Dear Jack,

Survival has been exposing the eviction and persecution of Indigenous peoples in the name of “conservation” for more than 30 years, but the last few weeks may well prove to have been a turning point in this long campaign.

We want to share this news with you, because what’s happening now is testament to the power of public opinion, and the actions you’ve taken, to force even the most powerful to change.

Recently the Indigenous movement scored three major victories:

In Kenya the Ogiek, Indigenous people of the Mau forest, won an historic victory in Africa’s top court. The court ruled that the government – which has long been trying to evict them for conservation – must finally recognize their collective land title so they can ‘use and enjoy’ their land.

In the US, a landmark bill cleared its first major hurdle in Congress – it will mean that the key government agency working on conservation can no longer fund projects (often run by WWF or WCS) if human rights violations are taking place. If passed it will be the first such legislation anywhere in the world, and it’s setting a precedent that other governments and conservation organizations will find hard to ignore.

In France, government plans to fund Congo’s famous gorilla preserve, Kahuzi-Biega National Park, have been suspended after intensive work by Survival to highlight the appalling atrocities against the park’s original Batwa population (see below).

The battle to bring the human rights abuses against Indigenous and local communities in the name of conservation to public attention is also making real headway. There’s been an array of significant press coverage in the last few weeks:

- Kenyan journalist Gatu wa Mbaria published an important article in The Guardian, highlighting how conservation as practiced in East Africa (and elsewhere) is really a continuation of the colonial era.

- Al-Jazeera broadcast a hard-hitting exposé of atrocities committed against Batwa people by park rangers inside the Congo’s Kahuzi-Biega National Park. Their reporting, and that of Radio France International, reinforced Survival’s campaign to get the French government to suspend its planned funding of the park (see above).

- US-based Professor Aby Sène-Harper published an analysis of how “Western nonprofits are trampling over Africans’ rights and land, and Indigenous people are being forced out from so-called protected areas.”

Of course, there remains a huge mountain to climb. The recent police brutality against Maasai people protesting at their eviction from their lands near Serengeti National Park in Tanzania – to make way for trophy hunting, conservation and wildlife safaris – was a surprise only to those who haven’t been following the many similar cases around the world. The violence left one Maasai man dead and dozens wounded, while thousands fled across the Kenya-Tanzania border to seek sanctuary.

But even here, we noticed a change – the attack on the Maasai was reported around the world, and as a country highly dependent on tourism, Tanzania can ill afford this kind of publicity.

So we’re increasingly optimistic that your campaigning actions – a powerful reinforcement of Indigenous peoples’ brave resistance to these abuses – are making a real difference. The tide is turning!

 

Jade Bridgwood
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