A/HRC/45/34/Add.1 H. Conservation 93. Restrictions on indigenous peoples’ access to their traditional territories have worsened in recent years, as the commercial exploitation of the forests has increased and as the rich biodiversity of the country’s remaining areas has continued to attract conservation projects. 94. At the time of the Special Rapporteur’s visit, the Messok Dja conservation project – implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Forest Economics and with the support of UNDP and its implementing partner, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – had been suspended following allegations that “eco-guards” indirectly funded by WWF had subjected indigenous peoples to violence in order to clear the way for the new conservation area.29 It also appears that the free, prior and informed consent procedure had not been applied by WWF and that the Government was ready to restart a consultation procedure in accordance with national legislation. The Government had not, however, started any investigation into the allegations. The findings of a UNDP investigation are awaited. 95. The Special Rapporteur heard concerns from CIB, some local civil society organizations, government representatives and conservation organizations regarding an alleged incompatibility between indigenous peoples’ hunting practices and animal conservation measures. The Special Rapporteur was informed of initiatives aimed at transforming indigenous peoples’ hunting practices and meat consumption habits to preserve endangered species and prevent criminal poaching activities. 96. While interviewing populations living near Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, the Special Rapporteur clearly sensed the pressure that indigenous communities were facing from conservation efforts. She heard stories of violence from “eco-guards” and the police. Several persons alleged that they had been arrested and jailed for poaching while in their opinion they were hunting species not subject to legal protections and considered the arrests to be unjustified. Others claimed that some “eco-guards” had automatically assumed their presence in the forest meant they were hunting protected animals, had forced them to return home and had arbitrarily searched their homes. 97. Conservation initiatives put a disproportionate burden on indigenous peoples. A wider range of issues should be addressed to prevent the rapidly declining numbers of wildlife species, including the fragmentation of natural areas caused by the carving out of logging routes in the forest and the corruption and poor governance that enables criminal poaching activities.30 Furthermore, seeking to modify indigenous peoples’ traditional way of life, without due regard for their views, fails to recognize that indigenous peoples have a deep understanding of wildlife behavioural patterns and life cycles that enables them not only to hunt in a sustainable manner but also to support the thriving of wild animals and other biological and vegetal diversity.31 98. Any measures for the conservation of wildlife and the natural environment must, like any economic or development project, be developed and implemented in consultation with the indigenous peoples affected. They must be designed so as not to deprive indigenous peoples of their means of subsistence within the forest and not to interfere with the free exercise of their traditional cultural and spiritual practices. 29 30 31 Survival International, How Will We Survive? The Destruction of Congo Basin Tribes in the Name of Conservation (2017), p. 95. See also John Vidal, “Armed ecoguards funded by WWF ‘beat up Congo tribespeople’”, The Guardian (7 February 2020). United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Wildlife Crime Report: Trafficking in Protected Species (Vienna, 2016). This report provides readers with case studies showing the direct link between poaching and political corruption. Although no specific proof of such corruption was presented to the Special Rapporteur, local interlocutors expressed the view that corruption and impunity among prominent business and political figures fostered the continuation of criminal poaching activities. For more on indigenous conservation practices, see Jerome Lewis, “Whose forest is it anyway? Mbendjele Yaka Pygmies, the Ndoki forest and the wider world” in Property and Equality, Volume II: Encapsulation, Commercialization, Discrimination, Thomas Widlok and Wolde Gossa Tadesse, eds. (Berghahn Books, 2004). 17