Dear WWF Director,
I am extremely concerned to learn that Baka men and women in Cameroon are regularly victims of violence and intimidation by wildlife officers and the soldiers that accompany them on patrols.
WWF provides essential funds and support to these patrols via the Ministry of Forests and Fauna. It therefore has a responsibility to make sure that these funds are not used to violate the rights of the Baka and their neighbors.
I am also concerned by the fact that WWF continues to support protected areas and restrictions on subsistence hunting on Baka land, despite the fact that the Baka have not consented to these. This violates WWF’s principles on indigenous peoples.
I urge you to take immediate action to ensure that WWF’s funds are not being misused for this kind of abuse, and that WWF’s work in Cameroon complies with its own principles on conservation and indigenous peoples.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Derek Wall, International Coordinator of the Green Party of England and Wales.
Background from Survival International here http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/10708
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