Oromian Economist

Government Corruption, the Exploitation of Indigenous People and Environmental Disasters: The Case of Yayo Oromia Deforestation May 2, 2013

While the devastating effects of Abyssinian Ethiopian past and the present TPLF governmental corruption have certainly been  not limited to the people of Oromia,  as they making the most resourceful land and the largest society,they have been among the  most intensely affected and cruely divastated. The government corruption has been manifested  not just by the conquest, militarism and the assertion of power over the people of Oromia,   but actions that are dishonest in the context of  legal system, under its own rules or under international law.This corruption is characterized by illegal exploitation of land, natural resources, labor of the people, land grabbing, evictions and mass killings of the  Oromo people. This happens either directly by the brutal actions of  the government army, governmental officials or by these officials’ tacit acceptance of such actions  by its private agents. The case now in point is the  on going destruction  of Yayo Arabica coffee forest in the name of development. Research studies indicate that the forest ecosystem of Yayo Oromia is endowed with a variety of plant species. The most common are Hambabessa (Albizia gummifera) Waddessa (Cordia africana), Qararoo (Aningeria adolfi friedertel), Hogda (Ficus varta), Sondi (acacia lahai), and Alale (Albizia grand ibracteata). Hence, the vegetation diversity of Yayo forest is very important for the genetic conservation of Coffea arabica and rare plant species.Apart from Coffea arabica, the Yayo forest is a habitat for different species of animals among which arboreal and species of bird are the most dominant. Anubus baboon (Jaldessaa), colobus monkey (weenni), vervet monkey (qamalee), porcupine (xaddee), fox (waango), hyena (waraabessa), bush buck (bosonuu), duiker (quruphee), birazas monkey (chena’a), several cats (Iyyanii), ant-eater (awaal diigessa, leopard (qeeransa) and bat (simbiro halkanii), are also among the wild animals living in the Yayo forest. Very small numbers of big wild animals such as lion (leenca), buffalo (gafarsa), bush pig (booyyee), and warthog (karkarro) also exist in Gabba-Dogi forest. http://hss.ulb.uni-bonn.de/2010/2160/2160.pdf

“Yayo Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, which is found in the Iluu Abbaa Booraa region in Oromia. The Yayu forest is one of the last remaining rainforest systems in Oromia in particular, and the Horn of Africa in general. The Yayu forest is the center of the origin for the most popular coffee in the world, coffee arabica, which has been growing wildly in the Yayu and adjacent forests for centuries. Due to its ecological signification, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) selected the Yayu forest system as one of its 610 biosphere reserves in the world inJune 2010 together with the Kafa forest system, which is located adjacent to Yayu, and from which the name “coffee” is said to have come from.Today in Yayu, instead of conservation and sustainable development activities, what have dotted the landscapes of this UNESCO-registered forest system are bulldozers to make way for a “fertilizer” factory in the middle of the ecological reserve. The regime of TPLF, which has been militarily occupying Oromia since 1991, says it is building the factory in Yayu since the area has some reserves of coal, from which the fertilizer is to be manufactured. Over the last 21 years, TPLF (the neo-Neftegna group in power) has used “development” and “investment” as reasons for grabbing land in Oromia. In this propaganda video made by TPLF, it boasts of grabbing farmland from Oromo farmers and bulldozing inside the UNESCO-registered biosphere reserve to “construct,” what it calls, a fertilizer factory, which will result in severe environmental consequences to one of the last remaining montane rainforests in Oromia and the Horn of Africa.”http://gadaa.com/oduu/19534/2013/04/24/deforestation-and-land-grabbing-by-the-neo-neftegna-tplf-in-the-unesco-registered-yayu-coffee-forest-biosphere-reserve-illuu-abbaa-booraa-western-oromia/

http://qeerroo.org/2013/05/03/development-and-investment-as-reason-for-land-grabbing/

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