Atrocities committed by African Parks rangers against the Baka in the EU-funded Odzala-Kokoua National Park (Republic of Congo)
12.3.2024
Question for written answer E-000759/2024
to the Commission
Rule 138
François Thiollet (Verts/ALE), Pierre Larrouturou (S&D), Francisco Guerreiro (Verts/ALE), Lydie Massard (Verts/ALE), Jordi Solé (Verts/ALE), Eugenia Rodríguez Palop (The Left), Ignazio Corrao (Verts/ALE), Caroline Roose (Verts/ALE), Marie Toussaint (Verts/ALE), Helmut Scholz (The Left)
In January 2024, investigations and reports published in international media documented multiple cases of human rights violations by rangers working with African Parks. These included beatings, rapes and torture of Baka Indigenous people in the Odzala-Kokoua National Park (Republic of Congo), who are being subjected to violence to prevent them from accessing their ancestral forest. As a result they are losing their livelihoods and way of life.
The EU is one of the main funders of Odzala-Kokoua National Park, through the ECOFAC programme, and recently provided EUR 6 million to the park for the period 2018-2023. In 2020, EU funding represented 46 % of the conservation group African Parks’ budget for the park, and 29 % in 2021. Specifically, ECOFAC contributes around 18 % of the budget for anti-poaching activities in the park, providing direct funding to the rangers.
- 1.Is the Commission still funding the Odzala-Kokoua National Park, and if so, does it plan to suspend funding in light of these developments?
- 2.Will it commission an independent investigation into the documented abuses by African Parks rangers and when will the sub-regional framework for human rights compliance be available?
- 3.Is the Commission planning to introduce legislation to avoid the recurrence of these instances of human rights abuses in the name of conservation in protected areas that benefit from EU funding?
Submitted:12.3.2024