Ethiopian President Concerned by Lease of Forest to Indian Firm

Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Ethiopian President Girma Woldegiorgis and the country’s environmental regulator have both written to the Agriculture Ministry expressing concern over the sale of forestry land to foreign agricultural companies.

“Whilst our country is representing Africa in international panels regarding global warming through our Prime Minister, for no reason should forest land be given out for agricultural purposes,” Girma wrote in a note dated Dec. 10 and published on the Ethiopian Review website on Jan. 31.

The comments were in response to the lease of 3,012 hectares (7,443 acres) of forest in the Gambella region to New Delhi-based Verdanta Harvests Plc on April 21. The land will initially be used to grow tea.

Prime Minister Meles Zenawi headed Africa’s negotiating team at the December 2009 Copenhagen climate summit where rich nations pledged to give the developing world $30 billion by 2012. The money will partly be used for reforestation projects that trap carbon dioxide. Ethiopia has also undertaken a reforestation campaign over the last decade that took forest coverage back up to 9 percent of the country’s land area, the Agriculture Ministry said in July.Read More