Press Releases

Inspection Panel’s investigation confirms “critical failure” of the World Bank in planning and supervision of REGROW project, which resulted in “serious harm” to villagers in Tanzania.The project enabled the expansion of the Ruaha National Park, triggering forced evictions, and funded TANAPA rangers who committed human rights abuses in blatant violation of World Bank’s safeguards and operating procedures.The devastation wrought by the Bank’s financing impacts at least 84,000 people who face evictions.

The World Bank’s Board of Directors is currently reviewing a proposed Management Action Plan (MAP) to address the findings of the Inspection Panel investigation into the REGROW tourism project in Southern Tanzania.By enabling the expansion of Ruaha National Park from one to over two million hectares, the REGROW project destroyed the livelihoods of over 84,000 people who face forced evictions and are prohibited from farming and grazing.Paramilitary rangers, funded and equipped by the Bank, are responsible for human rights abuses, including torture

In a major victory for Tanzanian pastoralists and farmers, the World Bank funded REGROW project, which enabled extrajudicial killings, human rights abuses, livelihood restrictions and forced evictions to expand Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA) is cancelled.Amidst an ongoing investigation by the independent Inspection Panel, the Bank first suspended the project in April 2024, citing the Tanzanian government’s noncompliance with safeguards for resettlement and grievance mechanisms.The cancellation comes after nine United Nations Special Rapporteurs exp

---FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--- October 29; 6:00 AM PDT Media Contact: [email protected], +1 510-469-5228 Tanzanian High Court has dismissed a case filed by Maasai communities to return land violently seized by the government in June 2022 to establish the Pololeti Game Reserve for trophy hunting by the Emirati Royal Family in Loliondo. In violation of Tanzanian law, impacted Maasai communities were neither consulted nor compensated for being forced from their land, critical for over 96,000 people living in legally registered villages in the area.

As the 57th session of the UNHRC addresses the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, a new report from the Oakland Institute, Trincomalee Under Siege: Land Grabs Target the Tamil Homeland in Sri Lanka uncovers the rapidly escalating colonization of Tamil and Muslim lands in Trincomalee District. While Sinhalese colonization and settlements have taken place in Sri Lanka under the guise of development since independence, this new research exposes an intensification since the end of the civil war in 2009 and details the different methods deployed by successive governments and the military to further disempower Tamil and Muslim communities.

---POUR PUBLICATION IMMÉDIATE--- 27 août 2024 Contact média: [email protected], +1 510-469-5228 Basée sur les expulsions forcées des peuples autochtones de leurs terres, la conservation-forteresse en RDC entraîne d’abominables violations des droits humains et facilite l’extraction illicite de minéraux et d’autres ressources. Les grandes ONG de protection de la nature et les gouvernements ont échoué à répondre de manière adéquate à la violence et aux abus des écogardes et des forces de sécurité.

Exposing conservation’s counterintuitive deep ties to the extraction of natural resources and abuse of Indigenous Peoples in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Throughout decades of environmental conservation in the country, the government and NGOs have failed to address the issue of land grabbing and violence against Indigenous communities. Measures taken in recent years, such as training, grievance mechanism, and safeguards, are inadequate given the systemic flaws of the current fortress conservation model.

On April 30, 2024, US-based luxury safari operator Wineland-Thomson Adventures, which runs Thomson Safaris in Tanzania, was acquired for approximately US$30 million by the adventure travel conglomerate Lindblad Expeditions. The acquisition came just weeks after the release of Capitalizing on Chaos, a report by the Oakland Institute that documents the ongoing resistance of Maasai communities to Thomson Safaris for alleged land theft and human rights abuses committed by the company’s agents in Tanzania. Announcing the deal, Sven-Olof Lindblad, CEO of Lindblad Expeditions, emphasized the importance of being “stewards of the Wineland-Thomson brands and honoring the legacy of its founders.”

As of April 18, 2024, the World Bank has suspended disbursements for the REGROW project in Tanzania with immediate effect – following steadfast advocacy by the Oakland Institute on behalf of impacted villagers. The US$150 million project began in 2017 to “develop” tourism assets in Southern Tanzania but the Institute’s research in 2023 revealed it was directly financing evictions and egregious human rights abuses against communities living near the Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA).

Boston-based Thomson Safaris is exploiting the Tanzanian government’s brutal repression of land defenders to legitimize control over Maasai land in the Loliondo Division of the Ngorongoro District. In June 2022, the government carried out land demarcation to create a Game Reserve in Loliondo, which saw security forces fire live ammunition on the Maasai, severely wounding dozens and displacing thousands. In the immediate aftermath of these events, Thomson Safaris carried out a resurvey of a long-contested land claim they have in the same area. Communities say they were excluded from the resurvey process and alleged in a November 2023 court filing that they have since suffered abuse by the company’s agents enforcing the new boundaries.