Searchable database of alleged violations against Indigenous Peoples' human rights in protected areas and natural parks.
| Title | Country | Impacted Indigenous People(s) | Short Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parque Nacional Laguna Lachuá (Laguna Lachuá National Park) | Guatemala | Q’eqchi’ | In Laguna Lachuá National Park (Guatemala), Q’eqchi’ villages (Sakopur, Sajobché, Xyaal Kobé) were not consulted during the park’s creation. Communities have faced repeated forced evictions (2011, 2019), destruction of homes and crops, shootings, killings of land and environmental defenders (2018, 2020), criminalization and arrest of leaders, and ongoing land conflicts linked to state and corporate interests. Authorities report “invasions” and use army patrols, exacerbating tensions and violence. |
| Indravati National Park | India | Gond, Bhunjia, Muria, Munda, Halba, Kamal | In Indravati National Park (India), Indigenous communities, including the Gond, Bhunjia, Muria, Munda, Halba, and Kamal peoples, have faced displacement and violations of their forest rights despite the 2006 Forest Rights Act mandating consultation and consent. The park, a Project Tiger site, has seen repeated forced and “voluntary” relocations under the National Tiger Conservation Authority, with tens of thousands of families nationwide affected. Communities are caught in conflict between state forces and Maoist groups, facing harassment, displacement, and loss of access to forests. Conservation policies driven by government and donor-backed programs—such as CAMPA and the Global Environment Facility—prioritize “human-free” reserves, ignoring Indigenous stewardship and legal protections. Recent NTCA directives urging mass evictions have sparked widespread Indigenous protests across India, including at Indravati, against unlawful relocations and violations of land, cultural, and self-determination rights. |
| Sunderbans (Sundarbans) National Park | India | Munda, Santhal, Bhumij, Oraon | In Sundarbans National Park (India), Indigenous and tribal communities—including the Munda, Santhal, Bhumij, and Oraon peoples—face systemic violations of their land, livelihood, and cultural rights under fortress-style conservation policies. Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Project Tiger reserve, the park’s establishment and expansion occurred without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC). Indigenous fishers, honey collectors, and prawn seed gatherers are criminalized through restrictive Boat License Certificates, arbitrary fines, and harassment by forest officials. Despite the Forest Rights Act (2006), authorities have largely denied communities legal recognition, arguing they live outside “core” forest zones. Communities report extortion, confiscation of forest produce, and violence, including detentions and assaults for resisting bribes. Conservation and tourism projects led by WWF and state agencies prioritize tiger protection and eco-tourism while marginalizing traditional livelihoods, forcing residents into dangerous tiger zones where attacks are common. Local groups like the Sundarban Jana Sramajibi Manch and the All India Union of Forest Working People continue to resist dispossession and demand implementation of the FRA. Recent NTCA directives to accelerate evictions have intensified fears of displacement, as Indigenous Peoples across West Bengal, including the Sundarbans, mobilize against illegal relocations and the erosion of their cultural and subsistence rights. |
| Sanjiangyuan National Park | China | HaixiMongolians, Tibetan | In Sanjiangyuan National Park (China), Tibetan and Haixi Mongolian communities have faced coerced relocations from ancestral pasturelands under the banner of “ecological preservation,” loss of grazing rights through permit confiscations, and park planning without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Authorities have seized village lands (e.g., Qingshuihe Town, 2024) and detained nomadic herders opposing grassland takeovers (2022). These measures, alongside tourism- and conservation-driven park expansion and overlapping pressures from mining and infrastructure, have disrupted livelihoods, eroded cultural practices, and curtailed civil and political rights. |
| Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park | India | Sentinelese, Onge, Jarawa, Andamanese | In Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park (India), Indigenous Andamanese peoples—including the Sentinelese, Onge, Jarawa, and Great Andamanese—face persistent violations of self-determination and land rights. “Human safaris” along the Andaman Trunk Road and surrounding areas have exposed especially the Jarawa to harassment, exploitation, and disease risk despite court directives limiting tourism and road use. Conservation and tourism controls proceed without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, restricting access to customary territories and resources. Regionally linked projects—especially the “Great Nicobar” mega-development over tribal reserve lands—threaten Shompen and Nicobarese communities, accelerating dispossession and erosion of cultural integrity. |
| Kahuzi Biega National Park | Democratic Republic of Congo | Batwa | In Kahuzi-Biega National Park (DRC), Batwa communities were violently expelled beginning in the 1970s as the park expanded, with homes and sacred sites burned and no compensation or resettlement. A militarized conservation model—ecoguards armed and patrolling with the army—has led to ongoing abuses: arbitrary arrests, killings, mass rapes, torture, and repeated village burnings reported through 2021; ten rangers were convicted in 2020 for murder, rape, and torture. Despite the park’s World Heritage “in danger” status, donors and a 2022 ICCN-WCS management partnership have continued amid allegations of coercive conservation, limited participation, and absent Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Overlapping threats—tourism, illegal mining/deforestation, armed groups, and even sanctioned extractive activity—compound dispossession, undermining Batwa rights to land, culture, and livelihoods. |
| Maya Biosphere Reserve | Guatemala | Mayan Indigenous Peoples | In the Maya Biosphere Reserve (Guatemala)—including the core zones Laguna del Tigre and Sierra del Lacandón—tens of thousands of Maya residents were zoned out of ancestral lands when the reserve was created in 1990 without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. Since then, communities have faced militarization (state of emergency in LDTNP, Green Battalion in 2011), oil concessions and renewals (Perenco, 2010), criminalization, and repeated forced evictions (2007–2018, e.g., Centro Uno, Nueva Esperanza, Laguna Larga). Families from Laguna Larga, expelled in 2017, remain displaced along the Mexico–Guatemala border despite court orders for relief, while REDD+/carbon and donor-backed “governance” initiatives have coincided with surveillance, joint patrols, and prosecutions that restrict livelihoods. Overlapping pressures—drug trafficking, illegal logging, cattle ranching, and expanding extractives—compound land insecurity, erode cultural rights, and block restitution for Indigenous communities. |
| Messok Dja | Republic of the Congo | Baka | In the proposed Messok Dja Protected Area (Republic of the Congo), Baka Indigenous communities face severe human rights violations under WWF-led conservation programs. Since 2010, efforts to establish the park—without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent—have been accompanied by violence from eco-guards funded by WWF, UNDP, GEF, and the EU. A 2020 UNDP investigation confirmed credible reports of beatings, torture, sexual violence, and killings by rangers against Baka people, as well as destruction of homes and denial of forest access essential for subsistence and culture. Despite the project’s suspension of EU funding, the proposed park remains part of a $21 million Tridom conservation initiative co-financed by multiple international donors. Baka communities continue to report coercion, fear, and dispossession linked to “fortress conservation” and overlapping logging concessions (SEFYD and SIFCO), highlighting systemic violations of land, cultural, and consent rights. |
| Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Area | Uganda | Batwa | In Uganda’s Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Area—comprising the Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National Parks—the Batwa Indigenous people were forcibly evicted from their ancestral forests in 1991 without consultation, compensation, or resettlement. Once hunter-gatherers deeply tied to these lands for food, medicine, and spiritual practices, the Batwa now face landlessness, poverty, and exclusion. Fortress conservation policies deny them forest access, while park guards have used violence and intimidation to enforce restrictions. Reports include shootings, arrests, and criminalization for subsistence hunting. Despite government claims of compensation, the Batwa remain destitute and culturally marginalized. In 2021, Uganda’s Constitutional Court recognized the Batwa as original inhabitants of Bwindi and Mgahinga and affirmed their right to affirmative action and redress, though implementation is still pending. Overlapping conservation tourism and road construction projects continue to threaten Batwa rights to land, culture, and self-determination. |
| Virachey National Park | Cambodia | Hill Tribe People, Brau, Kavet, Kroeung/Kreung | In Virachey National Park (Cambodia), the Brau, Kavet, and Kroeung Indigenous peoples have experienced restrictions on hunting, gathering, and farming since the park’s creation in 1993—actions that have undermined food security, income, and traditional lifeways. Though recognized as an ASEAN Heritage Park, its establishment occurred without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, excluding Indigenous custodians from governance despite their deep cultural and spiritual ties to the forest. Communities report being barred from subsistence hunting while commercial poaching by outsiders continues largely unchecked. Emerging threats—including two proposed hydropower dams on the Mekong River and discussions of REDD+ carbon projects—pose further risks to ecological and cultural survival. The Brau, Kavet, and Kroeung continue to call for recognition of land rights, cultural protection, and participation in managing the park that was once their ancestral homeland. |
Disclaimer: The Conservation database contains allegations related to human rights violations of indigenous peoples impacted by protected areas, national parks and other conservation measures. Allegations of human rights violations were collected from a wide range of sources, including thematic, country, and fact-finding mission reports submitted by indigenous organizations, individual experts, non-governmental organizations and other civil society actors, newspaper articles, petitions, communications, statements, and other relevant information or materials issued by United Nations independent experts and human rights mechanisms. The information provided in this database does not necessarily reflect the official views of the University of Arizona, the University of Arizona College of Law, or the University of Arizona Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program, nor is there any guarantee or endorsement of any information or views expressed therein. If you wish to add additional allegations, please reachout to us via email law-conservation@arizona.edu