Indigenous Peoples

Given their particular vulnerability as gatherers and hunters in Cameroon's rainforests, the plight of the indigenous Bagyeli people in light of the Pipeline Project had already early on been lifted up by Civil Groups like RELUFA member organizations the Centre for the Environment and Development (CED) and the Ecumenical Service for Peace. Mitigation plans insisted upon by the World Bank as the Project's guarantor included special provisions for the Bagyeli's displacements, their sustained losses and the overall disruption of their traditional lifestyle. A separate program to be implemented by a Foundation (FEDEC) specifically created for this purpose was to improve the educational and health needs of their families and help the Bagyeli's obtain their national identity cards. But often compensation payments had been claimed by and paid to the Bagyeli's more savvy Bantu neighbors; destroyed medicinal trees had not been accounted for; and the special program has failed to live up to the promises made by the Pipeline's stakeholders.