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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
UN plan to protect 30 percent of the planet by 2030 could displace hundreds of millions, NGOs and experts warn
London, 02 Sept 2020 One hundred twenty eight environmental and human rights NGOs and experts today warn that a United Nations drive to increase global protected areas such as national parks could lead to severe human rights violations and cause irreversible social harm for some of the world’s poorest people. [1] In May 2021, the … Read more
New-look MappingForRights – Promoting transparency and accountability in forest governance
We’re delighted to announce the upgraded version of MappingForRights – the geo-spatial platform that aims to put forest communities in the Congo Basin on the map. Important decisions about forests are too often made with little understanding of the people that live in and depend on them, leading to land conflict and other negative impacts in many … Read more
UN 2030 conservation plan could dispossess 300 million people
A new UN drive to increase global protected areas could lead to severe human rights violations and cause irreversible social harm if not backed by much stronger guarantees of the rights of indigenous people and other local communities, the Rainforest Foundation UK (RFUK) warns today. In October, the Conference of Parties to the Convention on … Read more
300 MILLION AT RISK FROM CBD DRIVE
The ‘Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ – How the CBD drive to protect 30 percent of the planet could dispossess millions.
Civic Response’s Radio Campaign Raises Awareness of ForestLink and Community-led Forest Protection in Ghana
Guest blog by Jemima Opare-Henaku, Communication, Civic Response RFUK’s Ghanaian partner Civic Response has just completed a two-month radio sensitization campaign across the country on community based Real Time Monitoring (RTM) and raising forest fringe communities’ awareness about the role they can play in forest management and monitoring. Although some progress has been made on … Read more