News
How community forests can save Africa’s rainforests (and may even help prevent the next pandemic)
Ever since the Kayapo people of Brazil saved their ancestral forest from a destructive mega-dam project in 1989, the Rainforest Foundation has stood behind the conviction that securing land rights for Indigenous Peoples and local communities is the best way to also protect those forests. Evidence from around the world now backs us up: deforestation … Read more
Statement: Protected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a broken system
Statement: Protected areas in the Democratic Republic of Congo – a broken system 25th January 2021 Peoples and ecosystems in the Democratic Republic of Congo are being failed by the way conservation is practised. Indigenous Peoples and local communities face frequent threats of intimidation, torture, beatings, sexual violence and death at the hands of ecoguards … Read more
Huge leap in fight against impunity for conservation-related abuses in DRC as park rangers are sentenced for rape and torture
On 28 December 2020, five park rangers accused of raping and torturing four women in DRC’s Salonga National Park were convicted by the Military Court in Mbandaka, following a long battle for justice supported by the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) and its local partner Actions pour la Promotion et Protection des Peuples et Espèces Menacés … Read more
Excusing conservation wrongs? Report finds WWF culpable for Human Rights violations but does not assign blame
JOINT STATEMENT The report by the Independent Panel of Experts investigating WWF’s role in alleged human rights abuses committed in protected areas under its aegis, published by WWF on 24 November 2020, found that the conservation organization repeatedly fell short of meeting its human rights obligations over years in multiple countries. This includes failing to adequately prevent, … Read more
Research into Mai Ndombe REDD+ Programme Shows How Forest Carbon Offsets Fail to Reduce Deforestation and Come at a Human Cost
A new study published today by Action pour la promotion et protection des peoples et espèces menacées (APEM) and the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) finds that one of the world’s highest profile emissions reductions programmes is failing to uphold social safeguards, deliver local benefits, or prevent deforestation. The Mai Ndombe jurisdictional REDD+ programme in the … Read more
Experts look to the next frontier of community-led forest monitoring in Africa
At a time when illegal logging runs rampant, the climate is rapidly changing and environment and human rights defenders face increasing threats and attacks, empowering forest communities to speak up to protect their lands and rights is more urgent than ever. This was the central conclusion of the virtual workshop ‘The role of ForestLink and community-based … Read more
WWF’s lack of contrition as Independent Review finds systemic failings in its treatment of human rights
Yesterday, WWF published an independent review into human rights violations including killings, torture, sexual and physical violence and intimidation against indigenous peoples and local communities that have occurred in its operations in several areas of the world. This long overdue 160-page report lays bare institutional failings and problems with its organisational culture that allowed these … Read more
Taking on the Coronavirus in the Forests of Southern Cameroon
APIFED’s team equipped with soap, buckets with taps, disinfectant gel, masks, and posters in the local languages Baka and Bulu to distribute to communities 2020 forced humanity to recognise our global kinship as people all over the world faced the same threat at the same time. Every society witnessed how the most vulnerable communities were … Read more
US authorities halt funding for large conservation organisations following investigation into human rights scandal
Last week it emerged that the US government had stopped more than $12 million of funding to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and other conservation NGOs after an investigation by the Department of Interior found federal conservation funds were implicated in human rights abuses by anti-poaching guards in Africa and Asia. … Read more
EU plan to tackle biodiversity loss in Africa not good news for people or nature, NGOs say
The Rainforest Foundation UK, Minority Rights Group International and Forest Peoples Programme have today written to the European Commission expressing concerns over its plans for a new flagship biodiversity programme in Africa. The NGOs warn it could entrench an outmoded and unsustainable conservation model that has led to serious human rights abuses and dispossession of … Read more