please help us make this possible by donating $25, $50, $100, or more if you can.

By Nickolas Johnson, The Oakland Institute More than 1.5 million residents of Ethiopia have begun or will begin relocating away from their ancestral lands in a program called villagization. Ethiopia has a long and controversial history with resettlement, as it was a major element of the Derg’s socialist agricultural policies.

In a turnabout that should remove AgriSol's last shred of credibility as a “responsible investor” in Tanzania, Iowa State University (ISU) announced in a statement on February 10, 2012 that they have withdrawn themselves entirely from ties to AgriSol and the land deal it is planning in Tanzania. From Dean Wintersteen’s statement we learned that the university is tired of spending “much of our time and energy...directed at countering misrepresentations about why and how we were involved.”

The new January 2012 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report about Gambella confirms what the Oakland Institute (OI) and its partner organization, Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia (SMNE), uncovered in several recent reports on Ethiopia, where indigenous people and local communities are being coerced and forcibly moved from their lands to make room for large-scale agricultural plantations. The report criticizes the Ethiopian government policy of forced villagization–the resettling of indigenous people from land that is being leased for commercial agriculture. Many of the estimated 70,000 people being relocated are Anuak pastoralists.

Iowa-based Bruce Rastetter and AgriSol Energy have friends in high places. Why else would the US Ambassador to Tanzania step forward and defend AgriSol's activities in Tanzania with false information?

As a USAID International Engagement Conference for South Sudan gets underway in Washington DC tomorrow and Thursday (Dec. 14 and 15), a new report cautions against foreign land investments that are being promoted as a solution for development in the new nation.

MEDIA CONTACT: Anuradha Mittal, (510) 469-5228, [email protected] The Oakland Institute and Polaris Institute Sound an Alarm for Africa's Water Supply Land Grabs Leave Africa Thirsty www.oaklandinstitute.org/land-deal-brief-land-grabs-leave-africa-thirsty Oakland, CA: In the rush for cheap agricultural land in Africa, access to water is of the utmost importance to investors. The land grab taking place in Africa is accompanied by a major "water grab" that raises serious concerns.

The International Land Coalition, Oakland Institute and Global Witness have been developing a research and dialogue project which aims to identify priorities and opportunities for improving transparency and accountability in decision-making around land-related investments and acquisitions.