The government of Cameroon
has signed a MoU for the creation of a 200,000 ha palm oil plantation by
BioPalm Energy Ltd (a subsidiary of the Singapore-based SIVA Group) in Ocean
province, Cameroon.
This project was launched on Wednesday
24th August 2011 – despite the indigenous Bagyeli people opposing
the decision to allocate their customary lands to the BioPalm plantation.
Recent fieldwork by Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) has found that neither
the project nor the state has secured the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
of the Bagyeli, as required by the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous
Peoples Rights, which Cameroon
has ratified.
To establish the plantation, native trees will be cut down and replaced with
a monoculture of oil palms, making hunting and fishing in these areas
impossible. The Bagyeli mostly depend on hunting, fishing and collecting forest
products for their livelihoods, regularly going for several days deep into the
forest. They also use the forest for traditional medicine. It is clear that the
plantation will be the end of their way of life.
The Bagyeli communities that FPP visited said that “the plantation is a way
to make the Bagyeli disappear.” As well as making their traditional livelihoods
impossible the plantation will also lead to the erosion and loss of their
culture by preventing transmission of their forest knowledge. They asked, “How
will we survive?” as several of their villages are even located within the
planned plantation. It is unclear how the project plans to deal with them.
The project does not plan to provide any compensation for indigenous peoples
and other local communities (Bagyeli and others). Communities have merely been
informed that a 4km-wide strip along the road will be left to them for all
their activities. Some of the other local communities are divided, as some are
attracted to the project by the promise of “development,” such as schools,
health centres and a good road that the government has failed to provide so
far.
They are also hoping to benefit from employment in the company.
Nevertheless, many of these promised benefits are unlikely to materialise or
to be short-lived as such concessions tend to employ people from much further
afield, and any services that they establish need sustained investment in human
resources. Moreover, the Bagyeli are already marginalized by dominant local
communities, thus they are unlikely to see even short-term benefit from social
schemes, employment or secure land for farming.
The felling of timber in the forest and the planting of palm trees has not
yet begun. There is still an opportunity for the government to fulfill its role
towards communities and respect its international obligations.
ForestPeoples.org
October 17, 2011
BioPalm plantation will lead to destruction of communities in Cameroon
Categories biofuel, Cameroon, investment