The large extraction project poses negative social, environmental, and health impacts on indigenous peoples in Cameroon.
Category: Extractive Industries
Extractive industries are another source human rights violations against indigenous peoples. In his final (2013) report as the UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, James Anaya attributed this to the fact that a substantial amount of the remaining minerals and fossil fuels are found in indigenous peoples’ lands and territories. In most African countries, legal frameworks that are relics of colonialism heighten hardships of indigenous peoples. Specifically, laws provide that sub-surface resources are excluded from land rights and that once discovered, surface land rights come to an end, hence landowners must vacate it.
Denial of Legal Recognition for Baka in Cameroon
Indigenous Baka face violence and precarious conditions from conservation, mining, logging, and rubber plantations.
San vs ReconAfrica
A fossil fuel company secured a deal to drill in search of a petroleum system in the Kavango Basin, posing a threat to San in the area.
Taoudeni Basin Oil Mining vs. Kel Tamasheq
Local Kel Tamasheq are pushing back against international oil companies’ exploration of the basin.
Imider Silver Mine vs. Amazigh
Amazigh in Imider, Morocco have faced alarming depletion and contamination of their groundwater resources because of a large silver mine. Photo from Al Jazeera
Kel Tamasheq vs. Mining in Niger
Kel Tamasheq find their nomadic pastoralist livelihoods increasingly under threat from a combination of uranium mining, government promotion of sedentarism and climate change. Photo Credit: NewIndianExpress
Ogoni vs. Shell
Ogoni have faced devastating effects of the presence of Shell Oil company in Ogoniland in Nigeria since the 1950s. They also face discrimination from the Nigerian government, which favors the oil company over the local community. Photo Credit: Spilled News
Pojulu vs. Nile Trading & Development
Nile Trading & Development, Inc. signed a land deal with the Mukaya Payam Cooperative allowing them questionable rights to obtain resources without the indigenous community’s consent.
Kunama v. Nevsun Mining
Four Eritrean-Kunama refugees are in the middle of a judicial battle in the Canadian court system against a Canadian-based mining company for alleged human rights violations at the Bisha Mine in Eritrea. As a result of the case, other investors are becoming skeptical about moving to Eritrea. Photo Credit: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters
Mbuti in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve
The Okapi Wildlife Reserve is home to indigenous Mbuti hunter-gatherers who help protect native species of the forest. Mbuti livelihoods are being threatened, though, by illegal poaching, mining and deforestation. Photo Credit: Monusco Photos