WWF partners with logging company destroying "Pygmy” land
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 “Pygmies” who have lived there and managed the land for generations... Rougier...is felling trees in an estimated 600,000 hectare area, which is more than is permitted under Cameroonian law.
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 Baka’s consent for the logging. In response Rougier simply said that: “Baka communities are aware of our existence and operation.”... In a map produced by Rougier, all Baka forest camps within one concession are labelled as “poachers’ camps.”