MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

Well connected: The resistance against the fossil industry in East Africa.

Published

10 months ago

July 3, 2024

Activist in Uganda protesting for environmental justice.

Uganda and Tanzania have created facts about the promotion of the fossil industry by launch on the construction of the East African crude oil pipeline. At the same time, the internationally networked resistance of civilian actors towards the booming oil production in East Africa is growing. Judicial complaints are a central element in their fight to uphold the rule of law, human rights and environmental protection.

Last year, the beginning of the end of the fossil era was ushered in at the world climate conference in Dubai. Some countries interpret this as follows: it is necessary to get the last fossil fuels out of the ground. This means drilling, dredging, pumping – to earn crude oil, gas and coal once again.

One example is the fossil industry in Uganda, which is trying to feed its last fossil occurrences from the ground into the global economy. It wants to pump the petroleum down there to the surface and through a heated pipeline into a deep-sea port into the Tanzanian tanga. From there, it, together with the French energy giant TotalEnergies and Chinese participation, is being shipped for the global oil industry.

The oil project called the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) with a targeted running time of 25 years has been under construction since this April. In Tanzania and Uganda, the scope of civilian actors who are fighting against land seizures for the 1,443-kilometre-long pipeline corridor and defending human rights is severely restricted. In Uganda, the police have arrested farmers, journalists, human rights and environmental defenders who have spoken out against the oil projects. Reporters Without Borders once again stated in May that freedom of the press and civil say are strictly curtailed. At the end of May, eight environmental activists were arrested when a letter of protest to the Chinese Embassy was arrested by Ugandan security forces. Obviously, governments sacrifice freedom of expression, human rights and livelihoods for their fossil utopianism.

Bizarre oil shops

Uganda’s government is not only pursuing an export strategy for its crude oil, which is stored in the Albertgraben on the border with the DR Congo. It also wants to modify its own oil import infrastructure. For this purpose, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni initiated an old oil dispute with Kenya: In February, the neighbouring countries decided to resume the plan to expand the Mombasa-Eldoret-Kampala pipeline. This pipeline originates in the port of Mombasa/Kenya, on the Indian Ocean and currently leads via Nairobi to Eldoret in West Kenya. This part has been in operation since May 2014. For many years, plans to extend the pipeline have been circulating, first to Kampala on Lake Victoria, Ugandan, then on to Rwanda’s capital Kigali, possibly even to Lake Bujumbura Burundi around Lake Tanganyika.

This would mean that on the one hand, the export of crude oil is being produced, while at the same time the import of refined oil will be extended. This contradicts any economic logic that the finishing of a product is not outsourced as far as possible. While Uganda wants to transport its crude oil via the East African crude pipeleline EACOP to the port to Tanga and sell it from there on the world market, from Mombasa, 130 kilometres north of Tanga, refined oil via the Mombasa Eldoret pipeline to Kampala is to be pumped at the same time.

On the one hand, crude oil transport for the world market, on the other hand, import of refined oil – that is, of fishing-for fuels – for one’s own energy needs: this is an old pattern for asymmetric trade relations – or, as the Kenyan climate activist Omar Elawi said: business colonialism. Others will benefit from the refinement of the crude oil and transport. The oil, transported twice over thousands of kilometres, puts a heavy impact on the environment and undermines the social development of the adjacent municipalities. The economic dependence of the Global South is simply reproduced in terms of trade policy. And climate policy, the EACOP is also a disaster that undermines the fair energy transition in Uganda.

Problems and protest on the spot …

It is therefore not surprising that the sharpest critics of EACOP include many regional environmental and human rights defenders as well as initiatives affected. For example, Witness Radio Uganda documents land veins on an interactive map and has been providing legal assistance to people in rural areas affected by land expulsion for years. Tonny Katende from Witness Radio says: “We combine legal assistance and media work to mobilize the rural population. This is the only way she can protest with a strong voice against the injustices in land use and environmental destruction and advocate for equal access to resources in our country.”

Another activist is Christopher Opio, founder of the Oil Refinery Residents Association (ORRA). The NGO with over 7,000 members recently protested before the Court in Hoima in Western Uganda. This is where the pipeline is to start, and 42 households have recently been sued by the government, because they refused to accept compensation for their country: “This means that these people are now being driven out of their country,” said Opio. At the protest on the 15th April the landowners moved through the city towards court. They hold signs high with messages such as “Do not attach our rights” and “do not self-elige us for oil”.

TotalEnergies has been drilling in Tilenga on the northern shore of Lake Albert on Lake Albert since June 2023. Four hundred holes are planned, one third of which are in a natural park. In the Kingfisher area further south of the lake, the Chinese company CNCOOC is taking hold to light since January 2023. Fishing communities of both places turn to the companies with a protest letter in April 2024: the light from the drilling rigs violates and distributes the fish, and nitrogen- and phosphorous-containing wastewater is burdening the water quality. The risks documented by international environmental organizations such as Les Amis de la Terre, Natural Justice and Greenpeace, as well as Human Rights Watch and BankTrack, are concerned about water and the health of over eleven million residents at Lake Albert: 426 wells ensure that water is pumped from Lake Lake Lake. The water is then heavily heavy metal and poses a threat to the population as wastewater. A leak would be a disaster for which no one is sufficiently prepared.

… and anti-imperial rhetoric of the revolt

Local civilian actors in Tanzania and Uganda, including lawyers, students and stakeholders, are often discredited by their own governments as an extended arm of imperial Western environmental extremists. An environmental journalist and a community worker temporarily left the country for persecution and intimidation.

Governments sacrifice the environment for their fossil utopianism

Activism does not arise from a capitalist lobby, but scientifically proven risks to the environment, dangers to the health of neighbouring communities, concrete human rights violations such as land displacements and expropriations, and de facto violent attacks by the police and the military – including rape and massive bodily injury to the rural population. On the basis of research and witness reports, problems are combated, such as the inadequate compensation of the oil lobby or the authoritarian behavior of the project operators. Here the anti-imperial rhetoric of the government side is like a diversionary manoeuvre.

The Chinese CNCOOC and TotalEnergies are now feeling resistance from all over the world in addition to the local protest. This is the international (instead of imperial) dimension of the debate. More than 260 civil society organisations are demanding a stop from EACOP. The political forms of action and protest of the well-connected movement against the construction of the EACOP are manifold: an important lever is legal complaints against violations by companies and governments. Another strategy is divestment. Potential investors or insurance companies should be persuaded not to invest in environmentally harmful and anti-social projects, or to deduct their capital from such projects.

Complained, divestment and political pressure

In November 2020, four East African civil society organisations, including AFIEGO, Natural Justice Kenya and the Tanzanian Strategic Litigation Centre (SLC), filed a complaint against EACOP at the East African Court (EACJ). After an initial dismissal, the Appeals Division of the East African Court requested the plaintiffs at the beginning of the year, until 22. March submit written comments. By the end of April, the defendants were again allowed to react to them in writing. The civilian plaintiffs see legal principles violated by the state, including the environmental and human rights standards enshrined in the Treaty of East African Community for the benefit of current and future generations, as well as compliance with international treaties.

The consortium of lawsuits is an expression of a regionally and internationally well-connected NGO community, which takes legal action against the fossil fuels, including its financial and reinsurance companies, through legal action. This means that among the global civilian NGO networks is growing know-how to strategies for how to take several tracks against the land grabbing of the climate-damaging fossil industry. With the worldwide campaign “StopEACOP, 29 investors have now been discouraged to be part of the pipeline project, including the second largest German insurance group Talanx.

In the fight against the large-scale fossil-fuel project EACOP, the strategy of divestment is considered promising, especially in Europe: Public pressure on the suppliers from the construction, insurance, logistics and credit institutions sectors is to prevent the cash flow for the project, which is still not financially secured. Another great success of the international campaign alliance “StopEACOP” was the withdrawal of the Japanese Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group over a year ago. Meanwhile, 27 banks and 23 reinsurers as well as four export credit agencies have announced that they will not support EACOP. Therefore the mood on the Instagram account of the campaign alliance is sometimes euphoric.

The political pressure was also some success. International alliances confront politicians with studies such as “A Disaster in the Making” by Les Amis de la Terre or “Our Trust is Broken” by Human Rights Watch 2023. The European Parliament called on the governments of Uganda and Tanzania to comply with human rights standards in September 2022. In a decision on the COP27 climate conference, the German Bundestag spoke out against the financing of the EACOP in 2022.

Do the climate complain?

Lucien Limacher from the organisation Natural Justice from South Africa, one of the members of the plaintiffs against the EACOP before the East African Court, generally likes the effects of climate lawsuits. On the one hand, climate lawsuits are also increasing on the African continent. However, Limacher also says: “In the global North there is a misunderstanding about how we define climate processes. Africa will suffer massively from the consequences when global warming of more than 2.5 degrees is suffering.” In addition, in view of the 400 to 600 fossil projects that are up to 400 to 600, the climate cannot be saved solely through the route of the process. “So we need to think about how we proceed in legal disputes. A new way of thinking is emerging on the African continent: local climate lawsuits are no longer just about emissions, but about much more comprehensive risk factors such as access to food and water or land, because these areas that will be most severely affected.”

Despite the manifold resistance, the further construction of the EACOP is also progressing – and thus Uganda’s desire to become part of the ranks of the petrostate, half of which cover their economy from oil business. After the exit of European and Japanese banks from EACOP financing, the French energy giant TotalEnergies has signed a contract with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP) for the construction and supply of line pipes. This means that the cross-border project has been relocated to Beijing, from where most of the still missing loans are likely to come from. During the recent visit of China’s head of state Xi Jinping to France in early May, there was no public talk of the oil shipping in Uganda. It is hardly conceivable that Macron and Xi of all people can silence the issue, because the resistance against the EACOP is great, especially in France.

The struggles for oil production in Uganda, with the words of the Ugandan anthropologist Paddy Kinyeras ¹, show that pipelines as critical infrastructures represent physical manifestations of power geometry. The realization of the pipeline requires governmental power and strengthens it at the same time. Since the Paris Climate Agreement, the World Climate Summits have been a place to publicly confront this government and corporate power and to create political back pressure against the fossil industry. They also serve as an international networking area for the civilian actors.

At the end of 2024, after the United Arab Emirates in 2023, a fossil heavyweight will once again host the World Climate Summit: Azerbaijan. And thus for the third time in a row a country that plans to rely on fossil resources and revive oil and gas production before the agreed phasing-out. Once again, the summit will be headed by a long-standing employee of an oil company, Muchtar Babaiev. He is the Minister for the Environment of a host country that has little understanding for civilian engagement. It is not very promising to take place against the charged fossil lobby. This is one reason upon all, internationally networked environmental, research and human rights initiatives in the fossil industry. They are essential to open the oil business with protests, climate lawsuits, divestment campaigns and political pressure.

Source: www.iz3w.org

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

Forced Land Evictions in Uganda: who’ll bring reparation for victims.

Published

3 days ago

April 23, 2025

witnessradio.org

By Witness Radio team.

Vivian Nandyose, a bright student, should have been in Senior Five this year. However, her dreams were shattered when her parents, the pillars of her education, were unjustly imprisoned over land-related criminal charges. With both parents in prison for eleven months, on what the family claims were false accusations, Vivian was forced to put her education on hold and take care of her five younger siblings.

In Uganda, Senior Four is the fourth and final year of lower secondary school, also known as the O-Level period. It’s the equivalent of grade 10 in the United States. Students in Senior Four take their O-Level exams, known as the Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) at the end of the year.

“This is the life that we are experiencing because some greedy rich man caused my parents to be imprisoned. I didn’t go for senior four because I didn’t have school fees, and no one could care for the young ones while I was away,” Vivian painfully revealed in an interview with Witness Radio Uganda in December 2024.

The horrific arrest of her parents from their home in Kabubbu-Kabonge village, Nansana Municipality, Wakiso District, on January 10, 2024, is something that 17-year-old Vivian will never forget. At 1:00 a.m., police officers from the Luwero Police Station broke into their home. They took her parents, Mr. Ssebaggala Richard, his wife, Namande Prossy Kanabi, and their relative, Anania Ngabirano, into custody. The incident happened without prior notice of the reasons surrounding their arrest.

Vivian stated, “We have no peace; we can’t do anything now. Because the people who used to help us are no longer with us, I cannot afford to care for my younger siblings.”

The trio faces accusations of aggravated robbery related to a one-acre land dispute with businessman Benon Ntambi. The family claims that Ntambi illegally seized their land, destroyed all their crops, and orchestrated their violent arrests. However, Ntambi’s representatives argue that the land was legally acquired, and the family’s allegations are unfounded.

Nandyose’s loss of education is not an isolated case but a growing trend among many youths and children who face significant challenges due to forced land evictions. The Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) 2023 report paints a stark picture, with 45% of primary school pupils and 30% of secondary school students failing to complete their education due to forced displacement and instability.

In Uganda, unabated land grabbing, mainly for business interests, has had a detrimental effect on millions of people. Vivian’s case is one of 90 unlawful land evictions that Witness Radio—Uganda documented in the first half of 2024.

During the release of Witness Radio’s latest report titled Forced Evictions in Uganda, presented on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, at the 6th Symposium on Business and Human Rights, Mr. Christopher Kiwanuka, Director of Programs at Witness Radio, revealed the staggering figure of over 360,000 people affected by land grabbing between January 1, 2024, and June 30, 2024.

According to the research report, the 90 documented cases involve 121,442.83 hectares of land threatened to be grabbed, affecting at least 363,021 Ugandans. Completed forced land evictions were thirty-one (31) 31 cases, leaving 22,962 people homeless and seizing 7,150.7 hectares of land.

In the remaining cases, while the land has not been fully seized, residents continue to face persistent and violent threats of eviction, impacting 340,059 people and placing an additional 114,292.13 hectares of land at risk.

The report reveals a staggering reality: four cases of land evictions are reported weekly, affecting approximately 15,126 people and threatening 5,060.12 hectares of land across the country. This daily displacement of an estimated 2,160 Ugandans due to forced land evictions, while 723 hectares of land are at risk of being grabbed, underscores the urgent need for intervention.

The results show that, with sixty-seven (67) out of 90 recorded incidents, corporate businesses are the leading cause of forcible land evictions in Uganda. Eleven (11) cases include tribe and family land conflicts, and twelve (12) cases involve government entities. Key findings from the monitoring of these cases majorly involve multinational companies such as Agilis Partners Ltd., Great Seasons Ltd., East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), and Formosa Ltd, a subsidiary of Quality Parts Limited, as well as local investors, wealthy and bigshots with extensive power-connection to government involved in land grabbing and the criminalization of landgrab critics.

The Central region’s proximity makes it a desirable target for land grabbers, which leads to a concerning trend of land evictions, according to the report’s conclusions. With 52 documented occurrences, the region routinely has the most eviction cases, followed closely by the Western region with 24. The Northern region has 8 cases, and the Eastern region has the fewest cases, with six incidences.

Mr. Kiwanuka highlighted the rigorous process of data collection, which involved a variety of sources including Victims, the Witness Radio Land Eviction Portal, call-ins, newspapers, CSO reports, official reports, personal observations and contacts, court documents, law enforcement and security personnel, and pertinent service providers. This comprehensive approach ensured that the cases were thoroughly monitored, investigated, and documented by the research team of Witness Radio.

Accordingly, during the same period, Witness Radio documented 65 cases of attacks against community land and environment rights defenders (LEDs), as well as climate activists challenging illegal land evictions and corporate harm to the environment in Uganda. Attacks recorded include arbitrary arrests and unlawful detentions, confiscation of property, cattle in particular, intimidation and threats, and others.

Mr. Kiwanuka further noted the growing concerns of increased violence in forced land evictions, where armed gangs enforced 37 evictions on behalf of evictors, 25 cases by Uganda police, 5 cases involved the participation of some soldiers of the Uganda Army, whereas 4 cases involved the private security companies.

“Most of the evictions have been characterized by violence, including killings, criminalization, judicial harassment, and torture. Additionally, those who master the courage to defend others or their communities face the wrath of these powerful land grabbers. They act with impunity and often disregard government orders on forced land evictions.” Mr. Kiwanuka revealed this during the report launch.

Witness Radio calls on the government to ensure victims’ justice, protect local communities, and enforce adherence to existing land laws and regulations. It further calls for an end to corruption and abuse of power, particularly in the land registries, army, and police, where the rights of underprivileged groups are routinely subordinated to the interests of wealthy people.

It also exhorts companies to follow responsible investing guidelines and other pertinent business frameworks to prevent corporate harm to communities.

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

New report: EACOP threatens tourism and biodiversity in Greater Masaka.

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2025

witnessradio.org

By Witness Radio team.

A new report urgently warns about the imminent threats posed by the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) to the tourism sites of the Greater Masaka subregion, demanding immediate attention and action.

In a recently released research brief by the Inclusive Green Economy Network-East Africa (IGEN-EA), “Tourism Potential of Greater Masaka vis-à-vis EACOP Project Risks,” IGEN-EA reveals the area’s diverse tourism prospects. These prospects bring massive wealth to the country as a result of its rich biodiversity and tourist attractions, but they are at risk of destruction by the EACOP project.

The EACOP project involves the construction of a 1,444km heated pipeline from Hoima in Uganda to Tanga in Tanzania, which will transport crude oil from Tilenga and Kingfisher fields. The project has been widely criticized for its environmental and social concerns. The pipeline has displaced at least 13,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania.

Experts say the Masaka subregion has sustainable tourism potential. However, the EACOP could negatively impact it by further fueling the climate crisis, causing biodiversity loss, and driving a population influx, among other things.

The Inclusive Green Economy Network-East Africa (IGEN-EA) is a network that unites over thirty-six (36) private sector players and civil society organizations (CSOs) from Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. The organizations undertake research, raise stakeholder awareness, and advocate to promote green economic alternatives, including clean energy, sustainable tourism, organic agriculture and fisheries, forestry, and natural resources management.

Located in southern Uganda and bordering Tanzania, Greater Masaka comprises nine districts: Kalungu, Masaka, Rakai, Sembabule, Lwengo, Kalangala, Lyantonde, Bukomansimbi, and Kyotera. Four of these, Kyotera, Rakai, Sembabule, and Lwengo, are crossed by the eacop mega project, which transports crude oil from Hoima to Port Tanga of Tanzania.

The research study’s findings reveal that the 1,443km EACOP is set to affect River Kibale/Bukora in Kyotera and Rakai districts. The river is one of the most important in the Sango Bay-Musambwa Island-Kagera (SAMUKA) Ramsar Wetland System, renowned for hosting 65 mammal species and 417 bird species. Further, the EACOP is set to affect River Katonga, the water body on whose banks Bigo by Mugenyi, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is located.

According to the Uganda Bureau of Statistics Report 2024, tourism contributed approximately 4.7% to Uganda’s GDP, and the sector has experienced significant recovery and growth. However, destroying essential tourism sites poses substantial risks to the industry.

The report underscores that the construction, operation, and decommissioning of the EACOP could lead to the irrevocable loss of the biodiversity mentioned above. This grave concern could significantly diminish Greater Masaka’s tourism potential.

“The proposed construction method of the EACOP, the open cut method, as well as the planned monitoring of the EACOP, including at river crossings, every five years and using the pigging method, instead of cathodic protection for corrosion control purposes, puts rivers and Ramsar sites at risk of oil pollution among other impacts. This could cause biodiversity loss and affect scenic views, negatively impacting tourism potential”. The report further reads.

Research report also estimates that the full value chain carbon emissions of the EACOP, which includes emissions from all stages of the pipeline’s life cycle, including extraction, transportation, and refining, are projected at over 379 million metric tonnes over 25 years.

“Carbon emissions are a driver of climate change, which has been implicated in contributing to biodiversity loss, including in Uganda. The climate risks of the EACOP thereby present a risk to eco- and agro-tourism in the Greater Masaka sub-region.” The research adds.

However, the report further implored the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife, and Antiquities, through the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB), to prioritize the development of highlighted sites and promote cultural tourism in the subregion.

According to Mr. Dickens Kamugisha of the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), the government claims that projects like EACOP are aimed at addressing poverty are unrealistic.

He noted that such projects have instead triggered biodiversity concerns, contributed to climate change, and posed significant social risks, such as increased crime rates and disruption of local communities. He emphasized that investing in sustainable economic activities such as tourism would benefit the government and private sector more.

Mr. Paul Lubega Muwonge, a member of IGEN-EA, emphasizes the crucial role of research in tourism product development and its value in laying a strong foundation for all operations.

“Research is an important and desired step in tourism product development; it sets a stronger foundation in all operations. We hope that the Ugandan government and development partners will use this research to harness the benefits of tourism by launching tourist activities in the Greater Masaka sub-region, Masaka.” He said.

MEDIA FOR CHANGE NETWORK

World Bank announces multimillion-dollar redress fund after killings and abuse claims at Tanzanian project

Published

2 weeks ago

April 10, 2025

witnessradio.org

A pastoralist indicates the border of Ruaha national park after the expansion. People allege they have faced violent evictions, disappearances and had cattle seized. Photograph: Michael Goima/The Guardian

Communities in Ruaha national park reject response to alleged assault and evictions of herders during tourism scheme funded by the bank.

The World Bank is embarking on a multimillion-dollar programme in response to alleged human rights abuses against Tanzanian herders during a flagship tourism project it funded for seven years.

Allegations made by pastoralist communities living in and around Ruaha national park include violent evictions, sexual assaults, killings, forced disappearances and large-scale cattle seizures from herders committed by rangers working for the Tanzanian national park authority (Tanapa).

The pastoralists say most of the incidents took place after the bank approved $150m (£116m) for the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (Regrow) project September in 2017, aimed at developing tourism in four protected areas in southern Tanzania in a bid to take pressure off heavily touristed northern areas such as Ngorongoro and the Serengeti.

In 2023, two individuals wrote to the bank accusing some Tanapa employees of “extreme cruelty” during cattle seizures and having engaged in “extrajudicial killings” and the “disappearance” of community members.

The Oakland Institute, a US-based thinktank that is advising the communities, and which alerted the World Bank to abuses in April 2023, says Ruaha doubled in size from 1m to more than 2m hectares (2.5m to 5m acres) during the project’s lifetime – a claim the bank denies. It says the expansion took place a decade earlier. Oakland claims 84,000 people from at least 28 villages were affected by the expansion plan.

This week, the bank published a 70-page report following its own investigation, which found “critical failures in the planning and supervision of this project and that these have resulted in serious harm”. The report, published on 2 April, notes that “the project should have recognised that enhancing Tanapa’s capacity to manage the park could potentially increase the likelihood of conflict with communities trying to access the park.”

Anna Bjerde, World Bank managing director of operations, said, “We regret that the Regrow project preparation and supervision did not sufficiently account for project risks, resulting in inadequate mitigation measures to address adverse impacts. This oversight led to the bank overlooking critical information during implementation.”

The report includes recommendations aimed at redressing harms done and details a $2.8m project that will support alternative livelihoods for communities inside and around the park. It will also help fund a Tanzanian NGO that provides legal advice to victims of crime who want to pursue justice through the courts.

A second, much bigger project, understood to be worth $110, will fund alternative livelihoods across the entire country, including Ruaha.

The total investment, thought to be the largest amount the bank has ever allocated to addressing breaches of its policies, is a reflection of the serious nature of the allegations.

The project aimed to increase management of Ruaha national park and develop it as a tourist asset. Photograph: Michael Goima/The Guardian

The bank had already suspended Regrow funding in April 2024 after its own investigation found the Tanzanian government had violated the bank’s resettlement policy and failed to create a system to report violent incidents or claim redress. The project was cancelled altogether in November 2024. A spokesperson said the bank “remains deeply concerned about the serious nature of the reports of incidents of violence and continues to focus on the wellbeing of affected communities”.

By the time the project was suspended the bank had already disbursed $125m of the $150m allocated to Regrow.

The Oakland Institute estimates that economic damages for farmers and pastoralists affected by livelihood restrictions, run into tens of millions of dollars.

Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute, said the “scathing” investigation “confirmed the bank’s grave wrongdoing which devastated the lives of communities. Pastoralists and farms who refused to be silenced amid widespread government repression, are now vindicated.”

She added that the bank’s response was “beyond shameful”.

“Suggesting that tens of thousands of people forced out of their land can survive with ‘alternative livelihoods’ such as clean cooking and microfinance is a slap in the face of the victims.”

Inspection panel chair Ibrahim Pam said critical lessons from the Regrow case will be applied to all conservation projects that require resettlement and restrict access to parks, especially those implemented by a law enforcement agency.

A herd of elephants crosses and dirt road next to a 4X4

A proportion of the new World Bank funding will go to support communities within Ruaha national park. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian

Regrow was given the go ahead in 2017. The Oakland Institute described its cancellation by the government in 2024 as a landmark victory, but said communities “remain under siege – still facing evictions, crippling livelihood restrictions and human rights abuses”.

In one village near the southern border of Ruaha, the brother of a young man who was killed three years ago while herding cattle in an area adjacent to the park, said: “It feels like it was yesterday. He had a wife, a family. Now the wife has to look after the child by herself.” He did not want to give his name for fear of reprisal.

Another community member whose husband was allegedly killed by Tanapa staff said: “I feel bad whenever I remember what happened to my husband. We used to talk often. We were friends. I was pregnant with his child when he died. He never saw his daughter. Now I just live in fear of these [Tanapa-employed] people.”

Cows grazing on harvested rice paddy fields in Ruaha national park, central Tanzania. Photograph: Michael Goima/The Guardian

The Oakland Institute said the affected communities reject the bank’s recommendations, and have delivered a list of demands that includes “reverting park boundaries to the 1998 borders they accepted, reparations for livelihood restrictions, the resumption of suspended basic services, and justice for victims of ranger abuse and violence.

“Villagers are determined to continue the struggle for their rights to land and life until the bank finally takes responsibility and remedies the harms it caused.”

The bank has said it has no authority to pay compensation directly.

Wildlife-based tourism is a major component of Tanzania’s economy, contributing more than one quarter of the country’s foreign exchange earnings in 2019. The bank has said any future community resettlement will be the government’s decision.

Source: The Guardian