tParks need peoples

The global movement
for tribal peoples’ rights

The destruction of Congo Basin tribes in the name of conservation

How will wesurvive?
Baka Cameroon

1 How will we survive?

Introduction
The wildlife guards beat us likeanimals. We want what they’re
doing to end.

The Baka and Bayaka “Pygmies,”1 like dozens of other rainforest tribesin the Congo Basin, are being illegally evicted from their ancestral
homelands in the name of conservation.

Bayaka woman, Congo, Sept. 4, 2016

National parks and other protected areas have been imposed on theirlands without their consent, often with little or no consultation. Someof the world’s largest conservation organizations, principally the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS),
were the key players involved in this carve-up of indigenous lands.
The Baka and Bayaka are accused of “poaching” when they hunt tofeed their families, both inside and outside these areas. Together with
their neighbors, they face harassment and beatings, torture and death.
The anti-poaching squads that commit these atrocities are funded andequipped by the same conservation organizations.
The harrowing accounts we have gathered here almost certainly
represent a small fraction of the real number of such cases – thevast majority go undocumented. All these abuses should have been
investigated swiftly and fairly, but almost always go unpunished, andare frequently denied.
This “green colonialism” is destroying lives, and is illegal.2 It is also
harming conservation. Scapegoating tribal people diverts action awayfrom tackling the real causes of environmental destruction in theCongo Basin: logging and corruption.
Logging companies carve new roads deep into the rainforest and bringoutsiders into previously remote regions. Wildlife trafficking networks
then take root, with the complicity of military elites, local authorities,
and, often, park guards. The big conservation organizations legitimize
the loggers’ presence by forming “partnerships” with them.
The Baka and Bayaka have depended on and managed theirforests for hundreds of years, and know what is happening in thembetter than anyone. In their bid to save what they wrongly viewed
as “wildernesses,” conservation organizations have excluded thosepeople best placed to look after them. Many of these victims have now
come to associate conservation with hunger3 and violence.
Abuses like these are taking place across the world, and it’s time tostop the con. The big conservation organizations must start asking
local people whether they want outside help to protect their own
lands, and offering their resources only where they’re wanted. The
power structure must be inverted. That would be a win-win for boththe environment as well as the people.

2 How will we survive?

How indigenous lands in the Congo Basin have been carved upv

Parks and reserves

logging zones

trophy hunting zones

Source: Global Forest Watch

Tell the world, so
the anti-poachingsquads won’t
beat usParks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

Cameroon:
WWF complicit in theft of Baka land
In 1991 the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) invited a team of researchers
to assess its proposals for a protected area in southeast Cameroon.4
The Baka “Pygmies” and their neighbors the Bangando5 who the teamspoke to were worried that animals and trees that they wanted to passon to future generations were being wiped out. Those responsible,
they said, were powerful people, loggers and trophy-hunters who had
been awarded licenses by the Cameroonian government.
The Baka and Bangando would be an asset to the protected area,
the researchers pointed out, since they used the land sustainably andcould help monitor it against poachers. The researchers therefore
called for the destruction of the forest by outsiders to be curbed, andfor local people’s rights to be protected. This, they explained, would
involve focusing on professional poaching networks rather than thosehunting to feed their families.
The very opposite took place. Ten years after the Baka and Bangando
explained their plight, WWF backed the creation of the Lobéké
National Park. The Baka and their neighbors were illegally evicted fromthe park and from the trophy-hunting areas that WWF helped set up
as “buffer zones.” WWF decided to partner with logging companies,
even though these had not sought or received the Baka’s consent tooperate on their land. A study published the year after the park was
created found that the WWF project had been unable to restrain thereal poachers.6
Lobéké was not the first time the Baka’s land had been stolen fora “protected area,” and it was not to be the last. Boumba Bek and
Nki National Parks soon followed in 2005, and the Ngoyla Wildlife
Reserve in 2014. Nowadays anti-poaching squads supported by
WWF routinely raze entire forest camps to the ground, both inside andoutside national parks. The violence they visit upon the Baka and theirneighbors knows no bounds: victims have included pregnant women,
the elderly and infirm – even small children. WWF has been aware of
the persecution of the Baka by the guards it supports for over 15 years
but has consistently failed to take effective action.

Parks need peoples

6 How will we survive? Cameroon

Those who do use this zone
carry on practices that [...]
ensure a rational use of theland, thus contributing to themaintenance of ecologicalbalance.
Consultancy report for WWF, 19917

White men came to tell us thatthe forest is protected and that
we can no longer live there.
[…] We had no choice, because
they told us that they will beatand kill us if they find us in theforest.
The wildlife guards have killed
many Baka from our area.
Baka man, southeast of the Dja Reserve, Aug.
2003 8

April 30, 1991

Survival International, concerned that WWF’s
proposals for southeast Cameroon will result in thetheft of the Baka’s land, writes to WWF Cameroon.

May 16, 1991

Alec Leonhardt, an anthropologist who has worked
with Baka, advises WWF Cameroon about its
proposals for Baka land:
The main problem for Baka I believe is not the risk ofcultural contaminants, but the elimination of territoryand subsistence.9

January 1997
Bethléem

The Cameroonian government tells the Baka
community of Bethléem to leave their forest campon the Limbombolo river, in what will become
Lobéké National Park.10

Early 2000s11
PK27

A whole Baka community near what will become
Lobéké National Park is burned to the groundby wildlife guards, and several people’s birthcertificates are destroyed.

2000
Djamena

The Baka community of Djamena is evicted byforce from what will become Boumba Bek National
Park.12

7 How will we survive? Cameroon

Enforcement activities
are highly susceptible tocorruption. Once enforcement
reaches a certain corruption
level it can become: (1)Ineffective/counterproductive,(2) Abusive of the weakest.
Ofir Drori, wildlife law enforcement expert, toSurvival, March 16, 201613

March 19, 2001 Lobéké National Park is created on the Baka’s
land without their free, prior and informed
consent, with the support of WWF, the Global
Environment Facility and the German government.
Under Cameroonian law they can no longer enter
it to hunt or gather.
A small “community zone” is later created within
the park but hunting remains forbidden, and many
Baka are unable to make use of it.

September 2001 The persecution of Baka by wildlife guards insoutheast Cameroon is presented as a case study
at a conference in Rwanda, attended by WWF
staff.14

Feb. 4, 2003
Gbine

Martin Cradick of Global Music Exchange writes to
HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, President of WWF.
He warns that “a generation of Baka” is being“terrorised” by anti-poaching squads, and that the
Baka “only knew of the WWF as a European body
who was trying to throw them off their traditional
hunting grounds.”

mid 2000s
Ayene

A Baka man from Ayene is beaten by wildlife
guards inside the Dja Reserve.

They took all of my hunting cables, burned the hut,and then one wildlife guard took off all my clothes andbeat my crotch with a stick. It hurt to urinate for a longtime after.
Baka man, Ayene, July 15, 2013

They have killed
many people
among usParks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

9 How will we survive? Cameroon

We will die of hunger. [...] All ofthese people often beat us andthreaten us when they comeacross us in the forest.
Chief of Ngatto Ancien, 200915

Our means of transport areused by [the] wildlife guards.
These wildlife guards commit
abuses, but less and less.

December 2003 A seminar is held in which researchers from Kyoto
University explain their concern to WWF and the
Cameroonian government that the proposed Nki
National Park will deprive the Baka of their lands.

October 2004

WWF, 200916

A pair of researchers find that wildlife guards fromthe Dja Reserve have been carrying out “excessive,
systematic and incomprehensible” repression
against Baka.
In one village alone they are told of four Baka whohave died from violence inflicted by the guards.17

2004

A report contrasts the “persecution of indigenous
and local communities” by wildlife guards in the Dja
Reserve with “the unmolested traffic of bushmeat
out of their areas by commercial operators.”
It warns that Baka are threatened with eviction fromtheir ancestral lands inside Boumba Bek National
Park, even though they depend almost entirely on
hunting and gathering to survive.18

Feb. 8, 2005

A news report finds that many Baka have foundthemselves imprisoned for subsistence hunting.19

Oct. 6, 2005

Boumba Bek and Nki National Parks are createdon the Baka’s land without their free, prior andinformed consent, with the support of WWF.
Under Cameroonian law they can no longer enter
these areas to hunt and gather.

10 How will we survive? Cameroon

You’re letting the elephants dieout in the forest at the sametime as you’re stopping people
from feeding themselves.

February 2006

A study finds that “poor and vulnerable” people
from the Dja Reserve have lost their rights andaccess to “vast tracks of forest,” and that wildlife
guards confiscate even medicinal tree bark, as wellas meat and fish caught in the areas that thesepeople have been left with.20

June 2006

A study notes the “complete lack of consultationand participation” with local communities in the Dja
Reserve, and that there are reports of Baka being
killed during crackdown raids by wildlife guards.

Baka man to wildlife guards, Moangue leBosquet, July 18, 2013

One Baka man has told the researchers: “We havethe impression that [the wildlife guards] have been
sent here to kill us.”Sometimes they would organize unexpected visits toour camps where they would make us come out andthey would beat us in front of the whole village, simply
for being suspected of killing animals.
Baka man, Bengbis district21

11 How will we survive? Cameroon

Left:

This map illustrates areas of high gorilla density in one part of the Baka’s ancestral land in Cameroon,
demonstrating that gorillas thrive in areas used by the Baka.22

Right: In the Brazilian Amazon, protected tribal territories provide the best defence against deforestation, 		as these satellite images illustrate. In Cameroon, the government has failed to recognize the Baka’s
collective land ownership rights.

12 How will we survive? Cameroon

We torture them when they
don’t want to tell the truth. [...] If
we beat someone, it’s because
he’s involved [in poaching] andhe doesn’t want to talk.

April 2007

Balla Ottou Apollinaire, Ministry of Forests
and Fauna, March 201223

A report notes that the behaviour of wildlife guards
in and around Boumba Bek and Nki National Parks
since the end of 2005 has resulted in:a series of human rights abuses against Baka
including the complete destruction of camps, villages
and other possessions such as cooking pots andidentity cards and confiscation of tools including
machetes, axes and spears.

The wildlife guards themselves
were very open about theirinterrogation tactics. [...] When I
asked what would happen
when another potential
poacher was identified, he said:“His skin will come off.”

There are also serious allegations of violence byguards against local Baka men and women, which
after investigation by the bodies involved led tosanctions against individual guards, and an overall
renewal of guard staff in southeast Cameroon during
2006.25

Former WWF consultant, Jan. 21, 201424

2007
Messo

A Baka forest camp in Messo is torched at night by
wildlife guards and a Baka family from Ngola 120,near Boumba Bek National Park, is beaten.

He was camping for a fishing trip with his family in theforest of Messo when his camp was burned down in
the night [...]. The things he’d fished, his radio and his
ID were burned. He and his family were beaten andchased into the night.
Investigation report, 200926

2007
Kagna

A Baka forest camp near Boumba Bek National
Park is destroyed by wildlife guards.

13 How will we survive? Cameroon

For three weeks he justdefecated blood. Then [...] I
lifted the bedsheet and saw that
he was already dead and the
bed was wet with blood.
Kounabembe man,27 describing a man who
was beaten seven years earlier. Zoulabot
Ancien, July 28, 2016

July 2008

In a meeting with WWF, Baka raise “serious
allegations of human rights abuses” by wildlife
guards, including “beatings for people found inside
the park, for anyone found hunting near the park,and virtually anywhere they were encountered in
the forest.”

When WWF arrived did they find this forest
destroyed? No, they came because the forest wasrich [...] and we showed them all these places they
now want to protect.
Baka, Mambele, June 200828

December 2008 The International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) publishes a report on conservation insoutheast Cameroon. It finds that local people areangry at the abuse they are victims of, and the factthat the agents in charge of conservation are in
reality complicit in the traffic of endangered species.

If they find you with one or two small antelopes, they
confiscate them, you’re going to suffer. They beat you
up. They nearly killed a Pygmy guy here on the bridge.
They beat him so badly they nearly burst his eye, for
one small animal.
Informant, Landjoué, 200829

Wildlife guards
fired pepper
spray at me
Parks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

15 How will we survive? Cameroon

They made people look at thesun so they ruined theireyes. They told them that if
they didn’t look at the sun theywould beat them hard.

2008/2009
Ngatto Ancien

Baka man, Ngatto Ancien, July 22, 2014

Baka are taken by wildlife guards to the WWFbase in Malea Ancien, by Boumba Bek National
Park. Several men are tortured; one dies after a
few weeks and another dies a few months later.
Medicines and food are destroyed.

I was ill when they came. I ran out of the houseand kept falling and getting up and falling again. My
daughter started to cry. She thought I was going todie.
Baka man, roughly 75 years old, Ngatto Ancien, Aug.
3, 2014.

We were lying on our stomachs on the cement in the[WWF] base. They beat all of us all over our bodies,from our feet to our heads.
Baka man, Elandjoh, Aug. 3, 2014

June 9, 2009
Etole

During a raid in the Etole forest, near Nki National
Park, the Achilles tendon of one Baka man issevered by a wildlife guard.30

2009
NdongoA team of wildlife guards and two WWF staff
members steal the fish, spears and fishing nets
from a Baka family near Nki National Park.

2009

One wildlife guard is sentenced to six months inprison for having assaulted a Baka man, who wasleft blind by the attack.31

2009
Zoulabot Ancien

One man is whipped and another loses an eye
during a raid by wildlife guards and soldiers inZoulabot Ancien, near Nki National Park.32

16 How will we survive? Cameroon

They make people get
undressed, so the person is
naked, without any clothes atall. They make him or her geton their knees and beat themwith machetes, and they takewater and pour it over them.
Even if the person is holding
a child, they’ll pour water on
them.

2009
Ngatto Ancien

Inhabitants of Ngatto Ancien are beaten during
a raid by wildlife guards and soldiers in Ngatto
Ancien, near Nki National Park.34

January 2010

Cameroonian and international NGOs file asubmission to the UN Committee on the Eliminationof Racial Discrimination:

Baka man, Ndjamena, July 24, 201433

Game wardens hired by the State are violently beating
up and terrorising indigenous peoples in protectedareas.35

May 2010

The same organizations file a submission to theAfrican Commission on Human and Peoples’
Rights concerning, among other issues, evictionsof indigenous people from protected areas insoutheast Cameroon. It outlines how wildlife guards
have physically assaulted indigenous people andburned down their houses.36

June 2010

During an investigation into the impacts of industrialscale logging in southeast Cameroon, Baka in several
villages tell Global Witness that they are often beaten
by wildlife guards for hunting and gathering.
They also report that the guards often destroy or
confiscate their pots used for these activities­­­.37

When we got up,
they would kickus to the groundagain
Parks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

18 How will we survive? Cameroon

I spent more than five days inthe forest. Wounded, I dragged
my foot in order to get here.
In the village, they thought
I’d died. I will never forget theface of that WWF agent. [...] Pus
was coming out everywhere. I
couldn’t even get up.

November 2010 A Friends of the Earth (FoE) employee speaks to
Baka victims of wildlife guard violence. One manshows him the injuries he sustained when guards
beat the soles of his feet with machetes.
The FoE employee is shown the police reportissued against a WWF staff member involved in an
incident of violence, and raises his concerns withWWF during a meeting in Cameroon.39

Baka man from Lopango, 201138

2010
LopangoA Baka man from Lopango, near Boumba Bek
National Park, is crippled and hospitalized by ananti-poaching squad after they find him with a smallboar.

I can’t work in a field, I can’t fish, I can’t hunt. WWF
has left me useless for my village and my family.
They forbid the Baka from hunting but they let white
people kill animals for fun. The [hunting] safaris letmeat rot in the forest and yet whole families are
hungry.
Richards Ndongo, Baka man, 201140

2010
Gbine

A forest camp near Boumba Bek National Park is
destroyed. A Baka representative complains at a
local park management meeting, but nothing is
done.

2010
Gbine

A Baka man from Gbine, near Boumba Bek
National Park, is tortured by wildlife guards andhospitalized; he is unable to walk properly forweeks afterwards.

19 How will we survive? Cameroon

Now there are no more oldpeople, only young people
because of our new diet andnew illnesses. We die of simple
illnesses because we can’t treat
the sick like before.

February 2011
NdongoWildlife guards and soldiers make several raids
in Ndongo and neighbouring villages near Nki
National Park. At least five Baka men are said tohave died from their beatings. Many flee to Congo.

July 2, 2011

The Forest Peoples Programme and the
Cameroonian organization Centre pourl’Environnement et le Développement note that:“WWF’s principles are changing on paper but
mostly ignored in reality” and that indigenous
people like the Baka “continue to be harassed
daily by armed [wildlife guards] stopping them fromentering their forest for subsistence.”41

Baka woman, Ndjamena, July 28, 2013

September 2011 Baka in Mbouda, near Nki National Park, arebeaten by wildlife guards and soldiers as they are
Mboudareturning from a funeral.

They beat us, all of us, the women were crying. Theybeat the soles of our feet as well. [...] We had to walkback, very slowly because our feet were bleeding.
Baka man, Mbouda, July 22, 2014

Wildlife guards
handcuffed me
and kicked me.
Again and again
Parks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

21 How will we survive? Cameroon

We are dying of starvation, us
and our children. [Now] when
we enter the forest the
WWF chase us and when the
WWF catch you they beat you.

2011
LibongoBaka man, Yenga, 201142

Baka in Libongo, near Lobéké National Park, talkwith a researcher about being driven from the forest
and abused by wildlife guards.
They explain that the logging company (and former
WWF partner) SEFAC has created logging trails,
which trophy-hunting outfits then use. They saythat the trophy-hunting outfit burns their homes in
the forest.

They beat us so much when
they come across us in theforest. But [...] that is where
everything important in ourlives is. [So] even when the
wildlife guards smash our faces
in, we just go in, we still go in.

When they found us [the wildlife guards] said we mustleave and never come back. [...] I did not ask why,because they beat me and brought me here to theroad.

Baka man, Gribe, Aug. 15, 201143

Baka man, Libongo, 201144

2011
Yenga

Baka from Yenga, between Boumba Bek andLobéké National Parks, claim that wildlife guards
are violently preventing them from using the forest.
WWF claims to receive evidence questioning theveracity of their complaints but never releases it.

2011
Gbine

An anti-poaching squad beats a Baka man withburning-hot machetes in the forest near Boumba
Bek National Park.

2011
Otontan

A Baka forest camp on the Otontan river, near the
Dja Reserve, is torched to the ground and Baka
men and women are beaten by an anti-poachingsquad. A professional hunter associated with the
Madrid-based trophy-hunting outfit Mayo Oldiri ispresent.

22 How will we survive? Cameroon

They made my daughter
crouch down and beat her
everywhere, on her back, herbottom, everywhere, with amachete. They are finishing
us off. They beat Mimbou, he’sdead. They beat Yombo, he’s
dead.

2011
Mbaka

Wildlife guards come across a Baka man fishingnear Nki National Park and steal his fish and fishingequipment.

When I went to do some fishing, they found me andtook all my fish. They will just eat that. [...] I caughtthat fish for a celebration. They just took it to eat it.

Baka man, Mbaka, Aug. 3, 2016

Baka man, Mbaka, Aug. 3, 20162011

Researcher Nathan Clay at the University ofMichigan confirms that when they set out to create
Lobéké National Park
conservationists asked the Baka to guide them to therich areas of wildlife, only to then exclude them fromthe zones.

He has found that wildlife guards
are said to harass people even [outside the park]or even if they are just hunting for subsistence, andmoreover that they just take the confiscated meat andeat it themselves.45

To burn down
your hut is toburn part of yourlife, your power
Parks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

24 How will we survive? Cameroon

At midday you’ll see thechildren crying. You’ll thinkthat they’re ill but it’s hunger
that’s attacking them. It wasn’t
like this before.

March 2012
Ngatto Ancien

Baka man, Mbouda, Aug. 4, 2016

During a raid on Ngatto Ancien, near Nki National
Park, one Baka man is waterboarded and others
beaten by wildlife guards.
A former WWF consultant is present in the village
at the time of the attack. She goes to speak
to the local head of wildlife conservation in the
Cameroonian government, who attempts to justify
the use of torture to her.

They stamped on my chest with their combat boots.
They took the butts of their gun to beat me, on bothshoulders. They took water that I’d put in bowls andpoured it all over my body. [..] I said: “How can I die
without knowing the reason why?”
Baka man, Ngatto Ancien, March 26, 2012

March 2012

Dr. Jerome Lewis, an anthropologist at University
College London, writes that the Baka living closer
to national parks are
upset about conservationists such as WWF (named
dobédobé by the Baka) and the violent behaviour of‘eco-guards’ burning down camps, harassing andbeating both men and women for what the Baka
consider absolutely normal, traditional and legitimate
activities.46

He confirms that Boumba Bek and Nki National
Park were created without consulting indigenous
communites.

25 How will we survive? Cameroon

Even if a woman is pregnant,they beat her. Even if she hasa child with her, they beat her.
God created lots of things in theforest that our parents left to us.
Now they are forbidden to us.
Baka, Ngatto Ancien, July 27, 2016

March 2012

WWF’s former Regional Coordinator admits that theways in which the Baka lived in and used the forest“were largely invisible and ignored” when Boumba
Bek and Nki National Parks were zoned. The
participation of the Baka in the zoning process was“very small” and “unsatisfactory” as a result.47

June-Sept. 2012 Several Baka from Ngatto Ancien are beaten ina willd mango gathering camp near Nki National
Lepe
Park, and a teenager is told by wildlife guards thatthey will slit his throat. Possessions are stolen.

They started beating. They told me they were going totake me and slit my throat when they finished beating
me. Commando pointed his gun and said: “If anyone
moves, we will kill them.” They came at five in themorning, with torches, walking in the rain.
Baka man, roughly 18 years old, Ngatto Ancien, July
31, 2014

December 2012 Several Baka men are beaten by wildlife guards
during a raid in Ngatto Ancien, near Nki National
Ngatto Ancien
Park.

They threw us to the ground. [...] When we got up
they would kick us to the ground again. They did thisfive times.
Baka man, Ngatto Ancien, July 31, 2014

Everytime I criedout they beat me,
until I fell to thegroundParks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

27 How will we survive? Cameroon

I think your work is very
important for helping us Baka.
Baka wildlife guard to Survival, Cameroon,
July 2016

December 2012 In a video recorded in Gbine, near Boumba Bek
National Park, one Baka man says:
Gbine
if the [soldiers] find you with steel cables [for trappinggame], they put a machete in the fire and beat you
hard.48

2012
Lomié

Several Baka are arrested by wildlife guards on ahunting trip near Lomié, and have all their pots andpans confiscated.

2012
NdongoSeveral Baka from Ndongo and Nguilili are beaten
by wildlife guards near Nki National Park. They are
made to crawl on their knees for a long distance,
and then chased on motorbikes. A pregnant
woman is hit in the stomach with a machete.

They wanted to get information by torturing us. They
tackled me and I fell to the floor. They made us all
crawl on our knees for a great distance. Then they
made us run as they followed us on their motorbikes
and accelerated, for more than a kilometer.
Baka man, Ndongo, July 28, 2013

2012
MboudaBaka in Mbouda, near Nki National Park, areassaulted by wildlife guards who are looking for
illegal loggers.

They started beating us – it was chaos. [...] After that
Ndengba was sick, he grew so thin. He was so ill that
he died.
Baka man, Mbouda, July 22, 2014

28 How will we survive? Cameroon

They are finishing off the Baka’s
power. When they arrive in a
camp, even if a Baka is there
they set fire to it. They stop himfrom taking out the things he’dleft. Now all his power is gone.

2012
Salapoumbe

Several people are arrested for alleged elephanthunting near Salapoumbe, between Boumba Bek
and Lobéké National Parks. They are beaten andforced to eat raw elephant meat.

Early 2013
NdongoWildlife guards and WWF employees burn down
at least three fishing camps near Nki National Parkand confiscate fish.

March 2013
Bele

A Baka forest camp near Nki National Park is
destroyed by wildlife guards.

March 2013
Nkolfong

Filmmaker Monique Munting interviews Baka men
and women about wildlife guard violence near
what will become the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.
She meets a blind man who has been tortured bywildlife guards.49

Baka man, Elandjoh, July 30, 2016

We catch a bit of meat, sometimes we just find somemushrooms. But the wildlife guards take everything.
Sometimes they take our machetes. They take thefood right from out of our stewpots. Sometimes they
set our homes on fire.
Baka, Nkolfong, March 17, 2013

Anti-poaching
guards beat mychildrenParks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

30 How will we survive? Cameroon

We don’t want to die when
we go into the forest, or fallill, because we are afraid ofthem beating us – beating ourchildren, beating old men andburning down our houses.

April 2013
MessokBaka woman, Ndjamena, October 201550

Wildlife guards and a WWF employee threaten anelderly Baka man with torture in a village in the
district of Messok, near Nki National Park. They
drive him away from his village and leave him towalk back on foot.

They threatened to handcuff him and to send him to
jail “where he will be hanged by the feet until he talks.”
Witness’ account, Feb. 3, 2016

May 2013

The United Nations reviews a submission filedby the Cameroonian organization Centre pourl’Environnement et le Développement. The
submission notes that “the burden of suspicion forpoaching falls all too often” on indigenous people
like the Baka, and that wildlife guards
employ torture, arbitrary punishment, brutality, andintimidation, creating an atmosphere of fear andhorror in [indigenous] villages.51

June 2013
Zoulabot Ancien

Baka teenagers are interrogated and beaten
by wildlife guards at Zoulabot Ancien, near Nki
National Park.

August 2013
Tembe Rivière

Wildlife guards burn a foraging camp and throw
belongings into a river near Tembe Rivière, near Nki
National Park.

31 How will we survive? Cameroon

They jumped on her – apregnant woman. She started
to cry: “You’ve come to kill us in
the forest. At least kill me withmy husband.” They hit her withthe end of a gun, she fell andthey kicked her with their bootson her back.

October 2013

Cameroonian and international NGOs file a
supplementary report with the African Commission
on Human and Peoples’ Rights:
In some cases, indigenous peoples have been forcibly
expelled from these areas; and some continue to bedenied access, in some cases through violent acts byState agents.52

Baka man, Mbaka, July 25, 2014

Nov. 14, 2013
NgoylaA wildlife guard shoots at four Baka, seriously
injuring one of them, near what will become the
Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.53

December 2013 Wildlife guards and soldiers raid several villages
along the road by Boumba Bek and Nki
Ngatto Ancien
National Parks. Tools are stolen and clothes andschoolbooks are burned.

They came into my house and they slapped mychildren. They broke my suitcase and took threeloincloths. They took my daughter’s exercise books
and burned them together with my loincloths.
Baka man, Ngatto Ancien, Aug. 2, 2014

Before 2014
Ntam

Three Baka men are beaten by wildlife guards, near
what will become the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.

Without waiting they just started beating us. We
could’ve died. They wanted to put us in a cell. They
told us to beat each other up.
Baka man, Ntam, July 21, 2016

Parks need peoples

In April 2014 a Baka couple were
dragged from their beds and beaten
by wildlife guards. These medical
reports describe their injuries.
Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve Cameroon

33 How will we survive? Cameroon

I just had one piece of clothingtied around me. They took me
to the middle of the road andtied my hands with rubbercord. My children ran to me but
the wildlife guards drove themaway. [...] They forced my hands
behind my back and cut mehere with their machete.
Baka woman, Assoumindele, June 201554

April 2014
Assoumindele

Wildlife guards take a Baka man and wife from theirbeds during the night, beat them, and strip thewoman of her clothes. This takes place near what
will become the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve. Medical
records appear to support the Baka’s accounts.

April 2014
Makamekouma

Wildlife guards beat two Baka teenage boys near
what will become the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve andsteal their phones.
The head of the squad is Mpaé Désiré, who will bedismissed from his post in 2016 for complicity inivory trafficking.

April 2014
Lele

Wildlife guards beat a Baka man with a machete,
severing his Achilles tendon, near what will become
the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.

April 2014
Seh

A Baka man is beaten by wildlife guards near what
will become the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.

I had wounds on my feet and my legs. Blood was
flowing everywhere. They took two small sachetsof whiskey. They said: “Take that, put it on yourwounds.” “Never.”Baka man, Seh, July 21, 2016

34 How will we survive? Cameroon

They didn’t even ask anyquestions. They started beating
him wildly – hitting him
with machetes and kicking
him in the stomach. He evendefecated, vomited – he was
defecating blood.

Aug. 27, 2014

The Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve is created on the
Baka’s land, without their free, prior and informed
consent, with the support of the World Bank,
WWF and the Global Environment Facility.
Under Cameroonian law hunting and gatheringby the Baka is outlawed unless and until it isapproved in a management plan, a process that
can take several years.

Njem man, Ngoyla, July 22, 201655

In 2017 a management plan has yet to be
adopted for Nki National Park, some 12 years
after the park was created.

October 2014
NdongoBaka and Bakwele write to WWF, asking it tosuspend funding to the anti-poaching squads thatare abusing them.56

November 2014 A Baka man in Gribe, near Boumba Bek National
Park, is beaten by an anti-poaching squad.
Gribe

December 2014 A Baka man is assaulted by a wildlife guard andtold to take off his clothes, near Nki National Park.
Mindourou

They beat thesoles of my feetand the base of
my spine
Parks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

36 How will we survive? Cameroon

We ask WWF and all those who
give money to the Nki Park tocome here, speak to us and get
our consent before carrying onwith their work. We want to live
like we did before. If we don’t,
we and our children are unable
to live.

2014

Dr. Edith Neubauer, an anthropologist who has
worked with Baka, explains how the Baka havenot given their free, prior and informed consent to
Boumba Bek or Lobéké National Parks and thatWWF has not complied with its stated policy on
indigenous peoples.

Baka, Ngatto Ancien, July 27, 2016

When they send the wildlife guards into the forest, thefirst thing [they do] is find a Baka man in the forest.
They have to beat him, that is whip him, kick his teethin, then they need to take away everything he has
there.
Baka man, Koal, Aug. 13, 201157

2014

A team of biologists and a lawyer publish a reporton improving the legal framework on wildlife
resources in Cameroon. They report abuses by
wildlife guards are still common.
They hear that even legally hunted animals arebeing taken away from hunters and that roleof corruption in the illegal wildlife trade is going
unaddressed.58

2014
ElandjohMembers of a Baka family in Elandjoh, near Nki
National Park, are beaten by wildlife guards.

37 How will we survive? Cameroon

Many cases of abuse andhuman rights violations arereported by the communities
and their perpetrators are
identified and known but notdisciplined by their superiors,
despite the communities’
condemnation, with proof, andthe victims’ witness statements.

Early 2015
LibongoA Baka man is forced by wildlife guards, soldiersand police to carry his father on his back asthey beat him, until he falls to the ground. They
confiscate his ID card and force him to pay 5000
CFA to retrieve it. A Baka’s daily wage in this regionis 500 CFA. This takes place near Lobéké National
Park.

Internal WWF report, April 201559

They told me to carry my father on my back. I walked,
they beat me, they beat my father. For three hours.
Every time I cried they would beat me, until I fainted
and fell to the ground with my father. [...] Then one
wildlife guard stood on my shins in his combat boots.
They beat me hard, so hard.
Baka man, Libongo, Aug. 6, 2016

April 2015

An internal WWF report confirms that key parts ofWWF’s human rights policy are not being followed,
and that the Baka have not given their consent to,or even been consulted about, Lobéké, Boumba
Bek and Nki National Parks.
The report finds that the protected areas “threaten[the Baka’s] land rights and means of subsistence.”
It also notes that some wildlife guards “behave likemasters and lords,” mounting “crackdowns” that“are the most terrifying of all missions [...] most of
the local villages are affected.”
It concludes that there is “no reliable way [forcommunities] to report allegations.”60

May 18, 2015
ElandjohWildlife guards detain an elderly Baka man in
Elandjoh, near Nki National Park. As his pregnant
daughter runs for help she trips over a log; she
suffers a miscarriage later that night.

Anti-poachingsquads beat us,
kill us and force
us to flee thecountry

Parks need peoples
Cameroon’s forest peoples
are beaten and torturedby anti-poaching squads funded by big conservation
organizations including the World Wide Fund for Nature,
WWF. This elderly woman was attacked with pepper
spray and her cooking pots destroyed.

Baka Cameroon

39 How will we survive? Cameroon

The wildlife guards don’t
consider us to be human beings.
Baka man, Seh, July 21, 2016

June-Sept. 2015 A Baka wild mango gathering camp near Lobéké
National Park is burned to the ground by wildlife
Mikililiguards.

Sept.-Nov. 2015 Within a few weeks wildlife guards and soldiers
come twice to Mindourou, near Nki National Park.
Mindourou
They assault a total of four Baka men, including anelderly man.

They kicked our old father with their boots. He’s still
unwell now.
Baka woman, Mindourou, Aug. 3, 2016

December 2015 Wildlife guards and police beat two Baka men andsteal their telephones, machetes and a torch, andKaragoa
destroy their stewpots, near the Ngoyla Wildlife
Reserve. They force the two men to jump into the
Karagoa River 10 times.

They asked each of us to dive into the river 10 times.
It was so cold, being the early morning – 10 times.
[...] After that they handcuffed me and told me to lie
down so they could slit my throat.
Baka man, Ntam, July 21, 2016

40 How will we survive? Cameroon

They beat him with a macheteon his feet and took off his
clothes. His feet were swollen
like this. For two weeks. He
couldn’t even walk to go to thetoilet. He went to the toilet in his
house.
Baka man, Zoulabot Ancien, July 28, 2016

December 2015 Wildlife guards kick and beat Baka men, womenand children with belts and machetes, and burn
Ntenyitheir property, near the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.

They burned clothes and things in the house. They
cut up a mattress and even burned it. They beatme with machetes and belts and they kicked andpunched me.
Baka woman, Ntam, July 21, 2016

December 2015 Wildlife guards beat two children and one man near
the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve. The man spends overDjadom
two weeks in a coma in the regional hospital.
On a separate day, another man is beaten by
wildlife guards and the Park Warden of theReserve. On their way back to Ngoyla, the WWF
driver purposefully knocks two men carrying meat
off their motorcycle and the guards beat them,confiscating the meat and the motorcycle.

December 2015 A Baka forest camp is burned and stewpots andfood stolen or destroyed, near Lobéké National
Mabo
Park.

December 2015 Two Kounabembe men and four Baka men are
Zoulabot Ancien beaten by wildlife guards near Nki National Park.

They tortured me and sprayed gas in my eyes. Now
I can’t read for very long. Tears start to come to myeyes.
Kounabembe man, Zoulabot Ancien, July 28, 2016

Wildlife guards
told me theywould slit mythroatParks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

42 How will we survive? Cameroon

These cases of torture havebeen reported to us and I think
we must say that it’s true.
Rolf Sprung, Conservation Director, WWF
Cameroon, 201661

2015/2016
ElandjohWildlife guards enter the house of a Baka woman
who has just given birth asking to see her husband,
who they then assault.

2015/2016
NdongoWildlife guards beat a Baka man and take him to
the WWF base in Ndongo, near Nki National Park,
where they make him dance and sing.

January 2016
NdongoA team of Cameroonian and Congolese wildlife
guards beat a Baka girl, roughly 10 years old, andan older woman in Ndongo, near Nki National Park.

Early 2016
ElandjohA Baka forest camp is burned in the forest by
Elandjoh, near Nki National Park.

Early 2016
Makamekouma

A wildlife guard and a soldier force four Baka
teenagers to crawl on all fours down the road, near
the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve.

Feb. 19, 2016

Survival files a formal complaint with the Swissgovernment against WWF for contributing toviolations of the Baka’s rights in Cameroon.62

43 How will we survive? Cameroon

We ask WWF to stop funding
the anti-poaching teams thatthreaten and torture us.
Baka from Assoumindele and
Makamekouma, July 20, 2016

February 2016
LibongoA Baka man found with a small antelope near
Lobéké National Park is beaten by the local police
commander, forced to pay 50,000 CFA (roughly
100 days of wages) and told never to go into theforest again.
In May the police commander will be caught
trafficking ivory and removed from his post.
They took me to the police station. I spent two days
there. [The police commander] whipped me 45 times,on the soles of my feet and my buttocks.
Baka man, Libongo, Aug. 6, 2016

March 2016

The Forest Peoples Programme and the Baka
organization Okani note that Baka communities in
the region of the Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve
are seeing their access to the forest and theirtraditional resources restricted by [wildlife guard]
patrols (confiscation of traps and game, beatings,
being stopped for questioning), degradation of theforest itself by commercial loggers and poachers, andby mining activities.63

June 2016
Carrefour SEBCBaka men are assaulted by wildlife guards near
Boumba Bek National Park.

June 2016
Mabo

Wildlife guards burn a Baka forest camp near
Mabo, destroying stewpots and taking machetes
and spears.

June/July 2016
Lengounjene

A Baka wild mango gathering camp is torched at
Lengounjene, near Lobéké National Park.

Wildlife guards
beat us at the
WWF base.
We nearly diedParks need peoples

Baka Cameroon

45 How will we survive? Cameroon

Damage control may benecessary.
Email sent to Survival in error by Gunilla
Kuperus, WWF, on receiving information
about WWF-funded human rights abuse of
the Baka, Jan. 25, 2017

June/July 2016
KoumelaA wild mango gathering camp near Lobéké
National Park is burned to the ground by wildlife
guards and staff from the trophy-hunting operation
Mayo Oldiri. Eight Baka men and women arebeaten with machetes.

They broke one person’s hand – his blood was
flowing everywhere.
Baka man, Koumela, Aug. 5, 2016

July 2016
NtenyiA wildlife guard threatens a Baka woman in Ntenyi,
Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve, with a machete as she isgiving her baby a traditional herbal bath.

July 2016
LibongoA Baka forest camp is burned to the ground near
Lobéké National Park, together with mats andfood.

Aug. 6, 2016
LibongoBaka women looking for wild greens are told not to
go into the forest.

Late 2016
Ngolla 125

Wildlife guards beat Baka men, confiscate the meat
they have caught and detain them in the nearby
village of Salapoumbe.

Early 2017
LibongoWildlife guards and soldiers bind the hands andfeet of two Baka men and beat them, near Lobéké
National Park.

A Baka man is beaten by wildlife guards, near Nki
February 2017
Moloundou district National Park.

46 How will we survive? Cameroon

In each protected area, if you
have 20 or 30 wildlife guards,
there will be at least one
who is corrupt, but actuallysometimes, it tends to be theother way round: one of 20 who
is not corrupt.

March 8, 2017

The Forest Peoples Programme notes that in someforest areas of Cameroon, indigenous womenface human rights violations from conservation[wildlife guards] who regularly target forest
communities with impunity, intimidating and beating
people, and taking their hunting traps so they can nolonger feed themselves and their families.65

Luc Mathot, wildlife law enforcement
expert64

April 2017

The Baka organization Okani visits six communities in
the region of Boumba Bek, Nki and Lobéké National
Parks.
In all six communities, Baka report that wildlife guards
prevent them from accessing their lands and carry out
other human rights abuses against them, including
beatings and torture.

May 2, 2017

Survival awards WWF its “Greenwashing of the Year”
award for partnering with seven companies logging
nearly 4 million hectares of forests belonging to the
Baka and Bayaka.66
None of these companies has received the Baka’s
and Bayaka’s consent and all have been accused ofillegal logging, as Survival explains in a report, “WWFand the loggers.”67

August 2017
KoumelaA Baka man reports being stopped from gathering
wild mangos by wildlife guards and told that heneeded a permit.

August 2017
MilieuA Baka man is taken to the WWF base in Mambele,
detained and tortured by wildlife guards.

47 How will we survive? Cameroon

The wildlife guards beat us andterrorize us and our ancestral
lands lie within the park.
Baka and Kounabembe, Zoulabot Ancien,
July 29, 2016

August 2017
Ndjamena

At least three Baka men are beaten by a mixed teamof wildlife guards and soldiers.

Aug.-Sept. 2017 The Baka organization Okani visits six communities in
the region of Boumba Bek, Nki and Lobéké National
Parks.
In these communities, Baka report abuse by wildlife
guards. This includes guards burning down homes,
destroying possessions, beating people and using
torture in an attempt to obtain information aboutpoaching.

Sep. 13, 2017
Assoumindele

The Forest Peoples Programme publishes testimony
by a Baka woman from Assoumindele, near the
Ngoyla Wildlife Reserve. She describes being beaten,
along with her husband and another Baka man, by
wildlife guards.
They made us sit on the floor, with our legs out andour feet flexed. They hit our bare feet with the flatedge of a machete. Then they hit us on our bottoms.
They made us lie on our stomachs and stamped on
our back. They hit us. My husband nearly lost his eye.
It still hurts him today.
Baka woman, Assoumindele68

Parks need peoples
In 2016, Survival filed
a formal complaint
against WWF for contributing to human rights
violations in Cameroon. It was accepted by the
Swiss government – the first time a non-profit
organization had been scrutinized in this way.

Central African Republic:
WWF exposes Bayaka to abuse
Shortly before civil war broke out in the Central African Republic in
2013, a medical study found that health among Bayaka “Pygmies”
had plummeted in Dzanga-Sangha, a protected area complex createdin the southwest of the country with the support of the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) over 20 years earlier. “In the push to attract big budgets
to conserve forests and wildlife,” the authors of the study later
observed, conservationists and government officials had neglected toconsider the people who depended on these forests for their survival.69
They had also ridden roughshod over their rights.
Although many would be shocked by these findings, theconservationists and officials behind the “punitive anti-poachingpolicies” perhaps were not. Six years earlier, WWF and its partners
commissioned a report that found that the Bayaka in the reserve werealready struggling to feed themselves. The Bayaka interviewed for thereport stated that the conservation project had forced them out ofsome of their richest hunting and gathering grounds and had not leftthem with enough space for their vegetable gardens. They reported
that wildlife guards harassed or attacked them even when they tried
to use the reduced areas of land they had left, all the while accepting
bribes from the real poachers who were emptying the forest of its
wildlife. Some Bayaka women were finding it so hard to find food, theinvestigator heard, that they had been driven to sex work in the nearby
town.70
Calls for change were ignored, and today the Bayaka are still being
forced out of the forest by WWF-funded wildlife guards. WWF has
failed to take effective action to stop this. Victims of abuse include:
a woman who had just given birth to her late husband’s child; young
boys; and even a newborn baby. As the Bayaka continued to be
scapegoated in this way, WWF kept silent while the government
handed out logging permits for the heart of the reserve. In 2016,
WWF received over $165,000 to “collaborate” with the logging
company SINFOCAM, which has been accused of obtaining these
permits illegally. The company is now paying for wildlife guards anda surveillance drone to fight against poaching. Within half an hour ofSurvival’s meeting one of these wildlife guards in August 2016, he
was already making assurances: “I can help you transport anything:leopard skin, ivory. I put on my uniform and accompany you to theairstrip. I’ll be the one carrying the package.”Parks need peoples

51 How will we survive? Central African Republic

After one week when we foundhis body it was already rotten,
his hair was coming off hishead. We buried him there in
the forest. It was clear from his
body that he’d been shot. We
could see the prints of combat
boots and the batons thatwildlife guards beat poachers
with, so we knew it was thewildlife guards that did it. The
guards didn’t come back for amonth.

1989
Amopolo

A Bayaka man is assaulted by a wildlife guard inAmopolo.

A variety of knives and daggers hung from their belts.
They looked alarmingly like soldiers, and they had
recently been drinking. […] The taller guard, who
was holding the shotgun, was rapidly going berserk.
Now he ran up behind Bwanga, raised the gun,and slammed the butt into Bwanga’s back. Bwanga
stumbled forward.
Witness’ account, 199371

Bayaka widow, Kanza, Aug. 13, 2016

1989
NdiekeWildlife guards steal Bayaka’s spears, axes,
machetes, stewpots and plates, and tell them toleave the forest.

Dec. 29, 1990

The Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve andDzanga-Ndoki National Park are created on the
Bayaka’s land without their consent, with thesupport of WWF and the U.S. government. The
Bayaka are not allowed to enter the DzangaNdoki National Park.

Early 1990s
BabongoA Bayaka man is found murdered in the forest.
Judging by the scene and the presence of combat
boot prints, which at this time reportedly only
wildlife guards wear, his family conclude that he has
been killed by either Congolese or Cameroonian
wildlife guards.

1990s
BabongoA recently widowed Bayaka woman is assaulted bywildlife guards three days after giving birth.

52 How will we survive? Central African Republic

They started kicking me
all over my body with their
combat boots – I had my baby
with me. The child had justbeen born three days before.

1995
Mossapoula

Bayaka woman, Babongo, Aug. 13, 2016

The anthropologist Andrew Noss explains how
the Dzanga-Ndoki National Park in CAR and theNouabale-Ndoki National Park in Congo now
entirely occupy the original range for forest hunting
camps for the Bayaka community of Mossapoula.
He recounts that the Bayaka “still describe inanger one instance where the guards destroyed
or confiscated their pots and nets from a hunting
camp in the park” and that “they said they were‘afraid of being beaten.’”72

1995

Bayaka living by what will become MbaéréBodingué National Park describe how wildlife
guards take their wild greens, porcupines and otherfoods without explanation, as well as their hunting
equipment.73

September 1997 At a conference at Yale University, WWF observes
that the fact that the Bayaka are banned fromhunting or gathering inside the Dzanga-Ndoki Park
“punishes [them] severely” and is undermining theirfood security.
It also notes that the Bayaka are forced to look forfood in the park – from which they were illegallyevicted – because of overhunting in the rest of theDzanga-Sangha protected area complex.74

Wildlife
guards killed
my husband
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Central African Republic

54 How will we survive? Central African Republic

They beat us all over ourbodies, our backs, our chests
with pieces of wood. We weresore all over. “Why are you
wildlife guards beating us likethat? We were in school. I am aschoolboy, I don’t know where
the poachers are.” We had to go
back to the village on all fours.

May 1998
Yandoumbe

In a consultancy report for the Dzanga-Sangha
conservation project, researcher Louis Sarno writes
that the Bayaka community of Yandoumbe
have never been able to reconcile themselves to theloss of the well-trodden areas between the Kenye[river] and the Kongana secondary road. Often guards
chase them from this area and such incidents upset
them deeply, as well as outrage them.75

Bayaka man, Babongo, Aug. 13, 2016

1998
Gouanzala

A forest camp established by Bayaka from
Mossapoula is burned to the ground.

When I was small and living with my mother, thewildlife guards arrived. Everyone fled. If we’d stayed
they would have killed us. They burned our houses,
our pots, our clothes, our jerrycans.
Bayaka man, Yandoumbe, Aug. 17, 2016

July 16, 1999

Survival writes to WWF CAR, and raises the questionof upholding the Bayaka’s rights to use and accesstheir forest in Dzanga-Sangha.

early 2000s
BabongoFour young Bayaka boys are beaten by wildlife
guards.

55 How will we survive? Central African RepublicCertain project officials
acknowledged that they had
been made aware of thesepractices, but they all affirmedthat this was a thing of the pastas current reforms were said tohave cleaned up the situation.

early 2000s
Bambalanga

A Bayaka forest camp in Bambalanga is torched bywildlife guards.

The wildlife guards arrived in the afternoon, as thewomen were coming back with fish. The wildlife
guards burned down the camp. We were forced tosleep outside in the forest and come back the nextday. They burned all our clothes, our hunting nets, ourhunting charms.

Consultancy report for the conservation
project run by WWF and the CAR
government., 2006 76

Bayaka man, Yondo, Aug. 10, 2016

early 2000s
Ekoumbi

Wildlife guards break the wrist of a Bayaka manfrom Bomandjokou.

late 2000s
Bomandjokou

A group of Bayaka looking for wild honey are
stopped by wildlife guards outside the park andtwo Bayaka men handcuffed.

April 2006

WWF, and the Central African and German
governments, receive a consultancy report thatrecounts how Bayaka women have been attacked
by wildlife guards while dam fishing, and makes
clear that the Bayaka have been victims of otherforms of abuse.
Legally hunted meat has been confiscated andBayaka have been chased out of the zones
which they are authorized to use. They are also
concerned with the extent of corruption among
wildlife guards:[Bayaka] reproach the wildlife guards for setting
steel traps themselves, receiving bribes to let pastcertain poachers, for confiscating cables in order tocompensate themselves.77

Parks need peoples

They took my son’s
meat and spear
and beat him
Bayaka Central African Republic

57 How will we survive? Central African Republic

They put their guns to my head.
[...] They put me back in the car
and beat me all the way to the[WWF] project headquarters.
There they hit me more. Thena [white person who works at
WWF] took me to the police
station and left me there. They
said they would kill me.

April 2007

A report co-written by Bayaka lists protected area
restrictions as one of the main problems facing
indigenous people in the Central African Republic.
It describes how indigenous people cannot accesscertain sacred sites or practice certain activities. In
addition to this, the parts of forest they are left withare overhunted and degraded by others – “it’s we
who pay the price.”79

Bayaka man, Yandoumbe, October 200978

May 9 2007

Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park is created on
Bayaka land without their consent, with thesupport of the European Union.

June 2009

The Forest Peoples Programme argues that thelimits of Dzanga-Ndoki National Park must bechanged so that the communities of Mossapoula,
Babongo and Yondo have enough land to live on.
Bayaka from all three communities “complainedof violence at the hands of wildlife guards, whosometimes beat them and confiscated theirbelongings. This leads to fear of entering far into
the forest.”80

October 2009
Yandoumbe

A Bayaka man, with visible bruising, tells theresearcher Dr. Olivia Woodburne, at the Universityof Kent, how he has been attacked by wildlife
guards.

November 2009 A Bayaka man from Yondo tells Dr. Woodburne
how his mother was beaten by wildlife guards andYondodied shortly after.

58 How will we survive? Central African Republic

We were in a forest camp when
the guards came. We all ran
but they caught my mother.
They beat her on her back.
Three days later she died. I wasscared, so I didn’t report it.
Bayaka man, Yondo, November 200981

December 2009 A demonstration is held about a Bayaka boy being
beaten by wildlife guards. The boy’s belongings are
Yandoumbe
never returned.

2009

The researcher Dr. Chloe Hodgkinson at University
College London writes that the majority of Bayaka
in Mossapoula and Yandoumbe want their forests
to be returned to them.
She has heard “frequent complaints of
mistreatment by park guards, even when hunting
legally.” She has also found evidence of corruption
among wildlife guards.82

Feb. 2010

After speaking with Bayaka and their neighborsaround the Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park, CAR’s
High Commission on Human Rights and Good
Governance reports that they are living in “fear anddespair” as a result of the wildlife guards that they
say attack and steal from them.83
It mentions two reported cases where victims diedafter being attacked by guards, and how local
people are being forced from their lands.

October 2010
Moloukou

Wildlife guards assault an elderly Bayaka woman
near Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park. She dies
three days later.84

Parks need peoples

The guards threaten us,
beat us, steal from us,
even outside the park
Bayaka Central African Republic60 How will we survive? Central African Republic

The boy, carrying a porcupine
and a few other things, passed
two wildlife guards and aprominent law enforcement
officer, who had been drinking
heavily [...] On seeing them,
the [Bayaka] boy became
scared and tried to run away.
He was chased, caught and,even though it would havebeen clear that he had not
engaged in any illegal activity,
he was beaten and had all his
belongings confiscated.

Jan. 13, 2011
Yondo

Wildlife guards steal two porcupines, a machete
and wild yams from a Bayaka couple near the
Liboyi road.

They grabbed everything: the wild yams, theporcupines, my stepfather’s machete. I explained to
the wildlife guards that it was our forest – it was thearea that the [project] reserved to us for hunting. “Butnow you’ve taken everything. [...] You say that it’s not
our forest but who does it belong to?”
Bayaka man, Koundapapaye, Aug. 8, 2016

Dr. Olivia Woodburne, University of Kent,
201285

May 2011

A report drawn up by several Central Africanorganizations notes abuses carried out by wildlife
officials in Mbaéré-Bodingué National Park against
Bayaka and their neighbors.
These include beatings, theft, attempted rape andthe mistreatment of elderly people.86

July 2011

Having visited every Bayaka community inside theDzanga-Sangha Reserve, a pair of researchers
note that the Bayaka “consistently report that they
are threatened and sometimes beaten” by wildlife
guards, “even when they have not trespassed thelaw.” Bayaka have also told them the guards steal
what they have legally hunted or gathered in theforest.
The researchers explain that one of the Bayaka’s
priorities is to stop this abuse, as well as to “reclaim
the forest for themselves.”87

2011
Gouanzala

Wildlife guards confiscate meat and several nets,
axes and spears from a Bayaka hunting party.

61 How will we survive? Central African Republic

They beat you on the soles ofyour feet so you can’t go backinto the forest.
Bayaka man, Yondo, Aug. 11, 2016

March 2012
Londo

Rainforest Foundation UK and the localorganization Maison de l’Enfant et de la Femme
Pygmées interview a victim of wildlife guard
violence from Londo, near Mbaéré-Bodingué
National Park:My wife and I were coming back from a walk in theforest. Four wildlife guards jumped on me. I had tobattle that day. Look at my eye. It is a result of theirwork. My eye is in such a bad state. I don’t think I did
anything wrong. I can’t understand it. They just hurtme for nothing.
Bayaka man, Londo, March 201288

2012

The anthropologist Dr. Olivia Woodburne at the
University of Kent notes that both of the two
Bayaka wildlife guards, as well as the many Bayaka
who work as porters with wildlife guards on patrol,
report widespread discrimination against Bayaka.89

2013

The anthropologist Dr. Kathryn Shutt at Durham
University recounts how many Bayaka say they
have lost a huge amount of hunting ground in thename of conservation, that game is becoming
rarer, and that they are “often unfairly targeted or
hassled” by wildlife guards.

[The wildlife guards] just take you and the meat and saythat you caught it in the park. Then they eat or sell themeat themselves. What can we do?
Bayaka informant90

They told us totake off our skirts
and burned themParks need peoples

Bayaka Central African Republic

63 How will we survive? Central African Republic

Human rights abuses against
local people perpetrated byeco-guards are common.
Woodburne and Amougou, 2014

2013
Anzouka

It is disheartening to see healthdecline so closely tied tosocioeconomic changes [...] andspecifically to the conservation
management policies of the lasttwenty-five years.

When rebel militias known as Séléka arrive in thearea, Bayaka seek refuge inside Dzanga-Ndoki
National Park. They are told by wildlife guards toreturn to the forest near the roadside village. Séléka
are known to have tortured people in this region.

“I came here because of Séléka. We’re afraid, wewant to stay here in peace.” They told me to go back.
Mossapoula, Aug. 18, 2016

Report on a medical study in Dzanga-Sangha
Protected Area Complex, 201491

June 2014

A medical study finds that “punitive anti-poachingmeasures” and dwindling wildlife have caused
health to plummet among Bayaka, particularly
among women. It is written elsewhere that theconditions among older women “would beconsidered a public health crisis by international
health agencies.”92

November 2014 The International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs(IWGIA) publishes a report on conservation in theCongo-CAR-Cameroon border region. It finds that,in general, Bayaka in CAR
welcomed some aspects of conservation – such as
limiting destructive practices to preserve the forest– but were angry at the way it was carried out. They
felt they saw limited benefits from conservation andreported serious human rights abuses by wildlife
guards who patrol the forest. [Bayaka] rights toaccess and use the forest, given to them by Komba[God], were undermined and ignored in the creationof the national parks.93

64 How will we survive? Central African Republic

They threw my baby to theground. It was a two-month-old
baby. We hadn’t named him yet.
The baby fell and two months
later he was gone. I asked: “Whyhave you thrown my baby on
the ground?” They said: “Youwant to start a fight when thebaby is already on the ground?”Sangha-Sangha man, Mossapoula, Aug. 18,
2016.

December 2014 A Sangha-Sangha man94 is beaten by wildlife
guards and spends two months in hospital. His
Mossapoulababy is thrown violently to the floor when one guard
searches his bed, and dies shortly afterwards.

2014
MenyaoTwo men are tortured by wildlife guards in Menyao
and Bayanga.

They handcuffed us and told us to take our clothes
off. We were completely naked for four days. [...]
When they’d finished eating they beat us like mad, it
was like a war.
Bayaka man, Bayanga area, Aug. 17, 2016

2014
Yandoumbe

Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man from
Yandoumbe.

2014
Yondo

Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man, burn his houseand steal his stewpots, traditional trap and spear.

They brought him back to the village and beat him
immediately. [...] All over his body with his truncheon
and he kicked him with his combat boots.
Bayaka woman, Yondo, Aug. 11, 2016

2014
Yandoumbe

Wildlife guards steal a hunted porcupine from a
Bayaka man.

They kept beatingme, on my backand chest
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Central African Republic

66 How will we survive? Central African Republic

They destroyed our houses,
they took three hunting nets
and then they burned thehouses and our clothes. They
asked us to take off our skirts
and then they burned them. We
only had our shirts on. We took
small bits of burning wood toprotect our bodies and cameback to the village.

2014
Bekoulapasa

Wildlife guards steal two hunting nets, a duiker andbaskets from a hunting party of Bayaka womenfrom Mossapoula.

I heard my child crying and knew that the wildlife
guards were coming.
Bayaka woman, Mossapoula, Aug. 18, 2016

Bayaka woman, Mossapoula, Aug. 18, 20162014/2015
Bambalanga

Wildlife guards steal fruits, mushrooms, wild greensand caterpillars from a group of women outside thenational park.

If we women get together we can fish by building
small dams, from morning to evening. If the wildlife
guards find us they will divide [our catch] and justleave us with a little bit. [...] We are suffering so much.
Bayaka woman, Yondo, Aug. 11, 20162014/2015
LikembeWildlife guards beat a Bayaka man and confiscate
meat that the group has hunted.

They beat him with a big piece of wood. They madehim lie down and beat him hard on his back andchest.
Bayaka man, Lindjombo, Aug. 19, 201

67 How will we survive? Central African Republic

When we stay in the village welabor and work all day for a bitof manioc. But we have to live inthe forest – two or three months[there] with our children andthey are healthy.
Bayaka woman, Mossapoula, Aug. 18, 2016

Several of these women hadbabies and we were led towonder how they were going tomanage to feed entire families
with such a small quantity ofmanioc.
WWF, CAR and German government
consultancy report, 200695

December 2015 Two Bayaka men are beaten by wildlife guards inthe forest near Kanza.
Kanza

They handcuffed and bound my friend to a tree by hisneck with plastic cord. [...] They then fired a shot in
the air. They pointed their guns at us: “Talk! Talk! Talk!”
We said we knew nothing about it. They cut a piece
off a tree and beat us on our backs and feet.
Bayaka man, Koundapapaye, Aug. 8, 2016

December 2015 A Bayaka man is beaten by wildlife guards.
Koundapapaye
I told them I was looking for cane rats and they said:“No, you’ve come from the forest, you have a gun,you have a gun.” [...] They kept beating me andbeating me, on my back and my chest.
Bayaka man, Koundapapaye, Aug. 8, 2016

December 2015 A Bayaka man is beaten by wildlife guards in theforest near Kanza.
Kanza
He had climbed a tree [to gather honey] and wascoming down and trying to run away. They beat him
with a piece of wood on his back and his feet. We
told the wildlife guards: “It’s the school holidays, wecame to show our children the things of the forest.”
Bayaka man, Bokongo, Aug. 14, 2016

December 2015 Wildlife guards steal machetes, fish and fishhooks
from a Bayaka fishing party.
LikembeWe want to stayhere in peace
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Central African Republic

69 How will we survive? Central African Republic

If we women go dam-fishingor foraging and we cross paths
with the wildlife guards, they
will beat us. They burn our
houses, break up our stewpots.
Our strength lies in our pots,
our plates and machetes. But
they just take all that away.

2015
Yondo

Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man and steal hismeat and spear.

2015
Mabouli

A Bayaka man is beaten by an anti-poachingsquad.

Bayaka woman, Yondo, Aug. 11, 2016

“We know that you know where the poachers’ camp
is. If you don’t show us we will beat you.”
I said that I didn’t know. They took me back to [my]camp. The wildlife guards gave the order to two
trackers. They beat me four times with a machete on
the soles of my feet.
Bayaka man, Yondo, Aug. 11, 20162015
Mandalo

Wildlife guards confiscate spears, axes, traps and aduiker from Bayaka hunters.

2015
Mambelenge

Wildlife guards destroy the forest camp of a Bayaka
women’s fishing party from Mossapoula and steal
their hunting nets and fish. The guards ask the
women to take off their skirts and then they burnthem.

early 2016
MbouleWildlife guards beat a Bayaka man and confiscate
his belongings.

The wildlife guards were hiding by the side of thepath. They started following us and then stopped
me. They took the meat, my machete, my torch, mystewpots. They beat me with a piece of wood, all over
my body.
Bayaka man, Lindjombo, Aug. 20, 2016

70 How will we survive? Central African Republic

The wildlife guards said: “Getundressed. Go wash.” Wecame out of the water, still
handcuffed. They beat us. “Goback in the water.” They beatus. Nearly 10 times. There
was a female guard who waswatching us naked.
Bayaka man, Yandoumbe, Aug. 17, 2016

late April 2016
Yandoumbe

Two Bayaka men searching for gala fruits are taken
to the conservation project base in Mongambe andtortured by wildlife guards, who confiscate theirtorch, spear, axe, honey, cigarettes, clothes and4500 CFA.

May 2016
Mossapoula

Wildlife guards find a Bayaka man with honey anddetain him, handcuffed, for six hours.

He asked me to kneel down. I said: “Never, I could
never do that.” “If you don’t get down on your knees
I’m going to beat you.”
Bayaka man, Mossapoula, Aug. 18, 2016

May/June 2016
Mossapoula

Two Bayaka men are beaten by wildlife guards.

They had already cut the switch. Two wildlife guards
whipped me on my back. You can see the scars.
Bayaka man, Mossapoula, Aug. 18, 2016

June 2016
Yondo

Wildlife guards throw a machete at three Ngoundi
men while chasing them, injuring one of the men in
the knee.

June/July 2016
Mongambe

A Bayaka man from Yandoumbe is beaten by
wildlife guards.

[The wildlife guards] beat him on his back with apiece of wood. He had two wounds on his back. He
showed me.
Bayaka man, Yandoumbe, Aug. 17, 2016

Parks need peoples

72 How will we survive? Central African Republic

We sit here watching baskets
of meat go by on motorbikes.
Where are the wildlife guards?
Day and night. There are somany guns. It’s harder to findanimals.

July 2016
BabongoBayaka women run away when they cross paths
with wildlife guards, leaving their baskets on the
ground. When they come back, the wildlife guards
have taken all their fruits, wild yams, wild greens,fish and meat.

July 2016
Bindjemo

A Bayaka forest camp is destroyed by wildlife
guards and meat and possessions stolen.

July 2016

Wildlife guards steal fish, wild greens, mushrooms,
yams and fruits from Bayaka women.

July 2016
MbangaA Bayaka forest camp is burned by wildlife guards,
who steal spears, axes, stewpots, plates, sleeping
mats, honey and other food.

Bayaka man, Yandoumbe, Aug. 17, 2016

I found a child sleeping in the hut – and the wildlife
guards were about to set it on fire.
Bayaka man, Yandoumbe, Aug. 17, 2016

July/Aug. 2016
Wombo

Wildlife guards steal two machetes from Bayaka
women. As one woman runs away she falls andinjures her arm.

Aug. 10, 2016
Yondo

Wildlife guards steal caterpillars and wild greensfrom a Bayaka woman.

Sept./Oct. 2016 A Bayaka man from Mossapoula is with his wifeand young son when he is stopped by wildlife
Liboyiguards. They take the porcupine he has caught
and the wild yams his wife has gathered.

73 How will we survive? Central African Republic

The Bayaka are the owners of
the forest. It’s we who should bein charge of the wildlife guards.
The guards must not beat us.

October 2016
Yandoumbe

Wildlife guards apprehend a Bayaka hunting party
near Yandoumbe and assault one man.

Jan. 8, 2017
Lipendje

Guards confiscate meat from a Bayaka hunter.

Feb. 5, 2017
Lindjombo

Two Bayaka men and one Bayaka child are
attacked by wildlife guards.

May 2017
MonassaoTwo Bayaka men are beaten by willdife guards.

Bayaka man, Koundapapaye, Aug. 8, 2016

Northeast Republic of Congo
WCS partners with loggers, Bayaka dispossessed
Michael Fay, one of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) seniorconservationists, told the US Congress in 2003: “I believe that Teddy
Roosevelt had it right. […] My work in the Congo Basin has beenbasically to try to bring this US model to Africa.”96
Yet the model of national parks he sought to export inflicted hardshipand violence on indigenous Native Americans, and involved the theft oftheir ancestral homelands through forced expulsions. It has also failed
to protect a significant part of the wildlife in the USA.
Ten years earlier, Fay and his team had succeeded in convincing
the Congolese government to create the Nouabalé-Ndoki National
Park. At a stroke, the Bayaka were robbed of a large swathe of theirancestral forests. “They’re a gracious people,” Fay would later remark,“too kind to put up a fight for their rights.”97
WCS then partnered with two logging companies in order to secure
the park’s “buffer zones.” Together with the Congolese government,
they organized anti-poaching patrols inside the logging concessions.
This was despite the fact that studies show that increased logging
boosts the incidence of poaching by carving new trafficking routes
deep into the forest, which corrupt officials and military elites thenexploit for the illegal wildlife trade. WCS and WWF may say that thislogging is sustainable, but the evidence does not support them.98
Across the region Bayaka and Baka “Pygmies” have been victims of
intimidation and abuse by wildlife guards supported by WCS and these
logging companies – even a handicapped man and children havebeen assaulted. Although WCS has been aware of this persecution
since at least 2005, it has yet to take effective action. In 2013, twenty
years after the Bayaka’s land was carved up for the Nouabale-Ndoki
National Park, WCS helped to create a new park, this time on theancestral homelands of Luma “Pygmies” and their Bongili neighbors,
again without their consent. A recent investigation found that thispark was created unlawfully and that it will “deprive local communities
and indigenous populations of their only means of subsistence.”
It predicts that, if the draconian wildlife laws are fully enforced, thelocal population will “be forced to migrate in order to survive or findthemselves in a guerrilla war against the wildlife guards.”99

Tell the world, so
the anti-poachingsquads won’t
beat usParks need peoples

Baka “Pygmy” Nki National Park, Cameroon

76 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

When we traveled up the upper
Mokola River [sic] we foundcamp after camp after camp.
These camps have mostly
been abandoned because park
authorities from NouabaléNdoki have made sweeps.

Dec. 31, 1993

Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park is created on
the Bayaka’s land without their free, prior andinformed consent, with the support of WCS andthe U.S. government. The Bayaka are not allowed
to enter the park.

May 1998

A study finds that groups of Bayaka in the Central
African Republic regard certain forests acrossthe border in Congo “as the heart of their hunting
territory […]. With the creation of the NouabaléNdoki Park, this area too has been forbidden tothem.”102

1999

WCS signs an agreement with the logging
company Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB)
and the Congolese government to organize antipoaching patrols.

2004

A BBC investigation finds that the bushmeat trade
in northeast Congo “is organised by membersof local elites who ensure that “their” bush meat
sellers are not targeted” by wildlife guards. Instead
the guards “have been accused of victimising” theBayaka.103

Late 2004
MobanguiWildlife guards beat a Bayaka man and take hismeat.104

2004/2005

A group of a dozen Bayaka who went toYandoumbe, Central African Republic, in 1998
wish to return home to Congo. Their party includes
one dying man. WCS discovers that they plan totravel through Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park anddispatches a team of wildlife guards to pursue
them. The man dies en route in the forest.

Michael Fay, WCS, 1999100

We get so much suffering
because of wildlife guards. We
can’t go and find things in theforest as we used to. All we hearis hunger.
Bayaka man, Mboua, 2004101

77 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

We are the guardians of theforest. The forest people. But we
get nothing from anyone. They
took our trees and then theycame to forbid us our hunting.
So we have to stay in the village.
Now we are dying of hunger.

August 2005
IndongoA Bayaka man from Indongo is beaten by wildlife
guards, who break two of his ribs and knock out
one or more of his teeth.
WCS investigates this account and notes that the
man’s tooth was decayed, so the “slap he received
only made it fall out sooner.”106

Bayaka, Mobangui, 2004105

His pants having fallen down when the beating
started, he remained naked throughout the ordeal [...]
Bleeding, he was left on the ground from where heheard the threats of one of the wildlife guards: “You’rejust a Pygmy, I can kill you with my gun and nothing
will happen.”
Notes made by L’Observatoire congolais des droits
de l’homme (OCDH), October 2 2005107

August 2005

Greenpeace publishes a report on an investigationof a concession leased to the logging company
Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), WCS’s
partner.
Bayaka they interviewed “claimed that if they were
found with meat in the forest they would be beaten
and the meat confiscated.”

Then we met another white man (WCS) who cameto tell us to stop hunting and that the wildlife guards
would make sure we did. Now we are afraid to go far
in the forest in case the wildlife guards catch us.
Bayaka, Mobangui, 2004108

My ancestors leftme this forest.
It’s not for the
wildlife guards
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Northeast Republic of Congo

79 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

Since the most serious
environmental crimes aremostly organized by local
political and military elites,
wildlife guards are often
unable to arrest perpetrators.
So [Bayaka] become softtargets in their forest camps
for violent visitations by theseparamilitary groups.

September 2005 Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man from Indongo.
IndongoWhen [he] could no longer get up, the wildlife guards
tied up his arms. They abandoned him in the forest,
thrown to the ground.
Notes made by L’Observatoire congolais des droits
de l’homme, October 2, 2005110

Dr. Jerome Lewis, University College London,
2014109

Oct. 28, 2005

A news report recounts how Bayaka describe
being targeted by wildlife rangers that mistreat andtemporarily imprison them, and how this has led
to more frequent malnutrition among children andvulnerable adults.
A Congolese researcher remarks that: “Whilepeople are suffering from hunger in the heart of
the forest, [wild] meat is being offered daily inrestaurants” in local towns.

We have the feeling that the people who work forwildlife conservation have decided to kill us.”
Edmond Monzoumbe, Bayaka man, Indongo111

2007

WCS signs an agreement with the logging
company Industrie Forestière de Ouesso (IFO)
and the Congolese government to organize antipoaching patrols.

80 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

The wildlife guards make us sit
here with hunger. They haveruined our world. If we try tohunt in the forest, they beat us
so badly. They even kill us if
they see us in the forest.

October 2005

Bayaka woman, Sangha region, June 2012112

L’Observatoire congolais des droits de l’homme(OCDH) publishes a report on wildlife guard
misconduct in north Congo. It includes threeaccounts of violent abuse against Bayaka.
It warns that some Bayaka “are dying of hunger”
and denounces the guards for “instilling a real
psychosis of fear” among them.113

June 2006

A study by L’Observatoire congolais des droits del’homme (OCDH) and the Rainforest Foundation on
the situation of indigenous peoples in Congo findsthat they areoften threatened and ill-treated by state orconservation officials when attempting to exercise
their hunter/gatherer traditions. They are frequently
thrown off their lands and even ejected from theirhomes.114

Aug. 11, 2006

A news report relates how
The “ecoguards” of the Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS) [...] are accused of regularly beating local
Mbendjele [Bayaka], for ‘simply being Mbendjele’”115

February 2007

A study on logging finds that the Bayaka “arefrequently searched, threatened and even beaten”
by wildlife guards.116

June 5, 2007

A team of United Nations Special Rapporteurs raise
their concern that the treatment the Bayaka aresuffering at the hands of wildlife guards “is linked toracist discrimination against them.”117

They beat me,
my son and mynephews
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Northeast Republic of Congo82 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of CongoIf we go into the forest we eat
well there compared to here.
We eat wild yams and honey.
We want to go into the forest but
they forbid us to. It frightens us.
It frightens us.

September 2008 A report notes that wildlife guards “are often
employed to patrol the forest, but their poor training
and surveillance can lead to them abusing theirposition of power.”118

Bayaka woman, Ngomba, Sept. 2, 2016

2008

A UNICEF report explains that the legally
recognized right to gather resources is “flouted on
the most basic level because indigenous people nolonger have access to areas rich in game” due toprotected areas in Congo.119

May 2009

The Human Rights Council at the United Nations
hears that Bayaka have been the victims of “brutal
searches” and “a general climate of constant oreven systematic violence” perpetrated by wildlife
guards.120

2009
PokolaWildlife guards beat a Bayaka man in Pokola.

March 2010
Ndoki

A man is shot by a wildlife guard while trying to
run away and dies from his injuries on March 9,
2010.120March/April 2012 An elderly and frail Bayaka man is imprisoned after
he is accused of hunting an elephant. A team ofIndongoresearchers note that:[He] is probably over 70 years old, is short-sighted
and slow on his feet. It is clear that he could not kill anelephant.122

83 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

The anti-poaching squad told
me to move the child that wasat my feet. Then they beat myback with pieces of wood andI fell to the ground. With every
threat they made, they would
beat me again.

Early 2012
Sangha123

A handicapped Bayaka man is harassed andassaulted by wildlife guards.

They pushed him with the barrel of their gun. They
tried to burn down his house and beat him.

Bayaka woman, Moukouloungou, Aug. 23,
2013

Bayaka man, Pokola, Aug. 30, 2016

March 2012

Dr. Jerome Lewis, an anthropologist at University
College London, reports that, since he first started
working with Bayaka in 1994, he has noticed
increasingly poor nutrition and increased mortality.
He attributes this to the removal of forest resources
by loggers and to “conservationists’ exclusionary
and draconian management practices.”124

Aug./Sept. 2012 A Bayaka camp for gathering payo fruit is raided bywilldife guards.The guards beat a Bayaka man, his
Makokoyoung son and his two young nephews and steal
their possessions.

Even if we go only to gather payo fruit, the wildlife
guards abuse us and we come back to the village.
Bayaka man, Ngomba, Aug. 23, 2013

We’re afraid. Who
can we complain
to – the trees?
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Northeast Republic of Congo

85 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of CongoI don’t want to leave here. It’s
my home.
Bayaka man, evicted from Longa in
September 2013

Feb/March 2013 A Bayaka man and a Bayaka woman are beaten
by wildlife guards near the Bondingou. The guards
Bondingou
destroy the woman’s home and property.

Before binding my hands behind my back with vines
they took off my shirt and started beating me withlarge branches. [...] I heard them say that they’d go to
the other camp and on the way back finish me off andthrow me in the river.
Bayaka man, Moukouloungou, Aug. 23, 2013

March 4, 2013

Ntokou-Pikounda National Park is created on theLuma’s and Bongili’s land, without their free, priorand informed consent.

July 2013
Boko

An elderly Bayaka man and two other Bayaka men
are beaten by wildlife guards.

I showed them the small antelope but they continued
to beat me and two other men, on our heads, chests
and legs with belts and large branches.
Bayaka man, Moukouloungou, Aug. 23, 2013

September 2013 The Bayaka community of Longa, in the logging
concession leased to Congolaise Industrielle desLonga
Bois (CIB), is evicted in the name of conservation.

86 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

They fired gunshots above ourheads. They all beat us, withpieces of wood. They wounded
my father in the head, and theybroke my index finger.
Bayaka man, Makao, Sept. 1, 2016

November 2013 The researcher Dr. Michael Riddell at the Universityof Oxford estimates that Nouabalé-Ndoki National
Makao
Park covers at least 580km2 of forest previously
used by the Bayaka and Kaka of Makao.
He finds that conservation and logging have led topoorer health and higher levels of drug and alcohol
addiction among the Bayaka.
He argues that conservation efforts would benefit
from gaining people’s consent, which would likely
involve maintaining their access to the forest insideand outside the park.125

December 2013 A team of researchers working on anti-poaching
technology write that:
Wildlife guards looking for easier targets often visit[Bayaka] and other local communities where they too
often resort to violence and abuse.126

2013
Ndeme

Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man and burn his
camp to the ground.

When they arrived in the camp they started
rummaging through stewpots, burning down houses,
burning clothes. My child ran away and disappeared.
Bayaka man, Moukouloungou, Sept. 1, 2016

They struck me
five times, then I
passed out
Parks need peoples

Bayaka Northeast Republic of Congo

88 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of CongoI find this a very serious
problem and in my opinion
most wildlife guards have othermotives than protecting theanimals to work as a wildlife
guard.

2013
Batanga

A Bayaka man is beaten by wildlife guards in
Batanga.

I was looking for honey. [...] They beat me with aswitch and slapped me too.

Doctor with extensive experience working in
the region, Sept. 7, 2015127

Bayaka man, Moukouloungou, Sept. 1, 20162013

A team of researchers explain how the system of
wildlife guards “in particular is the source of many
abuses: [Bayaka] hunters reported being repeatedly
harassed and beaten up by them for possession of‘permitted bush-meat.’”
They report on the desperate conditions faced by
Bayaka pressured to leave the forest for a logging
town, as a result of this abuse.128

2013
Mboule (CAR)

Congolese wildlife guards arrive at a forest campin the Central African Republic, and steal legallycaught fish from Bayaka.

2013/2014
Bondingou

At least six Bayaka are beaten by wildlife guards in
Bondingou.

Aug-Oct 2014
SesengeDuring the rainy season, wildlife guards beat four
Bayaka men in a forest camp near Nouabale-Ndoki
National Park. The guards break one of the men’s
index finger.

89 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of CongoIf wildlife guards see boneson the ground outside, it’s a
problem. If someone doesn’t
explain something well, they
start beating, beating, beating.

November 2014 The International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs(IWGIA) publishes a report on conservation in theCongo-CAR-Cameroon border region. It finds that

Bayaka man, Pokola, Aug. 30, 2016

in all three countries [Cameroon, CAR, Congo], large
areas customarily used by Pygmy communities havebeen included in national parks, where all access is
prohibited.
Human rights abuses against local people
perpetrated by wildlife guards are common.129

2014

An inspection of one of CIB’s logging concessions
hears that the Bayaka’s “hunting way of life has
become criminalised by the excessive targetingof these communities” by wildlife guards, while“the greatest environmental criminals continue tooperate with seeming impunity.”130

Early 2015
MokotoWildlife guards threaten a Bayaka woman, destroy
her basket and throw the fish she has caught on
the ground.

May 2015

A doctor who started work in northeast Congo in2012 reports that
Aside from wounds inflicted by gorillas, buffalo orother wild animals, my colleague and I also see [gun]wounds in people claiming to have been attacked- sometimes without warning – by the protectors ofwildlife: the wildlife guards.131

June 2015
Male

Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man searching for
medicines in Male and steal his machete.

The forest needs
peopleParks need peoples

Bayaka Northeast Republic of Congo

91 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

Our spirits are in the forest.
We’re the ones who conserve
the forest.
Bayaka man, Moukouloungou, Sept. 2, 2016

Aug.-Oct. 2015
Sombo

A Bayaka man is beaten by wildlife guards on thelogging road between Bosani and Mangombe.

Aug.-Oct. 2015
MokotoWildlife guards burn down a Bayaka forest camp in
Mokoto.

I’d found some honey. When I came back to thecamp I found that my house had already been
destroyed.
Bayaka man, Komba Komba, September 2, 2016

November 2015 A study on logging in the region finds that
Clearly, the policy of employing wildlife guards
undermines the traditional role of indigenous people;
delegitimizing their role as guardian of the wildlife.
Moreover, indigenous people see eco-guards as
unreasonably targeting them and their reliance onbush meat.132

December 2015 A wildlife guard opens fire on a man in Kabo, near
Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, injuring him.133
Kabo

2015
Ngwandji

The Baka camp of Ngwandji is evicted by wildlife
guards, in the logging concession leased to
Industrie Forestière de Ouesso (IFO), one of WCS’s
partners.

2015/2016
Sisi

Bayaka are beaten by wildlife guards in a forest
camp in Sisi. Their belongings are destroyed andtheir houses burned to the ground.

92 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

We ask all those who givemoney to the NouabaléNdoki park and to the wildlife
guards to come here, listen to
our problems and seek ourconsent. Otherwise how are we
supposed to eat?
Bayaka, Makao, Sept. 3, 2016

Early 2016
Mbandza

Wildlife guards beat a Bayaka man from Mbandza.

Early 2016
MobanguiWildlife guards tell Bayaka from Mobangui that if
they stay in the forest their houses will be burned
down and they will be beaten.

May 2016
Mbandza

Five men are beaten by wildlife guards in Mbandza.
One of the men is hospitalized.

June 2016
MokotoWildlife guards tell a Bayaka woman to leave theforest.

The wildlife guards came to chase me away. Theyrummaged in my basket and then destroyed it with
their machetes. There was nothing but wild greens in
it. They said: “You mustn’t stay here. You have to stayin the village.”
Bayaka woman, Komba Komba, Sept. 2, 2016

June/July 2016
InyeleWildlife guards evict Baka from their camp at Inyele,in the logging concession leased to the logging
company IFO, which WCS has partnered with.

June/July 2016
Ngwandji

The same wildlife guards go on to beat and arrest
one Baka man in a camp in Ngwandji.134

93 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of CongoChildren are dying of hunger.
Bayaka man, Pokola, Sept. 23, 2017

July 2016
Kambaolo

A Bayaka man is beaten by wildlife guards in afishing camp in Kambaolo.

If you go into the park they will get you and take you
to prison. Even not in the park they say: “We’re goingto kill you. Get out, get out, get out.”
Bayaka man, Makao, Sept. 1, 2016

Aug. 16, 2016
NdongoWildlife guards force a Bayaka man to carry theirbaggage for roughly 10 kilometers.

Aug. 30, 2016
BwangaWildlife guards steal meat, a stewpot and an axe
from a Bayaka camp in Bwanga.

Aug. 31, 2016
PK12

A Bayaka home is burned down by wildlife guards
in PK12.

Oct./Nov. 2016
PokolaA Bayaka man is beaten by wildlife guards.

December 2016 An investigation finds that Ntokou-Pikounda park
was created unlawfully and without the consent
Pikoundaof the Luma “Pygmies” and their neighbors the
Bongili. The Luma and Bongili tell the investigatorsthat they are afraid of being subjected to wildlife
guard violence, like the people living by the nearby
Nouabalé-Ndoki and Odzala-Kokoua National
Parks.135

94 How will we survive? Northeast Republic of Congo

The wildlife guards abuse us.
They don’t want us to go into
the forest. How can we feed ourchildren?
Bayaka man from Mbandza, Pokola area,
Aug. 27, 2016

Sept. 18, 2017
Mbandza

A report is published concerning an epidemic thatstruck Mbandza and four neighboring villages,leaving at least 57 mostly Bayaka children dead.
The report notes that conservation may haveplayed a role in the deaths of the children, as theirimmunity would have been compromised by theloss of their forest resources.136

Northwest Republic of Congo
WWF and African Parks silent over human rights abuse
Northwest Congo is home to one of Africa’s oldest parks – OdzalaKokoua, created by the French in 1935 – and to what will perhaps
soon be its newest. In Odzala-Kokoua, African Parks is working
without the consent of the tribal landowners and is driving them fromthe core of the park. To the north, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is
funding and equipping wildlife guards and pushing for the creation of
Messok-Dja National Park.
“Green colonialism” thus continues unabated, as tribal peoples’
lands are viewed as wilderness and then stolen from them. Theirachievements and concerns – even their lives – are disregarded.
Across the region Baka face harassment, theft, torture and death at
the hands of wildlife guards. In one particularly horrific incident, two
WWF cars and three motorbikes pulled up unannounced in a Baka
village, as its inhabitants were preparing for a funeral. Fifteen wildlife
rangers emerged and immediately set to work. According to thevictims, no one was spared in the raid, as the guards beat children,a pregnant woman and the elderly. As night fell, the community
managed to escape into the forest. They fled across the border andtook refuge with relatives in Cameroon. One girl, Mayi, died there a
few nights later – she was less than ten years old. An elderly man,
Menamina, died the following morning. Both had been beaten by
wildlife guards.
The conservation industry is not just destroying lives; it is harming
conservation. The Baka have depended on and managed these
forests for countless generations. By creating seasonal camps, theyand the Bayaka sustain a mosaic of different types of vegetation, andhave spread groves of wild yams throughout the rainforest – some of
the favourite foods of elephants and wild boar.137 They have built up
detailed knowledge of their environments, classifying forest elephants
into more than 15 types, for example, depending on their age,
appearance, sex, and temperament.138
Because of the distances they travel and the time they spend there,
the Baka are undoubtedly the eyes and ears of their lands, yet WWF
and its partners seem to dismiss this expertise – although it is essential
to any successful conservation project. This unrivalled knowledge is indanger of disappearing as the Baka are denied access to their lands.

Parks need peoples

97 How will we survive? Northwest Republic of Congo

They told us to tilt our heads
and with both hands they beatdown on our ears with all theirmight. Blood started to flow.
They did that twice, twice oneach ear. [...] I’ve been unwellever since that day.

1994

Baka man, Souanké district, 139 September
2016

A report prepared for Oxfam on the situation of“Pygmies” in central Africa criticizes the plans ofinternational donors, such as the World Bank, forpromoting logging at the same time as protectedareas.
It warns that conservation often means “toexclude the human population – by force
if necessary” and that “there is little or norecognition of hunter-gatherers’ conservationist
skills.”It gives as an example the Odzala National Parkin northwest Congo, where “the core area willremain sealed and the rights will be vested in thePark rather than in the Pygmies.”
It concludes: “Conservationists need to accept
that their aims are best achieved by vesting land
rights firmly with the populations concerned.”1402005

WWF signs an agreement with the Congolese
government, launching the conservation project
known as Espace TRIDOM Interzone Congo. The
local field base is set up in the town of Sembe in2008.

Late 2000s

The EU, WWF and WCS agree amongst
themselves not to pay wildlife guards’ salaries, but
WWF breaks this agreement.
An elderly woman is later beaten by wildlife guards
in Sembe, northwest Congo, and the case isdiscussed by the EU, WWF, WCS and UNESCO.141

98 How will we survive? Northwest Republic of Congo

They took an old motorbike
handlebar from here and they
put it on my back and pumped
up and down, up and down. I
should’ve died.

June/July 2011
Seh

Baka man, Seh, Sept. 8, 2016

Two WWF cars and three motorcycles arrive
bearing wildlife guards, who beat dozens of Baka,
including children, the elderly and a pregnant
woman.
The whole community flees to Cameroon, where
one young girl, less than 10 years old, and an
elderly man, die from their injuries.

Life before was better. Now
they go into the forest and they
abuse people. You go to prison
for hunting, with people who
killed other people. It’s not thesame thing.

They beat me, I was crawling on all fours. They beatme with their guns, pieces of wood, their belts.

Baka woman, Mokouangounda, Aug. 5, 2013

Baka woman, who was pregnant at the time, Seh,
Sept. 8, 20162012/2013
Ntam		A Baka couple are beaten by wildlife guards.

August 2013
LekoliA Kola “Pygmy” man from Olleme, Odzala-Kokoua
National Park, is assaulted by wildlife guards in theforest near the Lekoli river.

Before 2013
Souanké district

A Baka man is beaten by wildlife guards.

I was coming out of the forest with a wooden post,a packet of vines and a packet of wild greens. They
took my machete and beat me with it. They beat me
everywhere.
Baka man, Souanké district, September 20162013
Souanké district

Wildlife guards steal 60,000 CFA from a Baka man.
This is equivalent to 120 days’ wages for a Baka.

Wildlife guards
beat my pregnant
wife
Parks need peoples

Baka Northwest Republic of Congo

100 How will we survive? Northwest Republic of Congo

It was a white car, with the
WWF sign on the door. They
stamped on my chest, they
pointed their guns at me. They
put a gun here [he indicatesbeneath his chin] and said,“If you mess around we will
kill you. Even if your mothercomes. We’ll kill her. Don’t
scream.”June/July 2014
Ndongo(Cameroon)

Wildlife guards cross from Congo and beat at least
three Baka men and one pregnant Baka woman
near Nki National Park.

My wife came back and saw what was happening,and she wanted to run away. But before she had achance they jumped on her – a pregnant woman. She
started to cry: “You’ve come to kill us in the forest. At
least kill me with my husband.” They hit her with theend of a gun, she fell and they kicked her with theirboots on her back.

Baka man, Souanké district, September 2016

Baka man, Mbaka, Cameroon, July 25, 2014

2014
Seh

A Cameroonian Baka man is beaten at the wildlife
guard checkpoint near Seh.

They used their machetes and the barrels of theirguns to beat me. We were swimming in my blood.
Baka man, Seh, Cameroon, July 21, 2016

2014
Mambili

Wildlife guards torture two Baka men from Egnabie
in the Mambili forest, by pouring scalding wax on
their backs.

June/July 2015
MangokoDuring this dry season wildlife guards beat a Baka
man with their belts in a forest camp.

Oct./Nov. 2015
Mepal

Wildlife guards extort a Baka man in Mepal for asack of cocoa, a new mat, a goat, some chickens
and 20,000 CFA (40 days’ wages for a Baka).

101 How will we survive? Northwest Republic of Congo

The white people need tostop giving money to thewildlife guards. We have oursmall children – how will theysurvive? We want them to live
well.

2016
Kogo

Baka woman, Seh, Sept. 9, 2016

A man is beaten in Kogo by wildlife guards, whotell him to carry their baggage 18km back to thenearest town.

“If you want to hunt, there’s no problem – if you carryour baggage to the village.” That’s maybe 18km. But
it was a trick. “From now on, if we see you hunting wewill kill you.”
Baka man, Sembe district, September 2016

January 2016
Ndongo(Cameroon)

A mixed Cameroonian-Congolese wildlife guard
team beats two Baka girls, roughly 10 years old,and an older Baka woman in Ndongo, Cameroon.

They beat my child. Still today she is so weak. [She] is
not in good health; she is always tired. She might die– I don’t know. I hate it.
Baka man, Mbaka, Cameroon, Aug. 3, 2016

March 2016
MengaraThree Baka men are beaten by wildlife guards inthe forest near Mengara. They beat a fourth Baka
man in Mengara and break his arm.

March-May 2016 A Baka man is bound with vines and beaten at the
wildlife guard checkpoint near Seh.
Seh

They started beating me and tied me up with vines. I
didn’t know what the problem was, they just beat me
like that. [Both] of them beat me with pieces of woodand punched me, all over my body. My eyes were allswollen.
Baka man, Seh, Sept. 8, 2016

We were swimmingin my blood
Parks need peoples

Baka Northwest Republic of Congo

103 How will we survive? Northwest Republic of Congo

Are wildlife guards here forprotection or destruction? It’sthese people who are hunting
elephants. Where do the
Kalashnikov guns come from?

May 2016
Souanké district

Baka man, Sembe district, September 2016142

At least three Baka from a village in the Souanké
region are beaten by wildlife guards.

They searched my house without finding anything.
They took my machete out from under the bed andsaid: “We are going to slit your throat because you’rehiding poachers here.” I was on the bed with mywife and children. I only had my underwear on. They
dragged me outside and made me get on the ground,to kill me.
Baka man, Souanké district, September 2016

June-Sept. 2016 During this wild mango season Baka women areprevented from gathering the fruit.
Sembe district

July 2016
Seh

Wildlife guards threaten to slice off a Baka man’sears. They are stopped when a local politician
intervenes.

September 2016 A Baka family are assaulted by wildlife guards, who
steal their machetes, pots, baskets and mats.
Kogo

October 2016
Animbongbong

A Baka man is assaulted by wildlife guards.

January 2017
BessieWildlife guards steal legally hunted meat from Baka
hunters.

April 2017
Namogola

A Baka man is attacked by wildlife guards.

Parks need peoples

105 How will we survive?

What should be done?
We will always bear thesuffering of being beaten. But
how will our children survive?
The wildlife guards have evenbeaten a child. She died, alongwith an elderly man.
We ask all those who givemoney to the wildlife guards tocome here to establish peace,and ask us what we think. [...]
Otherwise we are lost
Baka, Congo, Sept. 9, 2016

Big conservation organizations like WWF and WCS should notcontribute to human rights abuses. Governments rely on the financial,technical and logistical support provided by these organizations, whichmust do everything they can to protect people from persecution.
Crucially, WWF, WCS and their government partners must now seek
the Baka and Bayaka’s consent if they are to continue their work in theCongo Basin, something they should have done long ago.
It is only by listening to the Baka and Bayaka and upholding theirrights that conservation organizations will be able to stamp out thesystematic abuse detailed in this report. Evidence proves that tribal
peoples are better at looking after their environment than anyoneelse. The best and most effective way to protect the rainforests of theCongo Basin is to recognize tribal peoples’ collective land ownershiprights, as enshrined in international laws like the African Charter andthe International Labor Organization’s Convention 169.
Despite the suffering that they are forced to endure in the name ofconservation, many Baka and Bayaka who we have spoken withstill value the importance of environmental protection. If it is to work,
however, it must take place on their terms.
Nineteen communities across Cameroon, the Central African Republic
and Congo recently issued urgent pleas to conservationists, calling forthe opportunity to describe the abuse they face to the people who are
funding it.143 Eleven urged the conservationists to stop supporting theanti-poaching squads. So far their appeals have fallen on deaf ears.
Conservationists must listen to people like the Baka and Bayaka, ask
them what help they need in defending their lands, and then standshoulder-to-shoulder with them. The existing power structure must
be inverted. Only then will attention and resources be fixed on the realcauses of environmental destruction in the Congo Basin.
On paper, WWF and WCS already claim to respect tribal peoples’
rights, and to honor the well-established principle of free, prior andinformed consent. It’s time for them to live up to their promises, both in
the Congo Basin and around the world, and understand that helping
tribal peoples defend their land rights is the key to conservation.
Tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of thenatural world, and should be at the forefront of the environmental
movement, not its victims.

We just wait here
to be beaten
Parks need peoples

Baka Northwest Republic of Congo

107 How will we survive?

Endnotes
This word is considered pejorative
and avoided by some tribespeople, but
used by others as a convenient andeasily recognized way of describing
themselves. Because it is the mostwidely understood term, Survival has
chosen to use it, while emphasizingthat it is problematic.

1

This law is made up of such
instruments as the African Charter,
the United Declarations on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples
and the ILO’s Convention 169 on
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples.
For more information please see
the formal complaint Survival has
filed against WWF, accessible atassets.survivalinternational.org/
documents/1527/survival-internation-vwwf-oecd-specific-instance.pdf.

2

See for example Jost Robinson andRemis (2016).

3

4Rodgers et al. (1991)

The Bangando, like the Kounabembe,
the Njem and the Bakwele, are oneof the many different peoples that the
Baka live alongside.

5

Jell and Schmidt Machado (2002:
197)

6

7

Rodgers et al. (1991: 39)

in Schmidt-Soltau and Brockington(2004: 7). We have changed the word
“They” to “wildlife guards” for the sakeof comprehension.

8

Alec Leonhardt to Stephen Gartlan,
personal communication dated May
16, 1991.

9

10

Ndameu (2001: 228)

11

Unless otherwise indicated, dates

given are the best estimates of Survival
International, eyewitnesses or thevictims themselves.
12

Ngima Mawoung (2015: 151)

Personal communication from Ofir
Drori.

13

The conference proceedings were
written up as Nelson and Hossack(2003).

14

15

in Le Jour (2009)16

in Le Messager (2009)17

Nounah and Handja (2004: 19)

18

Nelson (2004)

19

Schoune (2005)

Ashley, Russell and Swallow (2006:
674-675, 680)

20

21Tchoumba and Nelson (2006: 39)

WWF (2008); reproduced in Nelson
and Venant (2008: 8).

22

Personal communication to a former
WWF consultant, March 2012.

23

We have changed the word“ecoguards” to “wildlife guards” for thesake of comprehension.

24

25

Forest Peoples Programme (2007: 7)

26

Yamo (2009: 55)

The Kounabembe, like the
Bangando, the Njem and the Bakwele,
are one of the many different peoples
that the Baka live alongside.

27

28

Nelson and Venant (2008: 12-13)

Centre d’études environnementales
et sociales (2008: 83)

29

108 How will we survive?

30

Yamo (2009: 56)

31

in Le Messager (2009)

32

ibid.

The video testimony this is takenfrom can be viewed at https://www.
survivalinternational.org/films/bakaconservation

33

34

in Le Messager (2009)

Centre pour l’Environnement et leDéveloppement (CED) et al. (2010a: 5)35

36

CED et al. (2010b: 24)

Personal communication from a
Global Witness researcher, April 26,
2017.

37

38

Kouétcha (2011a)

Personal communication from a
Friends of the Earth researcher, March
23, 2017.

39

40

Kouétcha (2011a)

From an online comment on Hoyle,
D., “Cameroon: listening to indigenous
peoples,” Nature, Correspondence,
June 1 2011.

41

The video testimony this is takenfrom can be viewed at https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=22O1b9xe2Rk

42

43

Neubauer (2014: 213)

This video testimony this is takenfrom can be viewed at https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=M4RZTq4oZxs
and https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=Gb1j_dKx0q0&t=291s

44

Njounan Tegomo, Defo and Usongo(2012: 48-50)

47

The video testimony this is takenfrom can be viewed at https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=vIn1Ab-e75w

48

The final film, L’Esprit de la forêt,aired in 2015.

49

The video testimony this is takenfrom can be viewed at https://www.
survivalinternational.org/films/baka-wwf

50

51

CED (2013: 5)52

CED et al. (2013: 38)

Personal communication from Dr.
Vitalis Pemunta Ngambouk, dated
February 15, 2017.

53

The video testimony this is takenfrom can be viewed at https://www.
survivalinternational.org/films/baka54

The Njem, like the Bangando, theBakwele and the Kounabembe, are
one of the many different peoples thatthe Baka live alongside.

55

The Bakwele, like the Bangando,
the Njem and the Kounabembe, are
one of the many different peoples
that the Baka live alongside. The twoletters can be viewed at http://www.
survivalinternational.org/news/10564

56

57

Neubauer (2014: 213-214)

Ngoufo, Tsague Donkeng andWaltert (2014: 66-67)

58

Mochire Mwenge and Itongwa
Mukomo (2015: 38)

59

45

Clay (2011: 23, 61)

60

ibid. pp. 37-42

46

Lewis (2012: 19-20)

61

In Moreau (2016)

109 How will we survive?

The complaint can be viewed
at assets.survivalinternational.org/
documents/1527/survival-internation-vwwf-oecd-specific-instance.pdf.

62

Willis, J., M. Venant and O. Noel(2016: 14)

63

From an undated lecture accessible
at https://www.coursera.org/learn/protected-areas/lecture/9IFy4/7-6corruption-and-trafficking-of-naturalresources. We have changed the word“eco-guards” to “wildlife guards” for thesake of comprehension.

64

65

FPP (2017a)

For more information see http://
www.survivalinternational.org/
news/11677

66

This report can be accessed at
http://assets.survivalinternational.
org/documents/1654/wwf-and-theloggers.pdf

67

68

FPP (2014b)

Hardin, Remis and Jost Robinson(2014)

69

fieldnotes, told to her by a Bayaka manwith visible bruising.
79

Woodburne (2009: 20). We havechanged the word “eco-guards”
to “wildlife guards” for the sake ofcomprehension.

80

This is taken from an interview
carried out by Dr. Olivia Woodburne.

81

82

Haut commissariat aux droits del’homme et à la bonne gouvernance(2010: 5)
In an earlier version of this report,
the incident was mistakenly dated
to October 2009. The incident was
documented by Dr. Robert Moiseduring a November 2010 investigation
for Rainforest Foundation UK.

84

Woodburne (2012: 169-170). We
have changed the word “ecoguards”
to “wildlife guards” for the sake ofcomprehension

85

Maison de l’Enfant et de la Femme
Pygmées (2011)

86

Sitamon (2006)

71

Sarno (1993: 89)

87

72

Noss (1995: 224, 334)

88

73

Hewlett (n.d.: 11)

Mogba and Freudenberger (1998:
131)

75

Sarno (1998: 12)76

Sitamon (2006: 12)

77

ibid.

This is a paraphrased account that
Dr. Olivia Woodburne recorded in her

78

Hodgkinson (2009: 157, 233, 198)

83

70

74

Amadou Yamsa et al. (2007: 7)

Kirtley and Gontero (2011: 33, 75).

Part of this interview was publishedin the 2013 film Ndima : Les cartes denotre futur.

89

Woodburne (2012: 170, n.71)

90

Shutt (2013: 23)

Hardin, Remis and Jost Robinson(2014)

91

Hardin, Remis and Jost Robinson(2014), Patterson Neubert (2016)92

110 How will we survive?

Amougou and Woodburne (2014:108). We have changed the word “ecoguards” to “wildlife guards” for the sakeof comprehension.

93

The Sangha-Sangha are a group ofpeoples that the Bayaka live alongside.

94

95

Sitamon (2006: 14)

House of Representatives (2003:
56-57)

96

97

in Chadwick (1995: 36)

This community did not want to be
identified further, out of fear of reprisals.

112

113

OCDH (2005: 5)

OCDH and The Rainforest
Foundation (2006: 5)

114

115

Labrousse (2006)

116

Lewis and Nelson (2007: 5)

Agnimbat Emeka et al. (2016: 13)

117

Diène (2007: 10)

Fay (1999)

118

See for example Potapov et al.
(2017)

98

99

IRIN News (2005). An earlier versionof this report erroneously dated thisentry to 1999, due to the way it had
been archived on the IRIN News
website.

111

100

in Eshelby (2004). We havechanged the word “ecoguards” to“wildlife guards,” for the sake ofcomprehension.

101

Lewis, Freeman and Borreill (2008:
41)

119

UNICEF (2008: 11)

Office of the United Nations HighCommissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) (2009: 5)

120

102

in Sarno (1998: 12)

103

Eshelby (2004)

121

Mampouya (2009)104

Greenpeace (2005: 30)

122

Borreill et al. (2013: 85)

105

ibid.

106

WCS-Congo (2005: 1)

This community did not want to be
identified further, out of fear of reprisals.

L’Observatoire congolais des droits
de l’homme (OCDH) (2005: 7)

107

123

124

Lewis (2012: 22-23)

125

Riddell (2013: 207, 214-215)

108

Greenpeace (2005: 28, 30). We
have changed the word “eco-guards”
to “wildlife guards” for the sake ofcomprehension.

126

Lewis (2014: 131). We havechanged the word “eco-guards”
to “wildlife guards” for the sake ofcomprehension.

127

109

110

OCDH (2005: 6)

Vitos et al. (2013: 3). We havechanged the word “Eco-guards”
to “Wildlife guards” for the sake ofcomprehension.
Dr. Marianne Reimert, personalcommunication dated September 7,
2015. We have changed the word“ecoguards” and “ecoguard” to “wildlife
guards” and “wildlife guard” for thesake of comprehension.

111 How will we survive?

128

Borreill et al. (2013: 84, 107)

Amougou and Woodburne (2014:
106, 108). We have changed the word“eco-guards” to “wildlife guards” for thesake of comprehension.

129

130

SGS (2014: 114-115)

131

Reimert (2015: 1033)

Iff (2015: 211). We have changed
the word “eco-guards” to “wildlife
guards” for the sake of comprehension.

132

133

Ayari and Counsell (in press)

This is a different camp in Ngwandji
to the one mentioned on p.91.

134

135

Agnimbat Emeka et al. (2016: 4, 11)136

OCDH & RENAPAC (2017)137

Ichikawa (2012)138

Joiris (1998: 146-151)

This community did not want to be
identified further, for fear of reprisals.

139

140

Beauclerk (1994: 28, 29, 35)

Former ECOFAC employee,
personal communication dated March
2, 2017.

141

This community did not want to be
identified further, out of fear of reprisals.

142

These letters can be viewed at
assets.survivalinternational.org/
documents/1603/baka-bayaka-openletters-2016.pdf.

143

112 How will we survive?

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Tribal peoples are being illegally evicted from theirancestral homelands in the name of conservation. They
are accused of “poaching” because they hunt to feed theirfamilies, and face arrest and beatings, torture and death at
the hands of anti-poaching squads.
This report shows that the big conservation organizations
are guilty of supporting this. They are partneringwith industry and governments and destroying theenvironment’s best allies.
It’s a con. And it’s harming conservation. We’re leading
the fight against these abuses, for tribes, for nature, for all
humanity.
For more information and to make a donation, visit
survivalinternational.org

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