Kribi, Cameroon—The new drive by Cameroon to boost economic growth
and become emergent by the year 2035 has ushered in a disturbing land grabbing
phenomenon where multinational companies are rushing to purchase parcels of
land for their investments from governments.
The leasing of
land concessions by government to mostly foreign agro-industries for
development has been described by activists as a mixture of blessings and
bruises—as it has in most cases met with stiff resistance from local
communities who consider the land to be theirs.
A case in point
is that of the inhabitants of Kilombo, an indigenous community located south of
the Cameroonian sea resort town of Kribi, where the locals have continued to
oppose the development of a palm plantation project by palm oil producing
giant, SOCAPALM.
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| SOCAPALM Kienke plantatio (south view) |
SOCAPALM,
Cameroon’s biggest palm oil producer is a subsidiary of the Socfin Group, in
which French business mogul; Vincent Bolloré is the largest shareholder
(38.75%).
SOCAPALM’s
Kienke palm plantation that covers 7,459 ha of land is the country’s largest
palm plantation and also one of the youngest of the five plantations of the
agro-industrial company -only 15 years old.
Four other oil palm plantations of the agro-industrial company include Mbongo,
Eseka, Dibombari, and Mbambou.
No compensation for land
Since it was
privatized in the year 2000, SOCAPALM has continued to scale up the
rejuvenation of palm groves depriving locals of their farm and hunting land.
The surrounding
communities of the plantation area argue that the privatization process has
never benefited the community, nor has any compensation ever been made for the
loss of their lands and heritage.
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| SOCAPALM nursery on 'Bakoume's grandfather's farmland' |
“Where you see
the SOCAPALM nursery was not supposed to be a palm nursery, it is our farm
land. That is my grandfather’s farmland,” Ngo Bakoume Solange of the Kilombo
community in Kienke said.
“SOCAPALM told
my grandfather that it will use the land and compensate him by sending his
children to school and recruit some in the company. But they have not respected
the promise and have instead increased the nursery even more than it was
supposed to be,” Bakoume Solange explained.
The Kilombo
community activist said they had confronted the company’s management repeatedly
but have only been consoled with promises.
“We have even written a complain which we
have submitted to the director of SOCAPALM calling on him to help our children
go to school, he promised coming to the village here for us to talk about it,”
Bakoume Solange said expressing pessimism over the latest promise.
Prevailing anger
A study by a civil society organization, “Reseaux Pour
L’Action Collective Transnationale,” ( ReAct) showed an underlying anger
prevails among the local communities neighboring the five SOCAPALM plantations
across the country.
It showed that
in 2010, residents of Kienke attacked with machetes, employees of SOCAPALM who
had come to take measurements for the expansion of the plantations. A similar
incident had taken place a year before and was escalated by the intervention of
security officers two of whom ended up with severed limbs.
Same year in
Mbongo, one of the company’s plantations, people from several villages attacked
the company offices after having been the victims of abuses by the security
company Africa Security. Several offices were vandalized and houses burnt.
“These trends
toward the development of land concessions seriously hold back the development
of Cameroon,” said Samuel Nguiffo, director of the Centre for Environment and
Development (CED), an NGO in Cameroon that advocates for the protection of the
rights, interests, culture and aspirations of local indigenous communities from
the forests of Central Africa
The rights
activist blamed authorities who focus exclusively on the investments’
macroeconomic fallouts, and do not commit enough to reducing local social and
environmental costs, which are compensated neither by fiscal measures nor by
jobs creations.
Polluted water, source of diseases
The agro
industrial company had not only deprived local communities surrounding their
plantations of their customary habitat and farm land. The indigenous
communities surrounding SOCAPALM’s Kienke plantation area who are mostly
hunters, fishermen and gatherers complained that the destruction of the forest
drove away wildlife and the pollution of rivers with chemicals—their only
source of drinking water has killed many of their family members.
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| Bakoume Solange showing their coloured drinking water |
Ngo Bakoume
Solange said they were over 50 people in their community [Kilombo], but only 35
are left. Most of them, she lamented, have died from water-related diseases. They
drink ‘coloured’ water from a small river below the SOCAPALM nursery.
“I lost my
mother on the 15th of July, she had diarrhea for just two days and died. I took
her to the SOCAPALM dispensary since her situation was deteriorating, but we
did not have the needed money that we were asked to deposit,” Bakoume Solange
said blaming her mother’s ailment on the polluted water by the oil palm
company.
Officials of
SOCAPALM did not welcome proposals for comments on the issue from this
reporter. But a ‘hostile security guard’ of the company said he does not care
about what happens to the locals.
“I do not live here and I don’t care about
those who drink the water,” the security agent said. He had earlier threatened
to cease this reporter’s equipment for coming into the plantation’s concession
‘without authorization.’
He admitted that
that intoxicated water from the nursery runs into the lone stream that serves
the local community.
“There is a
warehouse-full of the products inside there [pointing at warehouse from the
nursery] that will be used to spray on the young palms against pest,” he
explained.
Environmental
rights activists say the pollution of the lone source of drinking water by the
local community could have been compensated for with a borehole.
“SOCAPALM could
have provided a borehole for the community as a substitute,” said Apollin
Koagne Zouapet, regional coordinator of “Verdir,” a
project to protect the rights of communities and community leaders who practice
environmental protection in the Congo Basin.
Apollin Koagne
blasted the palm oil producing giant for feeling to meet up with its corporate
social responsibilities and respect for environmental standards.
Conflicts amongst local communities
The SOCAPALM Kienke
plantation area is surrounded most by the Bantus, although there are also a few
“pygmy” Bagyeli communities.
The company had also stirred up internal
conflicts amongst the neighboring communities by using the dominant Bantus to
override the Bagyelis.
“The head of the
Bantu community said we don’t have any right to be asking for anything from
SOCAPALM without his knowledge. We want a Bagyeli community head here too who
can channel our problems to the company and the administration. Our plights are
not well presented to the company by the ruler of the Bantus,” Bakoume Solange
said.
“When I went
there to see the director [of SOCAPALM], he said the Bantu chief said if he has
not accorded, the Bagyelis should not be listened to,” Bakoume Solange added.
Solange is the
lone native “pygmy”of the Kilombo community of the Kienke palm plantation area
with a First School Leaving Certificate.
“It is[referring to the conflicts] a growing
phenomenon in Cameroon and because we are expecting more investments in the
natural resources sector, we can also expect a lot more conflicts if a clear
action from the state is not taken to prevent this type of conflicts,” Samuel
Nguiffo said.
“It is clear
evidence that something is going wrong with the type of development path that
we have chosen. We cannot aim at developing a country for the benefit of the
people and then destroy the livelihood of the people in the development
process. We cannot claim that we are aiming at developing without having the
appropriate safeguards that will protect communities of their rights, health,
and of their livelihood,” Samuel Nguiffo explained further.
Industrial Palm
Oil plantation expansion in Cameroon according to the ministry of agriculture
is estimated to cover over 80,000 hectares while that of small and medium-sized
plots- has reached over 58,300.
Officials of the
Cameroon Ministry of Agriculture and Rural said the country is on course to
change its current status; from importer to exporter of palm oil in the nearest
future.
Like Cameroon,
most West and Central African nations had planned to improve palm oil
production to an industrial scale. Greenpeace International 2012 figures
indicated that there are about 27 palm oil projects in Central and West Africa.
By Ndi Eugene Ndi (First published in Eden Newspaper N°928 of Monday 26 Oct. 2015)
