from Survival International WWF-funded ecoguards have evicted Baka tribespeople from their forest home, and been complicit in serious human rights abuse. © Survival International A French logging company and official partner of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is deforesting a huge area of rainforest in southeast Cameroon without the consent of local Baka [pejorative term removed] who have lived there and managed the land for generations, Survival International has learned. Rougier is described as an “integrated forest & trade company” and a large “forest operator” in a WWF press release and report. It is felling trees in an estimated 600,000 hectare area, which is more than is permitted under Cameroonian law. Rougier has also been denounced by Friends of the Earth for its activities in Cameroon, which have included illegal price-fixing, illegal logging outside a concession, felling more trees than authorized, and illegally exporting rare timber. WWF has stated that it would never partner with a company operating on indigenous land without the consent of the indigenous people. In entering this partnership with Rougier, it has violated its own policies on indigenous peoples. Survival recently wrote to the CEO of Rougier asking whether he believed his company had acquired the […]
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