NEVIS Review 20, Section II, Ref # 20.2
July 1, 2013
LAND TO INVESTORS: Large-Scale Land Transfers in
Ethiopia , 2011
By Dessalegn Rahmato
Abstract
Under its program of land
investments, the Ethiopian government has leased out huge tracts of land to
domestic and foreign investors on terms that are highly favorable to both but
particularly to foreign ones. Critical reports on the “bonanza” reaped by foreign
capital have appeared in the world media and the websites of international
activist organizations, and while some of these are based on questionable
evidence, the global attention they have drawn may well be deserved given the
image of the country as a land of poverty and hunger. The lands transferred
are said to be “unused” public lands but include arable, pasture, woodland
and forest, wetlands, water sources and wildlife habitats, and farmers,
pastoralists and minority groups and their communities affected by the
investment program have contested the investments. The government’s stated
objectives are that large-scale investments will benefit the country from
increased foreign earnings, will create employment opportunities, enable the
transfer of technology to small-holders, and provide infrastructure and basic
services to local communities but what is happening at the moment suggests
that many of these objectives will not be met. This study, which is based on
information gathered from field interviews as well as other sources, looks at
the subject from a land rights perspective, with emphasis on the relations of
power between small land-users and their communities on the one hand and the
state on the other. At bottom what is at stake is the land and the resources
on it, and what is being “grabbed” are rights that in most cases belong to
peasant farmers, pastoralists and their communities. In the long run, the
shift of agrarian system from small-scale to large-scale, foreign-dominated
production -which is what the investment program is now doing- will
marginalize small producers, and cause immense damage to local
ecosystems, wildlife habitats and biodiversity.
(Ed's note:DESSALEGN RAHMATO was formerly the Executive Director of the Forum for Social Studies (FSS), an independent policy research institution based in Addis Ababa . Before that he was for many years a senior researcher at the Institute of Development Research, Addis Ababa University. He has published numerous works on land and agrarian issues, food security, rural resettlement, environmental policy, and civil society and democratization. His new book entitled THE PEASANT AND THE STATE : Studies in Agrarian Change in Ethiopia 1950s – 2000s has recently been published"- http://www.dessalegn.info.et/ -------------------------------------------//------------------------------------------------------------- |