Greenpeace Africa calls on the Cameroonian government to cancel the logging concessions allocated in Ebo and to freeze the allocation of new concessions in territories where local communities and Indigenous Peoples claim customary land rights. They plead that the government should consider sustainable alternatives to logging and engage the local communities living around the forest to develop an inclusive land-use plan.
For over 60 years, Banen communities have been waiting to return to their ancestral lands in Ebo Forest. Displaced from their villages in 1963 during Cameroon’s post-independence conflict, they have never secured full recognition of their customary rights over the forest they consider home.
Instead of resolving the historic injustice, the Cameroonian government has classified and allocated more than 133,000 hectares of Ebo Forest for industrial logging, handing concessions to logging companies. Parts of this process were carried out without the public tender process required for the allocation of logging rights.
“For the Banen, this is not simply about logging. It is about whether they will have a future on the lands of their ancestors,” says Stella Tchoukep, Forest Campaigner, Greenpeace Africa.
The Ebo Forest is not only an ancestral home of more than 40 Banen communities but also a vital ecosystem. It is deeply connected to their culture and identity and forms part of one of Africa’s most important rainforest landscapes. The forest is also home to endangered wildlife species like western gorillas, forest elephants, and Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzees. Crucially, it stores roughly 35 million tonnes of carbon. When Ebo is threatened, both people and nature are at risk.
But this story does not have to end this way. In 2020, public pressure helped stop plans to open Ebo to logging. We can do it again.
It is against this backdrop that Greenpeace Africa has started an online petition to call for the cancellation of the logging concessions allocated in Ebo and the freezing of the allocation of new concessions in territories where local communities and Indigenous Peoples claim customary land rights.
The NGO urges the government to accelerate and finalise the land reform process launched in 2011, with full legal recognition and protection of the customary land rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including over traditional forest lands. Equally, guarantee meaningful community participation in decisions affecting their territories, including through participatory land-use planning and mapping, a clear legal framework, and respect for Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC).
“We already have over 20,000 people fighting to protect the Congo Basin and Africa’s forest heritage. This fight is winnable – but only if enough people refuse to look away. Add your voice now; every signature makes it harder for the government to pretend no one is watching,” says the forest campaigner for Greenpeace Africa