Latest news with #Regrow
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Yahoo
Israeli farmers revive tequila project cut short by Oct 7 attack
Israeli farmers whose dream of producing tequila was cut short by Hamas's October 7 attack have returned to work along the Gaza border, ploughing fields and sowing seeds to bring their land back to life. With artillery fire and explosions booming in the distance, businessman Aviel Leitner and farmer Eran Braverman inspected their field of blue agave, hoping they would one day soon produce the country's first-ever batch of tequila. Planted prior to the war sparked by the unprecedented October 2023 attack on communities in southern Israel, Leitner said the violence and subsequent chaos meant waiting until now to unveil their unique project. "We wanted to very much show that Israeli farmers had returned to the fields, that this war wasn't going to stop them, that there were new crops growing in the Negev and that there is nothing sexier than tequila and mezcal and agave spirits," he told AFP. Leitner said he was inspired to bring the plants to Israel following a family trip to Mexico. For him and Braverman, the survival of the exotic plants -– just like their complex transportation from Mexico to Israel -- is nothing short of a miracle. - Taste of tequila - On October 7, 2023 militants attacked Kibbutz Alumim and other communities around it, burning down barns and greenhouses and destroying irrigation equipment. "We are about four kilometres from the (Gaza) fence and everything from the fence to Alumim was destroyed," recalled Braverman, who said that 22 farm workers from Nepal and Thailand were murdered there, as were three soldiers who died defending the site. "When we heard what happened, we were very scared for the farmers and their families because we had grown close to them. It was very, very traumatic," said Leitner. He was also concerned for his plants. The dry desert conditions and the drip irrigation technology meant the blue agave could survive without much care and somehow, the field was unaffected by the fighting. Now, the two men are counting down the days until the plants are ripe, as Leitner looks for a place to build his tequila distillery. "We're hoping to start manufacturing in early winter 2025 and this will be the first agave spirit manufactured in the land of Israel," Leitner said. - New crops - Danielle Abraham, executive director of the NGO Volcani International Partnerships, which assists Israeli farmers through its "Regrow" project, said communities in southern Israel were "determined to get back on their feet and grow back stronger." "They are trying to bring new crops, introduce new innovation and think about the future," she said, adding that "they stood up after a disaster with such resolve." Citing statistics from the kibbutz movement, Abraham said that farms in southern Israel were now back at close to 100 percent of their pre-October 2023 capacity, but were still undergoing challenges. "The ongoing war and the uncertainty is still taking a big toll mentally on the farmers," she said. Sheila Gerber, who has run a botanical garden and cactus farm with her husband Yaakov for the past 30 years in the nearby Moshav Talmei Yosef cooperative, said visitors were still staying away. The fighting is on the other side of the border but the community still live in fear, said Gerber, who described how a recent explosion caused all the glass in one of their greenhouses to shatter. "It was horrifying. It was scary," she said. Hamas militants did not reach Talmei Yosef on October 7, after being repelled just outside the gates by members of a civilian security team. Gerber and her family were evacuated, and returned a few weeks later. "We came back because farmers come back -- you can't just leave everything to die," she said, adding that "almost all the farmers came back." Gerber recalled how, until the Second Palestinian Intifada or uprising against Israel began in 2000, she and her family could visit Gaza. "When it was peaceful, it was very nice and we could go to the markets, we could go to the beach, we could take the kids, it was no problem," she said. "But of course now we can't and it's very sad for everybody," she added. "What will be the future, we really don't know." reg/acc/ser
France 24
06-06-2025
- France 24
Israeli farmers revive tequila project cut short by Oct 7 attack
With artillery fire and explosions booming in the distance, businessman Aviel Leitner and farmer Eran Braverman inspected their field of blue agave, hoping they would one day soon produce the country's first-ever batch of tequila. Planted prior to the war sparked by the unprecedented October 2023 attack on communities in southern Israel, Leitner said the violence and subsequent chaos meant waiting until now to unveil their unique project. "We wanted to very much show that Israeli farmers had returned to the fields, that this war wasn't going to stop them, that there were new crops growing in the Negev and that there is nothing sexier than tequila and mezcal and agave spirits," he told AFP. Leitner said he was inspired to bring the plants to Israel following a family trip to Mexico. For him and Braverman, the survival of the exotic plants -– just like their complex transportation from Mexico to Israel -- is nothing short of a miracle. Taste of tequila On October 7, 2023 militants attacked Kibbutz Alumim and other communities around it, burning down barns and greenhouses and destroying irrigation equipment. "We are about four kilometres from the (Gaza) fence and everything from the fence to Alumim was destroyed," recalled Braverman, who said that 22 farm workers from Nepal and Thailand were murdered there, as were three soldiers who died defending the site. "When we heard what happened, we were very scared for the farmers and their families because we had grown close to them. It was very, very traumatic," said Leitner. He was also concerned for his plants. The dry desert conditions and the drip irrigation technology meant the blue agave could survive without much care and somehow, the field was unaffected by the fighting. Now, the two men are counting down the days until the plants are ripe, as Leitner looks for a place to build his tequila distillery. "We're hoping to start manufacturing in early winter 2025 and this will be the first agave spirit manufactured in the land of Israel," Leitner said. New crops Danielle Abraham, executive director of the NGO Volcani International Partnerships, which assists Israeli farmers through its "Regrow" project, said communities in southern Israel were "determined to get back on their feet and grow back stronger." "They are trying to bring new crops, introduce new innovation and think about the future," she said, adding that "they stood up after a disaster with such resolve." Citing statistics from the kibbutz movement, Abraham said that farms in southern Israel were now back at close to 100 percent of their pre-October 2023 capacity, but were still undergoing challenges. "The ongoing war and the uncertainty is still taking a big toll mentally on the farmers," she said. Sheila Gerber, who has run a botanical garden and cactus farm with her husband Yaakov for the past 30 years in the nearby Moshav Talmei Yosef cooperative, said visitors were still staying away. The fighting is on the other side of the border but the community still live in fear, said Gerber, who described how a recent explosion caused all the glass in one of their greenhouses to shatter. "It was horrifying. It was scary," she said. Hamas militants did not reach Talmei Yosef on October 7, after being repelled just outside the gates by members of a civilian security team. Gerber and her family were evacuated, and returned a few weeks later. "We came back because farmers come back -- you can't just leave everything to die," she said, adding that "almost all the farmers came back." Gerber recalled how, until the Second Palestinian Intifada or uprising against Israel began in 2000, she and her family could visit Gaza. "When it was peaceful, it was very nice and we could go to the markets, we could go to the beach, we could take the kids, it was no problem," she said. "But of course now we can't and it's very sad for everybody," she added. "What will be the future, we really don't know."
Zawya
11-04-2025
- Business
- Zawya
World Bank to spend $112mln to fix flaws in wound-up Tanzania project
The World Bank has lined up a multimillion-dollar damage control programme after fundamental mistakes were discovered in the way it monitored human rights protections related to a tourism management project in Tanzania. According to the bank officials, the amount of fresh financing may eventually total more than two-thirds of the multilateral lender's initial $150 million outlay for the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project in southern Tanzania. The project was officially wound up in February. The funding will be disbursed through two separate interventions, starting with $2.8 million to support communities living in and around the Ruaha National Park who were adversely affected by the flaws identified in a recently concluded investigation into the project's implementation. A second, bigger disbursement of up to $110 million, to be spent on another project covering other parts of the country, is also in the pipeline but awaiting approval by the bank's board. Regrow was sponsored by the International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank affiliate, with the aim of developing Tanzania's southern tourism circuit. Launched in 2017, the project became the subject of an extended investigation after allegations of human rights violations against surrounding communities cropped up during its last two years of operation. The probe was conducted by an independent inspection panel mandated by the World Bank board to assess the extent of the bank's compliance with its own operational policies and procedures in projects that it finances. According to the panel's findings, non-compliance with the bank's policies on involuntary resettlement in particular was a major weakness in the project and "contributed to the harm experienced by the affected communities.""In conducting its due diligence, the Bank's management did not recognise that, based on Tanzania's game park management legislation, people residing in and/or accessing parks and other protected areas without authorisation could face involuntary physical and economic resettlement," the panel reported. It also noted that pre-project risk assessments did not sufficiently recognise how the involvement of the Tanzania National Park Authority (Tanapa), a state-owned agency with a law enforcement mandate, 'would invariably have implications for the livelihoods and the well-being of communities residing within park boundaries and accessing park resources for the purpose of sustaining livelihoods.'Tanapa was named as a major culprit in the original claims of violence and intimidation tactics being deployed by government park rangers to forcefully evict native communities from the project area, primarily the famed Ruaha National Park, using methods such as seizing and confiscating their cattle. A formal complaint was filed by two local villagers to the World Bank in 2023, triggering the investigation. The identities of the two individuals have remained hidden throughout for 'fear of retribution,' according to official World Bank documentation on the case, although they are understood to have been backed by the Oakland Institute, a US-based lobby. The Inspection Panel report was more critical of the Bank's handling of the project than of any wrongs that Tanzanian authorities may have committed. Nevertheless, the new action plan agreed with Tanzania in response to the Panel's findings also outlines a number of new interventions designed to address this aspect of the matter. Edith Jibunoh, the Bank's Washington DC-based spokesperson for Eastern and Southern Africa told The EastAfrican in a virtual interview on Tuesday that a workshop will be convened next month to brief Tanzanian officials on "relevant good international practice in protected area management.""The briefing will cover topics such as effective and responsible enforcement of park restrictions, conflict avoidance, community engagement, and benefit sharing," she explained. Further interventions will include establishing and maintaining an effective grievance redress system and a fully operational hotline to raise concerns directly to the World Bank in Tanzania. World Bank staff in Tanzania have also been provided with an interim guidance note on how to "responsibly" handle human rights issues, security, conflicts and other risks related to projects involving protected areas going forward."Based on this interim guidance note, the Bank will prepare a more comprehensive Good Practice Note on the same topic, not just for projects it sponsors in Tanzania but all countries, by December 2025," Ms Jibunoh said. She also explained that the initial $2.8 million project to fix the harms caused by flaws in Regrow's implementation will be sponsored by a "trust fund" and the monies handled by "a third party in the form of a reputable NGO to be identified.""The NGO is to be confirmed by the end of this month, as we are aiming for the project to begin by June. The Rufiji Basin Water Board will also be involved in the project, representing the government," she said. On the new Scaling-up Locally Led Climate Action Program (Scale) operation that is expected to cost at least $110 million, Ms Jibunoh said it would be more "national in scope" and focus on improving the livelihoods of vulnerable communities in areas such as Usangu Catchment, source of the Great Ruaha River, and Mbarali district in Mbeya region."The project plan is still being worked out and will be submitted to the Board by June. The details will be made public once it gets Board approval. We are being more careful this time because we don't want to repeat the same mistakes as in the Regrow project," she said. © Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
The Guardian
03-04-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
World Bank announces multimillion-dollar redress fund after killings and abuse claims at Tanzanian project
The World Bank is embarking on a multimillion-dollar programme in response to alleged human rights abuses against Tanzanian herders during a flagship tourism project it funded for seven years. Allegations made by pastoralist communities living in and around Ruaha national park include violent evictions, sexual assaults, killings, forced disappearances and large-scale cattle seizures from herders committed by rangers working for the Tanzanian national park authority (Tanapa). The pastoralists say most of the incidents took place after the bank approved $150m (£116m) for the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project September in 2017, aimed at developing tourism in four protected areas in southern Tanzania in a bid to take pressure off heavily touristed northern areas such as Ngorongoro and the Serengeti. In 2023, two individuals wrote to the bank accusing some Tanapa employees of 'extreme cruelty' during cattle seizures and having engaged in 'extrajudicial killings' and the 'disappearance' of community members. The Oakland Institute, a US-based thinktank that is advising the communities, and which alerted the World Bank to abuses in April 2023, says Ruaha doubled in size from 1m to more than 2m hectares (2.5m to 5m acres) during the project's lifetime – a claim the bank denies. It says the expansion took place a decade earlier. Oakland claims 84,000 people from at least 28 villages were affected by the expansion plan. This week, the bank published a 70-page report following its own investigation, which found 'critical failures in the planning and supervision of this project and that these have resulted in serious harm'. The report, published on 2 April, notes that 'the project should have recognised that enhancing Tanapa's capacity to manage the park could potentially increase the likelihood of conflict with communities trying to access the park.' Anna Bjerde, World Bank managing director of operations, said, 'We regret that the Regrow project preparation and supervision did not sufficiently account for project risks, resulting in inadequate mitigation measures to address adverse impacts. This oversight led to the bank overlooking critical information during implementation.' The report includes recommendations aimed at redressing harms done and details a $2.8m project that will support alternative livelihoods for communities inside and around the park. It will also help fund a Tanzanian NGO that provides legal advice to victims of crime who want to pursue justice through the courts. A second, much bigger project, understood to be worth $110, will fund alternative livelihoods across the entire country, including Ruaha. The total investment, thought to be the largest amount the bank has ever allocated to addressing breaches of its policies, is a reflection of the serious nature of the allegations. The bank had already suspended Regrow funding in April 2024 after its own investigation found the Tanzanian government had violated the bank's resettlement policy and failed to create a system to report violent incidents or claim redress. The project was cancelled altogether in November 2024. A spokesperson said the bank 'remains deeply concerned about the serious nature of the reports of incidents of violence and continues to focus on the wellbeing of affected communities'. By the time the project was suspended the bank had already disbursed $125m of the $150m allocated to Regrow. The Oakland Institute estimates that economic damages for farmers and pastoralists affected by livelihood restrictions, run into tens of millions of dollars. Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, said the 'scathing' investigation 'confirmed the bank's grave wrongdoing which devastated the lives of communities. Pastoralists and farms who refused to be silenced amid widespread government repression, are now vindicated.' She added that the bank's response was 'beyond shameful'. 'Suggesting that tens of thousands of people forced out of their land can survive with 'alternative livelihoods' such as clean cooking and microfinance is a slap in the face of the victims.' Inspection panel chair Ibrahim Pam said critical lessons from the Regrow case will be applied to all conservation projects that require resettlement and restrict access to parks, especially those implemented by a law enforcement agency. Regrow was given the go ahead in 2017. The Oakland Institute described its cancellation by the government in 2024 as a landmark victory, but said communities 'remain under siege – still facing evictions, crippling livelihood restrictions and human rights abuses'. In one village near the southern border of Ruaha, the brother of a young man who was killed three years ago while herding cattle in an area adjacent to the park, said: 'It feels like it was yesterday. He had a wife, a family. Now the wife has to look after the child by herself.' He did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal. Another community member whose husband was allegedly killed by Tanapa staff said: 'I feel bad whenever I remember what happened to my husband. We used to talk often. We were friends. I was pregnant with his child when he died. He never saw his daughter. Now I just live in fear of these [Tanapa-employed] people.' The Oakland Institute said the affected communities reject the bank's recommendations, and have delivered a list of demands that includes 'reverting park boundaries to the 1998 borders they accepted, reparations for livelihood restrictions, the resumption of suspended basic services, and justice for victims of ranger abuse and violence. 'Villagers are determined to continue the struggle for their rights to land and life until the bank finally takes responsibility and remedies the harms it caused.' The bank has said it has no authority to pay compensation directly. Wildlife-based tourism is a major component of Tanzania's economy, contributing more than one quarter of the country's foreign exchange earnings in 2019. The bank has said any future community resettlement will be the government's decision. Additional reporting by Peter Mururi
Zawya
05-02-2025
- Business
- Zawya
World Bank ends probe into $150mln Tanzania tourism project
The World Bank has concluded a long-running investigation into claims of human rights violations linked to a Bank-funded $150 million tourism promotion project in southern Tanzania. The Regrow (Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth) project covering Tanzania's southern tourism circuit is on schedule to wind up officially late February, but has been under probe for more than a year over the allegations which pointed to potential non-compliance by local authorities with the Bank's rules on project management. The Bank suspended its sponsorship package in April 2024, pending the outcome of the investigation, and later in November announced that the project had been formally closed at the government's own request. Nevertheless, the investigation continued. Bank sources have told The EastAfrican that since most of the project funds had already been disbursed by the time of the suspension, the government said it could handle the remaining part of the project until the official end date in February 25. In an updated project factsheet published on its website on January 22, the Bank confirmed that its Inspection Panel, which began the investigation in December 2023, had finished its work and would share its report with the Board of Executive Directors for further action in line with internal procedures.'The Bank's management is reviewing and preparing a response to the Panel's findings which it will also submit to the Board,' the update said. 'This response includes the Bank's proposed actions to address the panel's findings of non-compliance, and the Board then considers both the Panel's report, management's response, and the proposed action plan.'It also said the findings, responses and deliberations would remain confidential until the Board made a final decision on the way forward, after which 'all these documents become public'. The Regrow project was launched in September 2017 with the aim of developing wildlife-based tourism in southern Tanzania, which according to the Bank, accounted for more than 25 percent of the country's total foreign exchange earnings by 2019. Focus areas included improving infrastructure and management systems in the area's game reserves, primarily the famed Ruaha National Park, and offering alternative livelihoods for surrounding communities. But in 2023, two local villagers lodged a formal complaint to the World Bank about alleged violence and intimidation tactics being deployed by government park rangers to forcefully evict native communities from the project area. They accused the state-run Tanzania National Parks Authority (Tanapa), being one of the project's main implementing agencies, of among other things, seizing and confiscating cattle belonging to villagers around the Ruaha National Park. According to the petition, the Bank was equally at fault for failing to follow its own policies and procedures designed to prevent such actions by local authorities in the course of resettling indigenous people to make way for projects that it funds. The two individuals filed their petition with the help of Oakland Institute, a US-based lobby. But their identities have remained hidden throughout for 'fear of retribution', according to official documentation on the case. The Inspection Panel is part of the World Bank's Accountability Mechanism and authorised by the Board of Executive Directors to carry out independent investigations into Bank-financed projects to assess the extent of the Bank's compliance with its operational policies and procedures. Its scope for the Regrow project probe included reviews of rules of engagement between local authorities and communities and Tanapa's track record in running game reserve projects in consultation with affected communities. In the January 22 update, the Bank's management quoted the government as saying it 'currently has no intention of resettling communities in the foreseeable future, and they may continue exercising their usual livelihood activities in their villages.''In addition, the government is engaging with communities in and around Ruaha National Park with the goal of providing them with stepped-up support,' it said. Oakland Institute has continued to pursue the matter relentlessly and, in a January 21 statement on its website, called the decision to cancel the project in November a 'landmark victory' for the impacted villagers. According to the project update, concerns still existed about inadequate systems for aggrieved villagers to report their concerns about the project's implementation and seek redress.'Nonetheless, the Bank understands that the government may be completing infrastructure works commenced under the project using its own resources,' it added. At the time of the funding suspension last April, 88 percent of the initial $150 million World Bank commitment to the project had already been disbursed. © Copyright 2022 Nation Media Group. All Rights Reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
