By Chris Lang In May 2017, the Ogiek Indigenous People won an important land rights victory at the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The Court ruled that the Ogiek have the right to live in the Mau Forest and that the government of Kenya was wrong to evict them. At the end of…
Tag: Conservation-Watch
Forced evictions in the name of conservation: 28 Sengwer homes burned in Kenya
By Chris Lang On 11 May 2020, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government, Fred Matiangi’i, issued a moratorium on forced evictions during the coronavirus pandemic. He made the announcement on national television. On 10 July 2020, Kenya Forest Service guards burned down 28 homes belonging to Sengwer Indigenous People in…
Fortress conservation: Disney’s offsets are paying for heavily armed park rangers in Conservation International’s Alto Mayo REDD project in Peru
By Chris Lang An article in Bloomberg last week takes a detailed look at the Alto Mayo REDD+ project in Peru. Covering an area of 182,000 hectares in the San Martín region of northern Peru, the project is run by Conservation International together with Peru’s National Service for Natural Protected Areas Protected by the State…
“Sengwer and the Forests are one and inseparable.” Despite court ruling, Indigenous Sengwer communities vow to remain in Embobut Forest, Kenya
By Chris Lang The Sengwer Indigenous People live in the Embobut Forest in the western highlalnds of Kenya. For years they have faced threats and violent evictions. The Kenya Forest Service has carried out a series of evictions of the Sengwer, supposedly in the name of conservation. In January 2018 Kenya Forest Service guards shot…
The EU’s NaturAfrica must avoid colonialism in conservation: Protected areas should be managed by Indigenous Peoples themselves
By Chris Lang On 11 December 2019, European Commission published a Communication setting out a European Green Deal for the European Union and its citizens. The Communication referred to its Comprehensive Strategy with Africa, and mentioned an initiative called “NaturAfrica”: