Deforestation and Land-Grabbing by the Neo-Neftegna (TPLF) in the UNESCO-registered Yayu Coffee Forest Biosphere Reserve, Illuu Abbaa Booraa, Western Oromia

 

April 24, 2013 at 2:43 pm · Gadaa.com

Photo: The Yayu Montane Rainforest System, Iluu Abbaa Booraa region in Oromia

 

Map shows the rainforest systems in Africa

The map on the right side herein shows the approximate location of the UNESCO-registered Yayu* 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.

* In some reports, Yayu is spelled as Yayo.