01/03/2005

Locals "Evicted" By Ethiopian Tourism Project
Addis Tribune (Addis Ababa)

As tourist facilities have been developed in southern Ethiopia's Nechasar National Park, local residents have been forcibly evicted without any compensation, a new report says. The park is managed by a Dutch foundation, which is developing eco-tourism facilities. The foundation claims relocations were "negotiated" and voluntary.

The lush grasslands of the Nechasar National Park in southern Ethiopia are a wildlife paradise, but the thatched huts of the people who formerly lived on this land are empty. A reported two thousand families have been compelled to leave their homes and relocate outside the boundaries of the park to accommodate the development of the park by the Dutch African Parks Foundation.

The US-based organisation Refugees International (RI) last week issued a report highly critical of the management of the Ethiopian park. Visiting Nechasar, the group had met a number of local people who said that they had been forced off their land earlier this year so that the park can be fenced and tourist facilities developed.

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