Submission to CERD concerning the grant of a palm oil concession to CamVert and associated rapid deforestation on the customary forest lands of Bagyeli communities in Cameroon

Read the submission in English (+ annexes) and French (+ annexes) 

On 20 March 2023, BACUDA, a Bagyeli indigenous peoples’ organisation, Green Development Advocates, a Cameroonian CSO, and FPP, acting at the request of 7 Bagyeli indigenous communities, submitted a request for consideration to the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) under its Early Warning / Urgent Action Procedure.

The submission raises concerns that the customary lands of multiple Bagyeli communities in the Océan department of Cameroon are being rapidly deforested to establish a large oil palm plantation, after the government granted Cameroonian company CamVert a provisional concession for such a development.

Mvae and Iyasa communities living in the area are also affected and many have expressed their concerns. Earlier this year a company monitoring deforestation associated with oil palm development described the deforestation occurring on the site as “one of the most serious current cases of palm-related deforestation” in the world.

A previous submission to CERD in October 2020 raised the issue of CamVert’s imminent encroachment onto Bagyeli lands, and CERD has expressed its concern at the lack of protection for indigenous peoples’ customary land rights in Cameroon, most recently in its 2022 Concluding Observations on Cameroon.

Aerial imagery between June 2020 and February 2023 shows rapid deforestation in the CamVert concession with a plantation grid clearly visible. Before image © Planet Labs Inc 2020 After image © Planet Labs Inc 2023

Biopalm concession

CERD addressed a letter to the Cameroonian government in 2019 in connection with a similar submission made in relation to another oil palm concession. The Biopalm concession was granted by the government in Ocean and overlaps with Bagyeli, Bakoko and Bassa’a customary lands.