by Dr Teklehaymanot Weldemichel

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 5th International Forest Defenders Conference in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, where I was invited to speak on the role of colonialism in shaping contemporary land rights in regions of high biodiversity. The conference wasn’t a typical academic conference, bringing together indigenous community representatives, environmental defenders, civil society organizations, and donor agencies from across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. In fact, I was one of only a handful of academics in attendance.

Organized by Not1More in collaboration with Guinea-Bissau’s national environmental defenders, the conference served as a platform to discuss the ongoing struggles against environmental exploitation and the systemic issues fuelling land and resource conflicts worldwide.

As an academic, this event for me was an eye-opening experience. Despite the geographical distances and the socio-political and economic differences among the regions represented, there were strikingly close similarities in the challenges faced by communities. In this reflection, I will highlight key parallels and underlying causes that emerged from the many sessions focusing on different parts of the world.

 

Colonial Legacies and Continued Exploitation

A key theme throughout the conference was how colonial relations continue to shape the relationship between people and their environments. Participants highlighted the ongoing compartmentalization of indigenous lands and the undermining of traditional practices, often driven by global agendas such as the carbon trade and international financing mechanisms like those from the World Bank.

New and emerging economic forces, including China and the Gulf states such as the UAE, were identified as playing roles similar to former western colonial powers in resource exploitation and abuse of environmental defenders and communities. Specific examples included the depletion of fish stocks in The Gambia due to excessive fishing by Chinese fishmeal producers supplying European fish farm industries and the aggressive logging of rosewood by Chinese companies across West Africa. Describing the scale of illegal forest extraction, a conference participant from a west African country said, “Everywhere you find rosewood, you find the Chinese”. The overtake of fishing spaces by the large-scale fishing industry has particularly heavily impacted food security and health of communities in coastal regions such as The Gambia that historically depended on fishing as their main food source.

Community representatives and environmental defenders stressed that conservation laws and narratives have remained unchanged, while societal and economic conditions have evolved significantly. Exclusionary practices have left communities feeling disconnected from their environmental resources, preventing them from resisting powerful external forces that exploit protected areas. Many participants noted that the exclusion of communities from conservation and environmental decision-making has weakened their ability to protect their resources from foreign exploitation.

 

Increasing Violence Against Communities and Environmental Defenders

One particular topic that continuously remained central in the discussions was the worldwide intensification of violence of all forms on indigenous communities, and environmental and human rights defenders.

With the expansion of land grabs and extractive industries, indigenous communities and environmental defenders worldwide are facing mounting pressure and escalating violations of their rights. Participants from Tanzania, Brazil, Colombia, Cambodia, Uganda, and other countries shared testimonies of harms inflicted upon them by multinational corporations and state actors. Discussions at the conference highlighted how global initiatives, such as carbon trading and the 30×30 biodiversity conservation agenda, are being instrumentalized to justify land dispossession and further marginalization of these communities. Participants emphasized that these policies, rather than protecting the environment, often serve as mechanisms to displace those who have sustainably managed ecosystems for generations.

 

Community Resistance, Corporate Accountability, and Legal Action

Despite the mounting challenges faced by communities and environmental defenders worldwide, various forms of resistance were highlighted. Many have successfully combatted powerful actors through grassroots movements, strategic regional and international alliances, and legal action.

Discussions at the conference explored ways to hold corporations and governments accountable, including pursuing legal cases in international courts. A notable example was the Ogiek people’s victory  against the Kenyan government in the East African Court of Justice, though participants emphasized that enforcement remains a major challenge. Legal firms with experience in holding corporations, mostly based in western states, accountable for environmental and social harms also shared lessons from both successful and less successful court cases.

 

The place and role of academics

As one of the few academics at the conference, I could clearly see the need to engage more researchers, who would undoubtedly gain immense insight from such events. This is a topic that academics have been researching and writing about for decades. Scholars in political ecology, environmental justice, and broader critical social sciences have produced extensive knowledge on human rights and the ecological impacts of various policies, particularly in conservation areas worldwide. However, the conference highlighted a significant gap between academic research and the lived realities of the communities and defenders they study. It became evident that there is a pressing need for academics to engage more directly in the spaces where real debates and struggles are unfolding.

 

Picture: Participants of the International Forest Defenders of Conference, Guinea-Bissau (Photo: Tekle)

Note:  This article gives the views of the author/academic featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the Global Development Institute as a whole.