In 2017 the International Finance Corporation withdrew from the project and in August 2020 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development terminated its funding, but the construction is still going ahead. This summer, tensions rose again when local activists – who have been peacefully blocking access to the mine for the past two years – were forcibly removed by the mine’s newly-hired security firm.
As it emerges in the report “Uncalculated Risks”, published by the Coalition for Human Rights in Development, threats and attacks against human rights defenders and local communities who protest against the imposition of development projects in their territory are widespread all over the world.
In Kenya, for example, the Sengwer indigenous communities in the Embobut forest have been facing forced evictions, loss of livelihood and violent attacks because of a conservation project approved in the name of “sustainable development”.
Between 2007 and 2013, the World Bank gave US$57 million to carry out a Natural Resources Management Project. To secure the funding, the government approved an indigenous peoples plan and promised it would no longer displace members of the Sengwer community from their ancestral lands.
“But they immediately broke their promises. When the project started, the Kenya Forest Service burned down hundreds of houses, properties were demolished, even school uniforms and children’s textbooks were burned, everything was destroyed”, says Y, a Sengwer community leader.
In 2014, an investigation by the Inspection Panel, the World Bank’s independent accountability mechanism, found that the bank should have anticipated the risk of violent evictions. Yet, in 2016, the European Union’s European Development Fund (EDF) approved further funding for the Water Tower Protection and Climate Change Programme.
Violent evictions continued. In 2017, human rights defender Elias Kimaiyo was attacked, while he was taking photos of Kenyan Forest Service (KFS) officers burning homes in the forests. Less than a year later, forest guards started shooting at a group of Sengwer people who were tending their cattle. Robert Kirotich was killed and two other men were severely injured. The day after, EU officials finally announced the suspension of funding.
The situation, however, did not get any better: “We, the Sengwer people, are still living in fear. Even as we speak now, we cannot even build houses, because the KFS will come and burn them down. We’re living in makeshift houses or in caves. And we are not aware of what the government is planning. Anything can happen, any time”, says Y.
In Nepal, the European Investment Bank (EIB) is funding a 220 kV transmission line project in the Lamjung district, failing to respect the right of the local indigenous communities to free, prior and informed consent. Project documents were primarily provided in English and, even in those rare cases where consultations took place, communities could not participate meaningfully and negotiate compensation rates.
“We were not involved in the decision making process”, says a local community member. “The project is going to impact our sacred sites, our land, our natural resources and livelihoods. We were not compensated and we are concerned about the health and environmental impact, and we have been constantly protesting against the project for the past four years. Because of this, local authorities and project officers have threatened to jail us, accusing us of misleading our community and mobilizing people against the development project”.