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**Update: African Parks Foundation withdraws from Ethiopia**
       read the African Parks withdrawal statement

Evictions from Nech Sar National Park

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Over 9,000 people, both Kore and Guji-Oromo, have been placed under threat of forced eviction from the Nech Sar National Park in the Great Rift Valley of Ethiopia.

The Government claims to have allocated land outside of the Park to 1,800 of the Kore, a farming people, through their incorporation into its resettlement program.  The whereabouts of the remaining 2,000 Kore people is still unknown.  No compensation was paid for lost property or crops.  The Kore traditionally lived outside of the Park but cultivated within it.

The approximately 5,500 Guji-Oromo, a semi-nomadic pastoral people, have been harassed and a number chased from the Park.  In November 2004, 463 of their  houses were burned down, with all their possessions still in them, by Ethiopian park officials and local police.  They received no compensation for loss of property.

"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 member.

Despite this harassment the majority of the over 5,000 Guji-Oromo remain inside the Park, pushed to two small corners. Only 420 Guji-Oromo have been given land and support elsewhere.

This was all done to fulfill a contractual agreement signed between the Government of Ethiopia and the African Parks Foundation, established by Paul van Vlissingen, following the signing of a management contract in March 2003.  African Parks Foundation stipulated that all the people would have to be removed before they would take over the management of the Park.
 
“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 van Vlissingen in a recent interview.

Links:
 Ethiopia: Local People Burned Out of Homes to Make Way for National Park April 19, 2005

Ethiopia: the Human Cost of Tourism Dollars April 19, 2005

African Parks Foundation's Statement on Nech Sar

Refugees International Bulletin Ethiopia: The Struggle for Food Security, November 30, 2004

Here are, a letter from Refugees International to African Parks Foundation regarding Nech Sar and the reply from African parks Foundation.
This a recommended read, especially the reply.
Letter from the President of the Refugees International to African Parks Foundation- November 29, 2004
Reply from the African Parks Foundation to the President of Refugees International, December 1, 2004


Letter from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ethiopia to Refugees International, December 30, 2004 

Nech Sar National Park – Illegal Fishing 23 October, 2005

Nech Sar in the news

"In 2004, about 2,000 families were forced to leave their homes in the grasslands of the Nechasar National Park in southern Ethiopia. They said they received no compensation from the park, which is being developed by the African Parks Foundation of the Netherlands in cooperation with the government ..."
Washington Post: Cheetahs Find Rare Refuge amid Poverty of Ethiopia - January 6, 2006

"As tourist facilities have been developed in southern Ethiopia's Nechasar National Park, local residents have been forcibly evicted without any compensation . . ."
Addis Tribune: Locals "Evicted" by Ethiopian Tourism project - January 3rd, 2005

"Last year, some 5000 people from the Kore tribe were escorted from their thatched huts in Nechisar and dumped onto distant land owned by other rural communities. No compensation, no nothing. The Guji-Oromo tribe and their 20,000 cattle are also being targeted: in January there were reports of huts being burnt. ... 
If this were at the behest of the Ethiopian government alone, it would be bad enough. But the expulsions reached a peak in the weeks before the handover of the park in February to the African Parks Foundation... "
New Scientist: Big Game Losers, April 16th, 2005

"This is Nechisar national park. The government had told us that it was going to resettle the Kore and Guji tribes outside the park. It was a political decision, and there was European Union support for it. We said that we could work with people in the park, as we do in Zambia, but they said no. 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." - Paul Van Vlissingen
New Scientist: Laird of Africa, Interview with Paul van Vlissingen August 13th, 2005