The following are a selection of my publications, mostly investigations into business, human rights, corruption and beneficial ownership issues in Africa.
2014– “We are not afraid” – Land rights defenders: attacked for confronting unbridled development. Lead author with a small team.
Around the world, land rights defenders are subject to harassment, violence and murder. We found that the main authors of repression are the police, the military, and private security agents hired by companies seeking to grab land. Because the state agences that are meant to protect citizens band together with powerful private interests, land rights have no means of protection, but as one of them told us “we are not afraid”. (report pdf)
2013 – Eric Ohena Lembembe and-the-Future of LGBT activism in Cameroon.
The murder of an LGBT activist in Yaoundé reflected shady Cameroonian politics and the flawed efforts of some international organisations.
2013 – The BioPalm Palm Oil Projet, a Case Study in the Department of Ocean, Cameroon, with Tom Lomax and Venant Messe.
How a palm oil company, BioPalm, decided to take a piece of land without asking the opinion of those who lived and depended on it. The investigation was based on fieldwork. Update: the company didn’t manage to grab the land due to pressure from the local communities.
2012 – The Whakatane Mechanism: Promoting Justice in Protected Areas.
An academic publication on the Whakatane Mechanism, an initiative of IUCN, which aimed to remedy the violation of human rights in protected areas. The article was based on my involvement with this project.
2012 – REDD and rights in Cameroon : A review of the treatment of indigenous peoples and local communities in policies and projects, with Samuel Nnah and Justin Kenrick.
REDD was touted as the best solution for forests, climate and local communities, yet it was headed for a dramatic failure in Cameroon. This investigation was a combination of desk research and fieldwork in two project locations. It was featured in an editorial of the journal Nature.
2011 – BioPalm plantation will lead to destruction of Bagyeli communities in Cameroon.
A field investigation into a palm oil project in Cameroon and its likely consequences on the indigenous Bagyeli people.
2009 – Takamanda National Park: Power and Conservation in South West Cameroon. MPhil thesis, University of Oxford.
My MPhil thesis showed how local populations around the Takamanda forest have been slowly disposed from their land, from the colonial period until 2008. It was based on two and a half months fieldwork, over a thousand pages of colonial archives and a year of analysis.
