German company destroys wildlife to help the climate!

The Flora Eco Power Company, headquartered in Munich, Germany operates in Ethiopia, Italy, China and Israel and claims to have a social and environmental agenda – production of biofuels in Ethiopia will not only save the climate but will create jobs… sound good? According to the Ethipian newspaper The Daily Monitor on June 2nd 2007, the company has signed a contract with the Ethipian government to operate in the Oromia region to put up an oil mill and to cultivate 10,000 hectares of castor. It has a 5 year farming contract with East Oromia State administration and the farmer’s association - 700 farmers have signed up to the project, The company says it is committed to managing land resources in an environmentally sensitive manner.

However, the site in question is adjacent to and includes part of the Babile Elephant Sanctuary - home to the only surviving elephant population in the farthest Horn of Africa. This ecologically unique population is being studied by Ethiopian scientists and they know that there are only 300 elephants here and their continued survival is threatened by EcoPower’s activities.
 Though no EIA was conducted, the company started clearing land in June using bulldozers in an area that was earmarked for the elephants migration. 

Now environmentalists and concerned individuals are asking the federal and regional governments to intervene in to stop further clearing and how this apparently illegal action has taken place. They claim that “the regional administrations have violated the county’s wildlife and forest decree and international conventions in cooperating to give the land to the company without making environmental assessments and putting the wildlife in the area in danger”. Read more on the Daily Kos dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/6/12/23326/0137