Rt. Hon. Clare Short MP

Secretary of State for International Development

c/o Department for International Development

1 Palace Street,

London SW1E 5HE

12 December 2002


Dear Secretary of State,

Re: The UK Government and the Chad-Cameroon Pipeline

We are writing to reiterate our concerns regarding the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline (CCP) in the Cameroon, specifically its serious impacts on the forest-dwelling Bagyéli people. We urge the UK government to take a strong position regarding the World Bank’s responsibilities towards the indigenous people and environmental sustainability, through strong and effective enforced safeguard policies, and to address the current grave situation in the Cameroon.

In 1999 and 2000, as the World Bank’s Board moved towards approval of the CCP project, NGOs including FPP published research and predictions on the serious potential adverse impact it would have, inter alia, on the indigenous Bagyéli people and the rainforest ecosystem they live in. FPP communicated to you, UKDEL and DFID our concern that the associated 'Indigenous Peoples Plan' was seriously flawed and did not comply with World Bank safeguards as set out in Operational Directive 4.20. We predicted that unless steps were taken to address these deficiencies, the project would severely affect the Bagyéli by causing:

• loss of Bagyéli access to their forest-based subsistence;
• conflict with pipeline workers;
• forest destruction and increased bushmeat hunting;
• land theft and settlement along the pipeline;
• serious increases in health problems related to imported diseases, decline in nutrition and the rapid spread of venereal diseases including AIDS;
• uncontrolled immigration of workforce and opportunists leading to alcohol abuse, prostitution and the break up of indigenous social and cultural community structure;
• denial of indigenous hunting and gathering rights in the mitigatory protected area established in southern Cameroon.

DFID chose to ignore these appeals and instructed the UK Executive Director to vote in favour of the project. In a statement to the Guardian you were quoted as promising to make this project a test-case of the effectiveness of World Bank procedures and you gave assurances that “Britain will use its influence to insist that all the appropriate controls are in place and that they are implemented rigorously and monitored closely as the project proceeds.” [1] Subsequently the project went ahead and the pipeline has now been constructed right across the Bagyéli’s forests, yet mitigation measures are seriously defective and are being implemented after the fact.

In part thanks to DFID funding, our sister charity FP Project has been carrying out a direct programme of assistance to the Bagyéli communities to help them cope with the CCP and promote their participation in decision-making processes linked to future development in the area. This work has so far revealed that basic elements of good governance, including informed participation, transparency, fairness and accountability are all being undermined by the CCP, causing increased marginalisation and impoverishment of the Bagyéli, erosion of their land rights and customary systems of land tenure and the loss of their livelihood security.

In sum, the present situation has shown a steady deterioration of Bagyéli circumstances, and sadly, our predictions about likely impacts have proved all too accurate. Specifically:

• land has been taken from Bagyéli by neighbouring Bantu, who have claimed financial compensation for it from the pipeline consortium;
• Bagyéli were not paid individual compensation when it was due;
• land theft, increased bush meat hunting and faunal decline are all reported;
• the Campo Ma'an National Park, established as a mitigatory protected area in accordance with the World Bank Natural Habitats policy, threatens to extinguish Bagyéli rights and livelihoods;
• the public health situation is catastrophic: AIDS, other venereal diseases, malaria, water-borne diseases and respiratory diseases have all spread in the project zone;
• prostitution among female minors as well as adults has increased, exacerbating the spread of diseases.

The Bagyéli’s current plight is largely due to failures in both the conception and implementation of the World Bank’s Indigenous Peoples Plan (IPP). It was developed without consultation with the very people who are supposed to benefit from it: some affected communities were not even aware of the existence of the plan two years after its finalisation.  The Plan does not take steps to legally secure the Bagyéli’s land base, nor does it compensate the Bagyéli for their loss of homes, gardens, hunting grounds, forests and sacred sites, all of which have now resulted from the development. The Plan also fails to identify let alone deal with the short term impacts which have long term bearing, such as disturbance of wildlife, increased population, hunting pressure, increased crime, deforestation, road and housing construction, etc.

As of December 2002 Bagyéli communities in the pipeline zone have not yet been consulted about the implementation of the IPP plan, even though FEDEC, the COTCO Financed foundation that is supposed to fund grants for this purpose, has begun to implement field activities on its own in the name of the IPP.  This has led to growing numbers of field staff for FEDEC, reducing further the small sum expressly established to fund IPP support for Bagyéli. FEDEC’s work is already causing confusion amongst Bagyéli communities and Cameroonian support NGOs about its role in dictating Bagyéli futures.  In Campo Ma’an, Bagyéli communities worry that their rights to practice their subsistence livelihoods will be under increasing threat from the new protection measures currently under consideration by WWF, who are responsible for the park’s management, and who have yet to consult with local communities.

In our view, this case highlights the need for the World Bank to strengthen its safeguard policies and implement them rigorously.  A strong Operational Policy on Indigenous People, with robust procedures for implementation would have not permitted such a loose, ineffectual and ill-composed IPP.  Yet the World Bank’s safeguards have been undergoing a 'conversion' process which is systematically weakening their standards, opening them up for misinterpretation and sub-standard and ineffective implementation.

In the light of these tragic developments, we were rather startled by your responses to the questions posed by the International Development Committee on 5th November concerning the CCP and World Bank safeguards. We would like to correct some misunderstandings. As a human rights organisation that works to improve the rights and livelihoods of forest peoples, the FPP is not “anti-development” (rhetoric we are more used to hearing from Third World dictators). The information we have presented to the Committee is based on decades of staff experience living in forests in developing countries. The information on the CCP derives from our long-term engagement with the affected communities, and on their expressed concerns.  Given the UK Government's commitment to a rights-based approach to development, we expect you and DFID to show concern for the rights, welfare and livelihoods of marginalised peoples like the Bagyéli and not to pour scorn on those who try to speak up for them.

We urge you to reconsider your position with regards to the World Bank's safeguard policies and to ensure no further rights abuses are suffered by the Bagyéli. We call upon you and DFID to:

1. Put pressure on the World Bank/IFC to ensure the effective implementation of an appropriate and genuinely participatory IPP;
2. Initiate a dialogue with the Cameroonian government concerning mechanisms to secure the rights of impacted peoples’ communities;
3. Ensure that the management plan of the Campo Ma’an National Park is revised to allow the Bagyéli secure access to their customary resource and access rights;
4. Develop measures to halt logging operations that are currently undermining Bagyéli livelihoods in the area of influence of the pipeline;
5. Instruct UKDEL to closely monitor the Inspection Panel process, which is due to assess the World Bank’s performance in the Cameroon section of the pipeline;
6. Call for a strengthening of the World Bank’s safeguard policies and for strict measure to ensure staff compliance with them.
   

We look forward to hearing how the UK government plans to address the concerns raised in this letter.

Yours sincerely,

[signed]

Marcus Colchester

Director