In April 2019, WWF appointed an Independent Panel of Experts to assess its role in connection with alleged human rights violations in and around protected areas supported by WWF in Cameroon, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of Congo, Nepal, and India. The alleged abuses included multiple instances of murder, rape, torture, physical beatings, unlawful arrest and detention, invasion of homes, and destruction and theft of personal property committed by ecoguards whose activities WWF helped fund and support. The Panel’s report, published in November 2020, found that in all the protected areas under review, WWF had knowledge of the alleged abuses. In half of these protected areas WWF failed to conduct investigations and in the remaining protected areas it only commissioned investigations several years after the alleged incidents were first reported. The Panel’s findings confirm that, over many years and in multiple countries, WWF consistently failed to take adequate steps to prevent, respond to and remedy alleged human rights abuses in and around protected areas it supports. Despite these clear findings, the Panel’s executive summary and accompanying press releases from both the Panel and WWF have obscured the scope and nature of the Panel’s findings with respect to WWF’s failure to uphold its human rights commitments. To counter this mischaracterization of the Report, the alternative executive summary contained in this briefing elucidates and clarifies the Report’s salient findings, based on a thorough review of what the Panel actually determined through the course of its investigation. In so doing, it points to some of the deeper structural reforms necessary to address the flaws in the coercive conservation model that lies at the root of the allegations subject to the Panel’s investigation.

This book presents a critical review of the ethics of conservation-related resettlement. We examine what has become known as the” parks versus people” debate, also known as the “new conservation debate,” which has pitted indigenous and other local people against nation states and social scientists against ecologists and conservationists for the past several decades. Aiming to promote biodiversity conservation and habitat preservation, some biologists, park planners, and conservation organizations have recommended that indigenous and other people should be removed from protected areas. Local people, for their part, have argued that residents of the areas that were turned into protected areas, national parks, game reserves and monuments had managed them in productive ways for generations and that they should have the right to remain there and to use natural resources as long as they do so sustainably. This position is often supported by indigenous rights organizations and social scientists, especially anthropologists. There are also some conservation-oriented NGOs that have policies involving a more human rights-oriented approach aimed at poverty alleviation, sustainable development, and social justice. The book discusses biodiversity conservation, indigenous peoples (those who are ethnic minorities and who are often marginalized politically), and protected areas, those categories of land set aside by nation-states that have various kinds of rules about land use and residence. The focus initially is on case studies from protected areas in the United States including Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, and Glacier National Park and on national monuments and historical parks where resettlement took place. We then consider issues of coercive conservation in southern Africa, including Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe), the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (Botswana), Etosha National Park, and Bwabwata National Park (Namibia), and Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (South Africa and Botswana). All of these cases involved involuntary resettlement at the hands of the governments. In the book we consider some of the social impacts of conservation-forced resettlement (CfR), many of which tend to be negative. After that, we assess some of the strategies employed by indigenous peoples in their efforts to recover rights of access to protected areas and the cultural and natural resources that they contain. Examples are drawn from cases in Asia, Africa, and South America. Conclusions are provided regarding the ethics of conservation-related resettlement and some of the best practices that could be followed, particularly with regard to indigenous peoples.

The global #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements as well as the push for LGBTQ+ rights are all emblematic of a growing interest in and focus on how to better embrace and capitalize on diversity. Yet these social movements exist alongside renewed efforts to constrain minority rights and stem immigration around the world. In Untapped Power, Carla Koppell has assembled a leading group of scholars, policy makers, researchers, and activists to provide a comprehensive overview for understanding and navigating these countervailing forces, so that we can build a more peaceful and inclusive world.

This profound book by leading socio-legal scholar Joshua Castellino offers a fresh perspective on the lingering legacies of colonization. While decolonization liberated territories, it left the root causes of historical injustice unaddressed. Governance change did not address past wrongs and transferred injustice through political and financial architectures. Castellino presents a five-point plan aimed at system redress through reparations that addresses the colonially induced climate crisis through equitable and sustainable means. In highlighting the structural legacy of colonial crimes, Castellino provides insights into the complexities of contemporary societies, showing how legal frameworks could foster a fairer, more just world.

"This report documents how illegal logging by criminal networks and resulting forest fires are connected to acts of violence and intimidation against forest defenders and the state's failure to investigate and prosecute these crimes."--Publisher website, viewed September 27, 2019.

"For almost 30 years, including during the period of occupation by the US- and UK-led Coalition Provisional Authority, authorities in Iraq have failed to provide Basra's 4 million residents with safe drinking water. The water crisis came to a head in 2018, when at least 118,000 people were hospitalized with rashes, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea because of contamination of the water in the Shatt al-Arab, the river Basra sits on. A severe water shortage from upstream has led to seawater incurring into the Shatt al-Arab so that farmers have had to irrigate their land with salt water - losing most of their produce over the last decade. This continuing water crisis is a result of a complex combination of factors including mismanagement of upstream flows leading to too little water coming to Basra; pollution in Basra and further upstream, including raw sewage, garbage, oil spills, and industrial and agricultural waste; damming by neighboring Iran and Turkey; and climate change. Corruption, including by local authorities, has also led to illegal use of precious freshwater resources. Since last summer the government has refused to make public any of its investigations into why the water poisoned people. Nor has it announced any significant measures to improve the quality of water in Basra in coming years. Iraqi authorities have an obligation to secure Basrawis' right to use their land and to safe drinking water and to inform the public when water sources are unsafe. Where authorities have violated these rights, they should ensure that people can access an effective remedy against those responsible"--Page 4 of cover