MINFOF, WWF faulted for abuses on Baka Pigmies

Baka Pygmies living in eastern Cameroon are allegedly living under harsh conditions according to Survival International, the global movement for tribal peoples’ rights.

Survival in a release dated Oct 6, 2014, which The Median procured said it has uncovered “serious abuses” of Baka “Pygmies” at the hands of anti-poaching squads supported and funded by the World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF.

“The Baka are being illegally forced from their ancestral homelands in the name of ‘conservation’ because much of their land has been turned into ‘protected areas’ – including safari-hunting zones. Rather than target the powerful individuals behind organized poaching, wildlife officers and soldiers pursue them who hunt only to feed their families,” Survival’s release explains.

The release said the Baka and their neighbors accused of “poaching” face arrest, beatings and torture with many Baka claiming that friends and relatives have died as a result of the beatings.

“Cameroon’s Ministry of Forests and Fauna, which employs the wildlife officers, is funded by WWF. WWF also provides officers with technical, logistical and material assistance. Without this support the anti-poaching squads could not function,” the release added.

As a result of the loss of their land and its resources, many Baka have reported a serious decline in their health and a rise in diseases such as malaria and HIV/AIDS. And they fear going into the forest that has provided them with everything they need for countless generations.

The release quoted a Baka man as telling Survival that: “The forest used to be for the Baka but not anymore. We would walk in the forest according to the seasons but now we’re afraid. How can they forbid us from going into the forest? We don’t know how to live otherwise. They beat us, kill us and force us to flee to Congo.”

Survival’s Director Stephen Corry said tribal peoples are the best conservationists and guardians of the natural world. “They know more about their lands and what happens on them than anyone else. If conservation is to work, organizations like WWF need to stick to international law, uphold tribal peoples’ land rights, ask them what help they need in protecting their land, listen to them, and then be prepared to back them up as much as they can. A major change in thinking about conservation is urgently required,” he stated.

UN standards require WWF to prevent or mitigate “adverse human rights impacts directly linked to its operations” even if it has not contributed to them, but the giant of the conservation industry appears reluctant to acknowledge this. Despite the evidence that the anti-poaching squads have grossly abused the rights of the Baka, WWF continues to provide its crucial support.

Survival says it has submitted a request to Cameroon’s National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms asking it to investigate these abuses against the Baka people – a race of hunters and gatherers who live together with various ethnic groups of Bantu farmers, with whom they exchange goods.

With an average height of 1.5 metres, the Baka are, strictly speaking, pygmoids rather than pygmies.