A Message from our Executive Director
Dear friend,
I imagine your heart aches and feels as heavy as does mine. Savage brutality of the war, suffering of the innocent, blatant disregard of international law. From Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan to DRC, Yemen…sometimes my heart cannot open wide enough to hold all the grief and desperation.
On May 15th, I was asked to deliver the lecture, The New Palestinian Nakba and Global Resistance to Colonialism, commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Nakba at the American University in Cairo. In 217 days of war, more than 35,000 Palestinians had been killed and over 75,000 injured by Israeli military operations since October 7, 2023. A day earlier, I visited the injured at the Palestine Hospital in Cairo with Baitulmaal, a relief agency which provides humanitarian aid to underserved populations around the world. I bore witness to what a US-made, 2,000-pound bomb does to a human body. Shatter, burn, break into as many pieces as our humanity is today. This is why millions who are pro peace, pro human rights, pro freedom for all are out on the streets demanding an end for our tax dollars to aid and abet war crimes in Gaza while hunger, homelessness, lack of investment in communities abounds in the United States of America.
At the center of the barbarity is the theft of land. Depriving one of land means stealing their personhood, being and identity – their full humanity. This is accompanied by systematic destruction of education and knowledge, essential for the colonizer to wield power. Prof. Karma Nabulsi has described the role and power of education in an occupied society, as freedom of thought offers possibilities, opens new horizons, in sharp contrast with “the apartheid wall, the shackling checkpoints, and the choking prisons.”
What transforms my outrage into hope is that we continue to rise up.
Students on over 140 college campuses – from Columbia, Princeton, Harvard to Pomona, Humboldt State, and UCLA – have lit the streets demanding divestment from occupation and weapon manufacturers, and human rights for the Palestinians. Undeterred by police brutality and punitive measures that put democracy under siege, students still rise up for land and life.
This struggle for freedom and dignity is the genesis of all our work at the Oakland Institute. Together with the Indigenous in Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya; villagers in Mali, DRC to Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka; smallholder farmers in Ukraine, France, Poland and more; and communities around the world challenging the theft of their land, we are rising up.
I am outraged. I am in disbelief. But I am inspired by all who are rising up to take action. I am inspired by what we do every day at the Institute. I am inspired that we reject the “development” paradigm that enables the Empire today – built on the lives of the most vulnerable. Just as I am inspired by our partners – those on all continents who are on the frontlines of the land struggles today!
And I know that what we do for human rights and life with dignity for all is what separates us from those who are complicit. It puts us on the right side of history. Because all will be free!
Anuradha Mittal
Who We Are / What We Do
Hold Powerful Actors Accountable
We hold governments, corporations, and international institutions accountable for their actions that harm people and the planet. Our reports sunlight social and environmental justice issues; we organize advocacy campaigns, testify at the United Nations Human Rights Council, Congressional hearings, and more – till justice is delivered for the impacted communities.
Dismantle False Solutions
Our research and advocacy exposes and challenges the false solutions put forward by international institutions like the World Bank, governments, and corporations to fight hunger, combat climate change, and spur development.
Strengthen Land Rights and Livelihoods
In partnership with impacted communities, we document threats to land rights, livelihoods, and natural resources and develop advocacy campaigns to support and elevate these struggles in national and international arenas.
Support Sustainable Farmer-led Food Systems
We support sustainable Indigenous and farmer-led food systems and work to build a farm economy from the bottom up. Our research is providing blueprints of what these systems can look like and what policy changes are needed for them to flourish.
Stand by Our Partners in the Face of Criminalization
The Legal Defense Fund, started in 2015 to support land rights defenders, provides legal support to individuals and groups around the world. In 2023, we supported partners in Tanzania, Mali, DRC, Kenya, and Nicaragua.
Elevate People’s Voices
A key element of our work is responding directly to asks for support from impacted communities and working in partnership with them and local organizations. Underlying this is our commitment to elevate the voices of farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples, and all those who are ignored, marginalized, and repressed in the name of development.
2023 Highlights
Forced the World Bank to suspend financing of a deadly “conservation” project in Tanzania [Ruaha river]
Exposed the failure of the US treasury to enforce its own sanctions on the gold sector in Nicaragua [Nica goldmine]
Unmasked the structural failings of carbon markets [Green colonialism]
Challenged the climate reporting exemptions that shield the US military-industrial complex [Navy]
Uncovered the stealth takeover of Ukrainian agricultural land amidst the chaos of war [Ukraine Fields]
Ensured tax-evading logging corporations are held accountable in Papua New Guinea [Logging west pomio]
Making News
‘This Will Finish Us’
How Gulf princes, the safari industry, and conservation groups are displacing the Maasai from the last of their Serengeti homeland
Covered by top news outlets
Selected Media Highlights
- Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating emissions The Guardian
- Dams and plantations upend livelihoods in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo River Valley Mongabay
- La guerre en Ukraine, un révélateur de la crise alimentaire mondiale Le Monde
- Ukraine’s other land grab Al Jazeera
- DRC: Palm oil producer PHC, Kuramo targeted in Mauritius lawsuit The Africa Report
- "War and theft". Who and why is seizing the agricultural lands of Ukraine? ZN.UA
- Facing pressure from rights groups, World Bank suspends funding for Tanzania tourism project AP
- World Bank suspends Tanzania tourism funding after claims of killings and evictions The Guardian
- Tanzania tourism: World Bank suspends funding for Ruaha National Park project BBC
- Droits humains: la Banque mondiale suspend son financement à un projet touristique tanzanien RFI
- Harmful mining continues in Nicaragua despite U.S. sanctions, new investigation shows Mongabay
- World Bank suspends Tanzania tourism fund over abuse allegations Reuters
- Estados Unidos se guarda sanciones contra Eniminas y los socios de la dictadura en el sector minero Divergentes
- Benki ya Dunia yashutumiwa kwa ukiukaji wa haki Tanzania DW
- Colère des agriculteurs : comment le discret poulet ukrainien fragilise les éleveurs français Ouest-France
- Έκθεση: Στα χέρια κολοσσών το 28% των ουκρανικών χωραφιών με υπογραφή Ζελένσκι Ta Nea
2023 Activities
Raze Fortress Conservation Down
In 2023, the Tanzanian government ramped up efforts to expand “protected” areas to boost safari tourism and hunting. Faced with forced evictions, horrific human rights abuses, and livelihood restrictions, it is the Indigenous who pay the price for luring foreign tourists. In the face of this travesty, our longstanding partnership with the local communities played a vital role in protecting their rights to land and life.
© The Oakland Institute
© Pius Mahimbi (CC BY 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons
Major Campaign Victory!
World Bank Suspends Financing to a Conservation Project Responsible for Killings, Human Rights Abuses & Evictions of Villagers
In late 2022, communities in Southern Tanzania struggling to survive the government and World Bank’s tourism expansion plans, reached out with an urgent request for support. The Bank’s US$150 million Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW) project began in 2017 to “develop” tourism assets. Our research revealed it was directly financing egregious human rights abuses, including killings and evictions of communities living near the Ruaha National Park.
[Runapa entrance]
Our report Unaccountable & Complicit shattered the silence on the complicity of the World Bank. It exposed how its financing enabled the government’s plans to evict tens of thousands of people from their land to expand the park’s boundaries. The report brought forward evidence that the Bank turned a blind eye to multiple violations of its own safeguards and documented the violence perpetrated by Bank-funded Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) rangers. When first alerted about these abuses and violations in April 2023, the World Bank deflected blame and failed to take action. We filed a request for inspection with the Bank’s independent Inspection Panel in June on behalf of villagers in the Mbarali District. In November 2023, the Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved the Panel’s recommendation to launch an investigation into violence by TANAPA.
Our advocacy and international media attention on the Institute’s findings put a global spotlight on the Bank. To further escalate pressure, we delivered a petition alongside Rainforest Rescue with nearly 80,000 signatures to Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank, calling on him to immediately stop funding the project.
The communities won! In April 2024, the Bank suspended further disbursements to the project – citing deep concern regarding our allegations of abuse and injustice. This rare decision recognized the serious wrongdoings of the government towards Indigenous communities resisting the takeover of their land and the destruction of their livelihoods. It sent a loud and clear message to the Tanzanian government that its rampant rights abuses across the country to boost tourism will not go unchecked. And with our persistence and the power of truth, we brought a harmful project and the World Bank to its knees.
“When we alerted Oakland Institute it acted immediately and seized the World Bank by the horns. The pressure it created forced the Bank to suspend disbursements to the project. With support from our brave and unrelenting partner, we are calling for the end of the project which has caused irreparable damage to thousands in Usangu Basin. Together, we keep moving.”
– A Pastoralist, Mbarali District, Tanzania
A Resolute Partnership with the Maasai
in Their Struggle for Land & Life in Northern Tanzania
[Maasai NCA]
Our deep and strong partnership with Maasai communities in Northern Tanzania has played a critical role in fighting back the escalating repression and evictions they face. Our communications and advocacy documented massive cattle seizures to expose the government’s concerted efforts to decimate pastoral livelihoods. We took on high-profile celebrities – the McEnroe brothers – who are complicit in “sportswashing” these abuses by hosting an extravagant luxury tennis-themed safari for wealthy tourists in December 2023.
Visit NCA
In a desperate move, the government announced a devastating plan to forcibly remove 100,000 Maasai pastoralists from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. Undeterred by the threat of arrests and detention, thousands of courageous Maasai continue to protest – in a clear demonstration of their power to the world that they will not give up their struggle. We are proud of our partnership with these land warriors and will work alongside them until the “fortress” conservation model that denies rights to ancestral lands and decimates livelihoods is dismantled.
Combating Carbon Colonialism:
A Decade of Impactful Advocacy
Africa Climate summit
Since our first seminal exposé on carbon offsetting ten years ago, we have successfully reframed the debate around carbon markets – smashing the myth that they are a viable climate solution whereas they are a neo-colonial tool that amplifies global inequity and exacerbates the climate crisis. Amidst the carbon credit rush of the past two years – marked by a proliferation of carbon capture and storage projects and the expansion of carbon markets – the Institute is a leading voice in challenging this dangerous false solution.
Ahead of the Africa Climate Summit held in Kenya in 2023, our report Green Colonialism 2.0: Tree Plantations and Carbon Offsets in Africa unveiled how carbon offsetting has failed to reduce carbon emissions, triggered violent evictions, decimated livelihoods, and exacerbated environmental harms on the continent. Our publication energized the mobilization of over 500 African civil society groups at the Summit, bolstering their calls for the end of carbon colonialism and for real solutions. This momentum was captured in the African People’s Climate and Development Declaration that called for climate justice, African solutions, and a people-centered approach.
Green colonialism cover
In the United States, our continued investigation into the world’s largest carbon pipeline project – the Midwest Carbon Express – brought to light an often-overlooked facet of the speculative and deceptive nature of carbon markets. In 2023, we exposed how Summit Carbon Solutions sold nearly 200,000 tons of worthless carbon credits despite the fact that the project has yet to break ground due to tough opposition from a coalition of Indigenous groups, farmers, and environmentalists – as documented in The Great Carbon Boondoggle: Inside the Struggle to Stop Summit’s CO2 Pipeline.
Despite the fundamental flaws of carbon markets and its own commitments to tackle the climate crisis, we found the World Bank again to be on the wrong side, catering to profiteers rather than the common good. Bankrolling the Carbon Cowboys: The World Bank's Carbon Insurance Plans shed light on the troubling plans by the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) – the World Bank’s political risk guarantee arm – to provide insurance in the voluntary carbon market, a move that would shield fraudulent investors and sanction greenwashing. These plans have since stalled, in a crushing blow to the industry.
Bairaman PNG forest
Our research has fueled the legitimacy crisis now gripping carbon markets. We remain steadfast in our commitment to challenge false solutions and the powerful financial interests that profiteer from them.
Forest near the Bairaman River in Papua New Guinea © Paul Hilton / GreenpeaceUnmasking the Stealth Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land
A year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, our groundbreaking report War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land laid bare how control of agricultural land is at the center of the ongoing conflict. Large agribusinesses, oligarchs, and corporate interests have dramatically expanded their control over the country’s agricultural land with the help and financing of Western financial institutions, most notably the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Bank.
War & Theft Cover
This financing is tied to a drastic structural adjustment program that imposed austerity and privatization, forcing the country to establish a market for the sale of agricultural land. Despite widespread opposition from Ukrainians who feared that a land market would increase control of agriculture by corrupt business interests, President Zelenskyy enacted a land reform law in 2020. Alongside Ukrainian civil society, farmer organizations, and academics, we have firmly opposed this law, which will result in even more concentration of land in the hands of oligarchs and large agribusiness firms. Massive financing from Western financial institutions to these large landholders further drives land consolidation, while Ukrainian farmers, who face the dire consequences of the war, receive little to no support.
Our analysis of the Black Sea Grain Initiative tore off the masks of the large agribusinesses and corrupt financial interests who were the primary beneficiaries of the UN-led Initiative. Despite claims that the Initiative will secure food supplies for those in need, particularly in Africa, a mere three percent of the exported food commodities reached low-income countries. Instead, most of the exports went to European countries, primarily Spain, and to China.
“Your rigorous investigative research on Ukraine shows the underlying economic interests of the rich and powerful and that nothing is as simple as the good vs. evil that the US news tries to portray.”
– Sara H., Individual Donor
The farmers’ protests that erupted across Europe in 2024 highlighted the significance of our findings. As farmers challenged unfair competition, including the dumping of cheap Ukrainian imports, we showed in When European Institutions Sacrifice Farmers for Corporate Profit that Ukrainian poultry giant MHP amassed over a billion dollars in financing from European institutions and the World Bank. Our revelations fueled outrage among European parliamentarians and farmer unions, who are now challenging the corrupt deals of these institutions.
Generating millions of media impressions, the Institute has shifted the conversation about the stakes of the war in Ukraine and beyond, debunking the myth of the so-called global food crisis used by international institutions to bankroll oligarchs and agro-industrial conglomerates.
farmers protest
“The Oakland Institute is one of the very few brave voices denouncing the violations of the rights of Indigenous peoples, pastoralists, and peasant farmers threatened and displaced by the expansion of industrial agriculture and land grabs. Over the last 20 years, the Institute has worked with local and global partners to produce succinct, well-researched, and clearly written reports on the violence which many corporations and financial institutions inflict on local communities and their lands. Most importantly perhaps, the Oakland Institute has a formidable and growing ability to mobilise grassroots resistance and international solidarity against human rights abuses and corporate crimes.”
– Michel Pimbert, Emeritus Professor of Agroecology and Food Politics, Coventry University
Relief for the Rainforest in PNG
In June 2023, the Internal Revenue Commission (IRC) of Papua New Guinea announced the imposition of a substantial K140 million [US$ 40 million] tax assessment against a prominent logging operator for illicit tax evasion. The landmark announcement followed years of research and tireless advocacy by the Institute, that exposed massive tax evasion by logging companies responsible for plundering the third largest rainforest in the world. We showed how these logging corporations evaded corporate income tax for decades by continually claiming losses every year, despite exports of millions of cubic meters of tropical timber. Papua New Guinea has set a standard for the rest of the world by showing that governments in the Global South can stand up to the powerful corporate interests responsible for tax evasion, environmental devastation, and the climate crisis.
“The announcement of the K140 million levy for tax evasion is a direct result of the ground-breaking investigative research and advocacy done by Oakland Institute, and a powerful example of effective partnership between an international organization and local civil society groups on issues of corporate crime.”
– Eddie Tanago, Campaign Manager at Act Now! [PNG-based NGO]
Mobilizing a Humanitarian Response to the Crisis
in Ethiopia's Omo Valley
Plantations Omo valley
With attention centered on the civil war in Ethiopia over the last three years, the dire humanitarian crisis in the Omo Valley has gone ignored. Our report, Dam and Sugar Plantations Yield Starvation and Death in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, sounded the alarm on the severe hunger and health crisis faced by Indigenous tribes in the Valley following the establishment of the Gibe III Dam and the Kuraz Sugar Development Project.
World Vision providing assistance
Dam & Plantations cover
For over a decade, we have warned about the major threats these “development projects” pose to the Indigenous tribes. Our research and prediction were unfortunately proven right as the dam and sugarcane plantations unleashed acute hunger, deadly disease outbreaks, and deaths. In response to our alert and advocacy, World Vision and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières mobilized desperately needed humanitarian relief and medical support to the affected communities. Our advocacy will continue until the devastating impacts of the projects are remedied and the livelihoods of local communities are restored.
Exposing Fake US Sanctions
Indigenous and Afro-descendent communities bear the devastating cost – massacres, kidnappings, and land colonization – of the massive expansion of gold mining in Nicaragua. In a glaring instance of such violence, we brought international attention to yet another horrific massacre in March 2023 in the community of Wilú, Mayangna Sauni As Territory, where the colonos burnt most houses to the ground and brutally murdered five Mayangna people.
Our report Nicaragua’s Gold Rush called out the Biden administration’s failure to enforce its own sanctions, allowing prominent US and Canadian mining and investment firms to profiteer with total impunity, despite the surge in violence against Indigenous communities. Mining concessions now cover 15 percent of Nicaragua's land area – with the main beneficiary of this gold boom – Canada’s Calibre Mining Corp. controlling nine percent of the national territory.
The compelling evidence presented in the report called out the hypocrisy of the sanction measures taken by the US Treasury. The sanctions, allegedly established because of human rights concerns, have not been enforced on Western corporations and business interests.
Challenging the Climate Reporting Exemption
of the US Military-Industrial Complex
While UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for “no compromises” to address the escalating climate crisis at COP28, Exempted! The US Military Industrial Complex and the Climate Crisis, highlighted the glaring loophole about US military emissions in current climate reporting requirements. Although militaries worldwide collectively account for over five percent of global emissions, these emissions have remained absolved. Our research showed this is due to sustained efforts by the US – the primary beneficiary of this exemption – as by far the largest military spender and largest emitter of greenhouse gases historically.
Exempted cover photo
Our findings were released ahead of COP28, as we drummed up our calls for the negotiators to close this critical loophole that undermines progress on climate goals. The constant growth of US military spending further enriches the profiteers of war while climate justice lags far behind and vulnerable communities suffer the consequences. It is time to end the opacity shrouding military emissions and the impunity surrounding military pollution.
“Bravo! This report is deeply penetrating of the flatulent carbon-pumping elephant in the global living room. When it comes to exposing the impacts of the military's global oil-burning emissions, this report makes no omissions. The Pentagon can run from this breathtaking global accounting but it can no longer hide. Every member of Congress should read this report and act on the information it reveals.”
– Gar Smith, Editor Emeritus of Earth Island Journal & Co-founder of Environmentalists Against War
Field Updates
Women collecting water
Exploitative Plans of a US Agribusiness in West Africa Laid Bare
As local communities resist the theft of their land and natural resources, we exposed predatory plans of a US agribusiness firm, African Agriculture, to seize three million hectares across West Africa. In Senegal, the company is producing alfalfa for export to the Middle East and South Korea on land that local pastoralist communities have long relied on to graze their cattle. Initial IPO filings for the company ignored the Senegalese communities’ 10-year long struggle to reclaim their land, despite extensive coverage of these efforts. Our work garnered widespread media coverage, including the front page of Senegal’s leading newspaper. The stock price of the company has cratered and its future plans are now in jeopardy.
Tamils Jaffna Protest
Sri Lanka – The Long March to Justice
Following the bloody end of the civil war in 2009, the Tamil population in Sri Lanka remains besieged. As documented by the Oakland Institute, thousands remain displaced from their lands and homes while the colonization of Tamil lands is ongoing. Government-led efforts to systematically erase Tamil culture and bifurcate the contiguous Tamil homeland by separating the North and East have continued relentlessly. As Sri Lanka celebrated its 75th Independence Day in 2023, the Institute welcomed new sanctions by Canada against two former Presidents and senior military officials. Our work continues to echo calls for the start of a process of truth recovery, justice, and reparations for the Tamil community.
Women walking DRC
A Blow to Palm Oil Greed in the DRC
DRC’s largest palm oil producer – Plantations et Huileries du Congo (PHC) – continues the colonial-era land grab of over 100,000 hectares. In support of impacted communities who are struggling for the return of their land, we made public court documents revealing an explosive legal battle that erupted between shareholders of the company. By sunlighting the greed and corruption of the owners, we are pressuring institutional investors – including the Gates Foundation and US university endowments – to divest and support local land reclamation efforts. The Institute is also part of an international coalition of civil society organizations working to ensure the ongoing mediation by European development banks – formerly invested in the plantations – results in beneficial outcomes for the impacted communities.
World Bank animation
The World Bank's Alarming Revival of the Defunct Doing Business Project
In 2021, the World Bank’s Doing Business Report (DBR) – which ranked countries on the “ease of doing business” – was halted following explosive revelations of data manipulation to improve rankings for select countries. The decision was a victory for the 280-organization strong Our Land Our Business campaign – comprised of NGOs, unions, farmers, and consumer groups from over 80 countries – advocating against the rankings since 2014. We have closely monitored the Bank’s next move. Be Ready to Further Corporate Exploitation – World Bank Resuscitates Defunct Doing Business Project exposed the resurrection of the problematic and widely criticized program under a different name: the Business Ready aka B-Ready project. Financed primarily by USAID, the new project retains the spirit and most problematic flaws of the DBR – encouraging deregulation, privatization, and the theft of land and natural resources. To achieve the World Bank’s stated mission of ending extreme poverty, the world urgently needs policies and institutions that serve people and protect the planet, not a wolf in sheep’s clothing that preys on the most vulnerable to maximize corporate profits.
Dead livestock Mali
Youth Activists Rise to Halt Devastating Gold Mining Project in Mali
The Falémé River, a major tributary of the Senegal River, is an essential resource for local communities in the Kayes Region of Mali. In 2021, a Chinese mining firm arrived and has since wreaked havoc on the environment. Several young women from the village have been killed by company security guards while local sacred sites and cemeteries have been desecrated. The company’s operations have devastated livelihoods by polluting the river and destroying forests and pastures. In January 2023, the Institute amplified the struggle of youth activists leading the resistance to the project. Despite repression from local authorities – including arbitrary arrests – the courageous youth continue to organize protests and pressure the government to stop this exploitation.
“We express our gratitude to the Oakland Institute and pay a great tribute to their unwavering support and unconditional assistance during our fight against mining companies causing pollution in our river and agricultural lands.”
– Abdoulaye M. Sissoko, Youth Association for the Development of the Village of Saboucire
NRT Crackdown
Violent Suppression of Protests Against NRT in Kenya
On May 8, 2023, the Kenyan police violently cracked down on a peaceful protest in Korbesa against the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), one of Kenya’s largest conservation agencies. Opposing NRT’s plans to construct conservancy headquarters without the consent of Indigenous land owners, the protest marked the latest in a series of public demonstrations in areas where the organization is active. Our 2021 report, Stealth Game: “Community” Conservancies Devastate Land & Lives in Northern Kenya, revealed that, while NRT claims that its conservancies are community-led, its operations have systematically dispossessed pastoralist communities of their ancestral lands. Our advocacy efforts have brought to light how affected communities are increasingly rising against NRT through protests and legal actions to protect their lands and livelihoods.
Palestine Protest
Mobilizing for Freedom: Solidarity with the Palestinian people to End 75 years of Oppression, Apartheid, and Colonization
Alongside a global chorus of voices, the Institute has firmly called for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and denounced US funding of Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza, which has killed over 35,000 Palestinians as of May 2024. We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people against this genocide and over 75 years of oppression, occupation, and ethnic cleansing waged by the Israeli government – aided and abetted by billions of dollars in military aid from the United States.
Early March 2024, we hosted a packed screening of Israelism, a timely film by Emmy and Peabody-award winning American filmmakers that explores how Jewish attitudes towards Israel are changing dramatically. Follow up conversation with Erin Axelman, co-director of Israelism, Zahra Billoo of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and Margaret Zaknoen DeReus of the Institute for Middle East Understanding facilitated much-needed community connection and reflection.
Financial Statements
Power Our Work
Since 2004, the Oakland Institute has supported the struggles of communities around the world for their land and livelihoods. In the face of repression, corruption, and injustice we amplify the voices of those most impacted, reframe the debate, and mobilize for change.
We ensure our independence by not accepting any government or corporate funding. With your support, we will continue to win major victories on behalf of pastoralists and fisherfolk, the Indigenous, and smallholder farmers.
