Expert: Ethiopia's Gum Resource Rich, Underutilized

People's Daily Online -- Ethiopia is rich in natural gum and gum resin, which could earn the country significant amount of foreign currency, but the resource remains underutilized, a forest resource expert said Tuesday.

"Non-timber products of Ethiopia, including natural gum and gum resin, cover a wide range of multipurpose species and products. However, this resource could not be exploited fully and remain unutilized for various reasons related to ineffective management," said Mulugeta Lemenih, forest resource expert at Wondo Genet Forestry College.

Mulugeta told a forum that poor management and ill practices were playing negatively as far as the country's resource in gum and related products was concerned.

"The ever increasing frequency and intensity of fire and excessive fire wood harvesting, coupled with improper tapping practiced by the locals is seriously damaging the resource base," said the Ethiopian expert.

In addition to the improper tapping by gum collectors and careless wounding of the tree by herders, agricultural land expansions was worsening the situation, according to the expert.

Ethiopia is the biggest exporter of gum followed by Eritrea and Somalia and 90 percent of the world gum market is covered by the three countries, he said.

Apart from the lack of promotion, the major constraints that hinder growth of the gum and gum resin market in Ethiopia, according to Mulugeta, include absence of infrastructure, high production cost, poor quality control, uncontrolled trade, slow process of export transaction.

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Suri, Dizi, Mursi, Me'en, Nyangatom Threatened by Ethiopian National Park

Globaljusticeecology.org -- The Omo National Park in Southern Ethiopia is being taken over by the Dutch conservation organization, African Parks Foundation (APF) and 50,000 tribal people are in danger of being displaced and/or of losing access to their vital subsistence resources.

The 1570 square mile Omo National Park is home to the Suri, Dizi, Mursi, Me'en and Nyangatom tribal peoples. These tribal peoples live in or use nearly the entire park for cultivation and cattle grazing. They have made this land their home for centuries.

The Omo National Park was established in 1966, but its boundaries were never legally established, a process known as gazettement. To pave the way for a management contract between African Parks Foundation and the Ethiopian Federal and Regional Governments, the boundaries were 'demarcated', last year. The demarcation was accomplished by Ethiopian park officials marking rocks at specific points using a GPS, redrawing maps, and persuading tribal people to sign away their land, without compensation, on documents they could not read. This was done in hurried preparation for gazettement.

One Mursi tribal member reported that he “saw the police grab three Mursi people … and force them to sign the paper with their thumbprints.”

The gazettement of the Omo Park will make the Omo peoples illegal squatters on their own land. African Parks Foundation was aware of the way the ‘agreement’ of local people to the park boundaries was obtained, and was asked repeatedly to include a ‘no evictions’ clause in its contract with the government. They went ahead, however, and signed a contract, which makes no mention of the tribal peoples, in November 2005.

Ethiopian government officials said last year that the Mursi would have to move out of the park, and African Parks Foundation says it cannot interfere with the plans of a 'sovereign government'.

People have been evicted from a park African Parks Foundation has taken over, before. In February 2004, APF signed an agreement to manage Nech Sar National Park, near Arba Minch. In November 2004, 463 houses of the Guji people were burned down by Ethiopian park officials and local police, to coerce the Guji to leave their land, inside Nech Sar.

"We usually hear news on the radio even when a single house is burned down by criminals. We hear all different kinds of crimes reported. In our case we lost 463 houses, but it was not reported at all," said one Guji tribal member.

In 2004, ten thousand people of the Guji and Kore tribes were resettled from within Nech Sar to fulfill a contractual agreement between the government and APF that all people would be removed before APF took over management.

“We didn’t want to be involved in the resettlement, so I put a clause in the contract that said we wouldn’t take over the park until the resettlement was completed,” said Paul van Vlissingen.

African Parks Foundation was founded by Paul van Vlissingen, Chairman of the global retail giant Makro Retail and Calor Gas, a liquid petroleum gas distribution company. Rob Walton, Chairman of the board of Wal-Mart, is on the board of African Parks Foundation. The Walton Foundation has donated large sums of money to APF and is listed as one of two major funders to African Parks, along with the US Department of State.

African Parks Foundation manages parks in Zambia, Malawi, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, and Ethiopia and is reportedly looking at managing more. The revenue from these Parks accrues to their projects, and put towards opening more parks. “National Parks must become virtual companies,” Paul van Vlissingen has said and this corporate philosophy for his conservation organization makes sense, with the business tycoon Rob Walton on board.

The environmental impact of this plan could be disastrous, if people, who have managed this land and its wildlife for centuries, are removed. Tribal people have formed this landscape over thousands of years of agricultural and grazing. The most radical change to the ecosystem would be the removal of humans, whom the wild animals have evolved behavior patterns with over millennia. Hungry, angry peoples surrounding the park would be detrimental to the success of the park and to the biodiversity.

If the tribal peoples of the area are removed, there is great risk of both violent conflict with the government and with any tribes whose land they are moved onto. There is no unused land in the area; fights would ensue over too little land for two many people.

"The Ethiopian government should be very worried about the prospects of even more violence if they go ahead with their apparent policy of removal in the Omo … area" said David Turton, a British anthropologist with over 30 years experience working among the Mursi, one of the tribes living in the boundaries of the Omo National Park. "Any attempt to encroach on Mursi territory will ratchet up the existing pressure on resources in the lower Omo area."

Action Alert: What You Can Do

Please send the following letter to:

Rodolfo Stavenhagen UN special Rapporteur for Indigenous people <indigenous@ohchr.org>
and copied to:
African Parks Foundation <fkeyzer@africanparks-conservation.com>
Nick Lapham of African Parks Foundation US <nlapham@africanparksus.org>
The Ethiopia bureau at USAID <pwesner@usaid.gov>
The Zambia bureau at USAID <dgriffiths@usaid.gov>
The Walton Family Foundation Fax: (479) 464-1580
Native Solutions to Conservation Refugees <hurd@hailmail.net>

Dear Rodolfo Stavenhagen,

I would like to express my concern for the 50,000 tribal people of the Suri, Dizi, Mursi, Me’en and Nyangatom groups of southwest Ethiopia, who will soon become illegal squatters on the land they have occupied for centuries. They are in danger of being displaced from these lands. The process of legalizing the boundaries of the Omo National Park has been done by persuading, and sometimes forcing, tribal people to sign away their land rights on documents they could not read, without compensation. This is illegal by article 17.3 of ILO convention 169. I ask that this be taken up with African Parks Foundation of the Netherlands who has signed an agreement to manage the Omo National Park. The Netherlands is a signature of the convention.

This threat is all the more imminent, for in 2004, more than 10,000 tribal people were displaced from Nech Sar National Park, another park African Parks Foundation signed on to manage, in Ethiopia.

I note that African Parks Foundation has received funding from the US Department of State, through USAID, and is being considered for more funding for its parks in Africa. They will most likely ask for funding for these Ethiopian Parks in the future.

Most Sincerely,

***

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Many Hands Sowed Seeds of Africa's Failure

Africans Absent from Key Biosafety Talks

Tewolde Egziabher says "quite a few" African delegates are absent

SciDev.Net -- Many African countries are absent from this week's international Biosafety Protocol meeting in Brazil because they cannot afford to send their delegates to it, with major implications for the meeting's outcome for all developing countries.

"There just weren't enough [financial] pledges in" from developed donor countries, said a delegate from Namibia who wished to remain anonymous. "There were more [pledges] on Sunday but… it was too late."

"I have not seen my fellow delegates from Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Swaziland or Morocco," he added.

The meeting, which began on Monday, is the third of countries that are parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, a global agreement that seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by genetically modified (GM) organisms.

The gathering will be followed by a larger and equally significant meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) from 20 to 31 March.

But developed countries have failed to stump up the cash in time to ensure full participation by developing countries, although they are expected to do so under article 28 of the Biosafety Protocol.

Ensuring a full house is considered necessary under the Protocol for the consensus decision-making process to receive adequate credence.

However, eminent Ethiopian environmental scientist and leader of the African group, Tewolde Egziabher, said: "Quite a few of the African group haven't turned up."

In an urgent letter to donors and developed countries on 3 March, Ahmed Djoghlaf, head of the CBD Secretariat, expressed "concerns about the lack of adequate financial resources for the participation of all developing countries" to CBD meetings.

At the time just over half the expected money had come in, leaving a US$350,000 shortfall.

A number of participants warned that slow disbursement of funds from donor countries could influence the proceedings in Curitiba.

"Some may arrive next week as there was more money pledged for biodiversity — which developed countries have an interest in," said one delegate. "By then the important decisions on GM labelling will have been made."

The Liability and Redress Working Group is a case in point with delegates from Venezuela, Cameroon and Ethiopia highlighting poor attendance, leading to a stalled timetable towards progress on this tricky topic.

Speaking at the plenary session on Tuesday (14 March), they complained about the lack of funding under article 28 — a point noted by Malaysia's Fatima Raya Nasron, who presided over the session.

Who is liable for harmful GM contamination, should it arise, and who should pick up the bill for potentially costly compensation are issues that remain contentious at negotiations on the Protocol.

The funding issue has also led participants to speculate about wider implications of the costs involved for full implementation of all the provisions of the protocol. Building the capacities of developing countries for labelling, packaging, testing, policing and a host of other issues will need to be paid for.

Governments promoting GM have fought hard to avoid responsibility for these extra costs. They argue instead that if importers are concerned about GM material entering their country they should be prepared to pay for that information.

With the GM industry also refusing to pick up the tab, some delegates said it appears likely that the cost will have to be borne by developing country taxpayers.

Another controversial topic that could figure in the CBD meeting is the current de-facto moratorium on what is commonly known as 'terminator technology'. This GM technique is designed to make seeds infertile after their first harvest to prevent sharing and re-use by farmers.

As many farmers in developing countries depend on seed sharing, it could potentially have a major long-term impact on their livelihoods. There are also safety implications should the terminator genes spread into the natural environment and render other plants infertile.

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Time for Ethiopian Immigrants to Reconsider Alliance with Democrats

Pacific News Service -- The Ethiopian immigrant community in the United States has been protesting the mass detentions and killings of unarmed civilians by the Ethiopian Regime in the continuing post-election violence.

Ethiopians have mounted a concerted political initiative - holding a series of demonstrations in major cities, writing and calling elected representatives and the Bush administration to make them aware of the atrocities. We have repeatedly requested the suspension of the hundreds of millions of aid dollars for the Ethiopian regime. The money the U.S. gives the regime in Ethiopia in the guise of fighting terrorism is being used to gun down Ethiopians and extend the life of an autocratic regime rejected by the people of Ethiopia in the May 2005 elections.

The result of these efforts have been mixed. The White House and the State Department have ignored the plea from the Ethiopian immigrant community.

On the other hand, many Republican legislators have responded positively or have been willing to listen to their constituents.

Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operation, Republican Congressman Chris Smith has authored the Ethiopia Consolidation Act or HR4423. If it passes, the bill will hold the government of Ethiopia accountable for the billions of aid money by tying aid to commitment to democracy and the rule of law. The bill has wide support among House Republicans.

In contrast, the response from Democratic members of the Subcommittee on Africa has been disappointing.

Some members like Congressman Donald Payne, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee have shown outright hostility towards the bill. HR4423 was withdrawn at the last minute from its Feb. 28 markup date because of lack of support from the Democrats. Congressman Payne claimed at the last minute that the bill required more discussion and it was withdrawn.

Considered to be an expert on Sub-Sahara Africa, Congressman Payne has refused to meet with his Ethiopian-American constituents in the New Jersey area.

Ethiopian constituents have similarly failed in attempts to gain the support of key Democrats on the subcommittee including Congresswomen Diane Watson and Barbara Lee.

The Ethiopian Government is spending millions on five large lobby groups and public relations firms. Is this lobbying bearing fruit in the foot dragging of the Democrats in the subcommittee on Africa?

The spending of millions of dollars for high powered lobbyists by a poverty stricken country like Ethiopia whose national budget is supplemented by Western nations is in itself astonishing.

The performance of the Ethiopian Caucus (all Democrats) needs to be scrutinized as well. What is the position of the Ethiopian Caucus on HR4423 and on the atrocities that have been committed in Ethiopia after the aftermath of the May 2005 election?

What about members of the Black Caucus? Why were the Democrats, and members of the Subcommittee, Ethiopian Caucus, and Black Caucus, not present at any of the demonstrations staged in Washington D.C. and all over the United States?

Democrats, who claim to be the party of the people, and speak for the down trodden and oppressed, should have stood alongside their constituents. Renowned civil right leaders like Dr. Joseph Lowery of the People's Agenda were present and condemned the injustice being perpetrated against the people of Ethiopia.

The Ethiopian immigrant community has to show its strength during the upcoming mid-term and 2008 elections. The estimated half a million or so Ethiopian immigrants have been increasingly naturalized as U.S. citizens in the last decade. Every remaining eligible Ethiopian immigrant has to consider naturalizing to be able to vote in the upcoming elections. Naturalized Ethiopian immigrants have to seriously reconsider their natural alliance with the Democratic Party and register as independents, and ensure that they vote for those, be it Republican or Democrat, who have shown a track record of listening to their constituents.

In addition to voting, Ethiopian immigrants must be active participants in the upcoming midterm and 2008 elections by working in the campaigns of candidates that are willing to listen to their constituents. The community needs to participate in get-out-the-vote drives, volunteer to work on phone banks, etc.

It is time that the Ethiopian immigrant community is taken seriously by the political establishment in the United States. The only way it will be taken into account as a viable community is when it gets respect as a community. The Ethiopian immigrant community can earn this respect by getting involved in the U.S. political process in such a way that its voice will have an impact.

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Nnegest Likké: Hollywood Filmmaker Bridges the Cultural Gap

The African Tribune -- If the late, Ethiopian freedom fighter Dr. Senay Likké could see his daughter now, he would be so proud.

Following in her father’s revolutionary footsteps, Nnegest Likké is fighting a revolution of her own. But there are no guns. This revolution is being fought on the big screen, right in Hollywood's front yard.

For those not in the political know, Dr. Senay Likké was an African martyr who gave his life fighting for peace and social/economic equality in Ethiopia in the late 1970’s. To many Africans, he was a hero. And like father like daughter, Nnegest is well on her way to becoming the same. So, be on the lookout for Nnegest to bust the doors of Hollywood wide open.

Nnegest's first film, Phat Girlz, a movie which she wrote and directed, is due in theaters nationwide on April 7th. Starring the well-known, plus size (and proud of it) comedienne Mo’Nique (The Parkers, Queens of Comedy), Phat Girlz is the comedic love story between a plus size African American woman struggling with self esteem issues, and a handsome Nigerian doctor who comes from a culture where bigger is so much better and weight is equated with wealth.

“It is rare to see a film that so cleverly bridges the gap between traditional African culture and African American culture,” says Fisiha Likké, Nnegest’s first cousin, a mural artist who immigrated to the U.S. from Addis Ababa in 1994.

Born and raised in Oakland, California but having spent a significant amount of time as a child with her father’s family in Ethiopia, Nnegest is intimately familiar with both sides of the cultural coin.

“On one side I am wholly African American. But flip me over and I am wholly African,” Nnegest says.

This young filmmaker's unique, twofold bird's-eye is what lends her work its cultural authenticity.

“Many times Africans are depicted on the big screen in unauthentic ways. We are portrayed as savages and uncivilized, and as a filmmaker who knows the truth about us, I feel I have a responsibility to set the record straight.”

Typically in American films, it is the Africans who have something to learn, but in this laugh out loud, romantic adventure, it is refreshingly the African who is the hero.

Nestling somewhere between Hollywood and Nollywood, this movie is a MUST SEE for all people of the African Disapora believes the film’s Haitian born co-star Jimmy Jean-Louis. “Though the main character’s love interest is from Nigeria, West Africa, the story will make all Africans feel proud to be from Africa.”

With her first feature film now securely under her belt, Nnegest can finally breathe a sigh of relief and begin to talk about what she’s experienced in the past 3 years.

Convincing a major movie studio to say "yes" to distributing her film was no easy feat. Luckily, unlike most young filmmakers who give up on their dreams when no financial support is forthcoming, Nnegest endured.

“It seemed like the journey was never ending,” Nnegest says. “But you can’t think about how hard it is while you’re in it or you’ll get overwhelmed. You just gotta keep pushing forward till one day you wake up and your movie’s in the can.”

The film's associate producer Timothy Mapfumo agrees: “There was a new fire to put out everyday. Then when we would finally get one under control, two more would pop up some place else. It was a constant raging wildfire.”

A lack of money, says Nnegest was a constant source of frustration. “By Hollywood standards, I had no budget. So in order to get this movie finished, I had to shoot it Gorilla style. That means stealing shots, working illegally without permits, and begging, borrowing and bartering to get equipment.”

Nnegest likens gorilla filmmaking to being in a war. “It’s a daily battle and you are only as good as your army.”

Shooting Phat Girlz independently with very little cash flow, a skeleton crew and extremely limited resources, Nnegest faced incredible odds and many thought she wouldn’t succeed.

She attributes her tenacity to the blood running through her veins. “I had to adapt my father’s fighting spirit,” Nnegest says. “There were many, many roadblocks along the way and none of them voluntarily got up and moved for me. If I was going to make it to the finish line, I had to pick them up and throw them out of the way.”

Nnegest made it to the finish line last September when Fox Searchlight, an arm of Fox Studios screened Phat Girlz before a test audience and the scores were through the roof.

“The audience loved it!” beamed Mapfumo. “Because it was something they had never seen before.”

Some even deemed the film Oscar worthy. Seizing the opportunity, Searchlight immediately scooped up the distribution rights and put it on their wide release schedule.

To say it was a challenge getting to this point -- where Nnegest Likké could finally kick back and wait for her film to hit theaters--is an understatement. Some days she thought she could not go on. Like the day she got the dreaded call that her close friend and mentor, the film’s sole investor, Bobby Newmyer had dropped dead of a heart attack. "I almost quit that day...But then I knew I had to go on for him" Nnegest remembers.

Bobby Newmyer, the well-known Hollywood producer of popular films such as Training Day, starring Denzel Washington and The Santa Clause I, II & III, believed so much in the story and Nnegest’s talent as a writer that he gave her the opportunity to direct it. Then when no studio or outside investor would step in to fund the film, Newmyer decided to take the financial risk upon himself and mortgaged his house.

“He was my hero and real life angel,” Nnegest says of Newmyer. “His spirit will live within me and my work forever.”

When faced with tragedy and trials, Nnegest knows all too well where to turn. “I turn to God, my one true power source who always pulls me through.” She also turns to good friends like Ethiopian publisher and journalist Elias Wondimu who Nnegest says has been supportive of her every step of the way offering advice and encouragement from the start of the project.

The fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree believes Wondimu who recognizes many similarities between Nnegest and her father, Dr. Likké. “They have a lot in common because they are cut from the same cloth.”

When asked where she gets her inspiration from, Nnegest says it's from her humble upbringing. “I never had anything growing up. I saw both sides of my people struggling to make ends meet. In America, where I grew up in a single parent household I lived in the ghetto, and in Africa I saw severe poverty everywhere and I knew I had to do something to make a difference.”

Nnegest admires several people: her mother because of , “her humanitarian spirit”, Bobby Newmyer because “he took a chance on the little man,” and many of her good friends like Elias Wondimu because of his “devotion to the cause of educating and enlightening African people around the world.”

Professionally speaking, Nnegest aspires to be in the company of Oprah Winfrey, Spike Lee, and Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima.

When Nnegest is not cooking up a new story idea, she finds time to be active in the community.

As an advisory board member of The Nollywood Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes contemporary African films, she plans to share her arduous journey and useful lessons from Hollywood. Dr. Sylvester Ogbechie, co-founder and Director of The Foundation, sees Nnegest’s film--Phat Girlz--as a major achievement whose effort to promote dialogue between Hollywood and African Cinema is timely.

Next on her plate is time-out to spend quality time with both sides of her family. That includes traveling to Ethiopia to see her grandmother.

But not until after the fanfare.

“I hope all Africans and African Americans will mark April 7th on their calendars and get out to the box office to support Phat Girlz."

While audiences are having a ball, (and hopefully casting ballots that will win her a measure of notoriety), Nnegest wants viewers to remember the spirit behind the film, her father, and the determination it took to get this project to the big screen.