Forest people forced off their land in the name of conservation

This policy brief argues that government-led conservation efforts are increasingly used to forcibly evict indigenous forest-dwelling communities from their ancestral lands, often masking commercial interests like mining and tourism. Using case studies from the Panna Tiger Reserve in India and the Embobut Forest in Kenya, the document details the loss of livelihoods, the disproportionate impact on women, and the failure of compensation schemes. It calls for conservation policies to be aligned with human rights, the implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), and the legal securing of indigenous land rights.

• Governments are increasingly using conservation efforts as a justification to forcibly evict indigenous forest-dwelling communities from their ancestral lands, often portraying these traditional custodians as threats to the ecosystems they depend on.
• Forced evictions for conservation lead to several negative outcomes: the direct loss of culture and livelihoods, an increased risk of human-wildlife conflict due to shrinking forest areas, and the failure of conservation programs that exclude the local knowledge of forest ecosystems.
• Some conservation policies serve as a cover for land grabbing, where governments evict residents to later sell or lease the land for commercial industries, diluting conservation laws once economic gains are possible.
• Forced evictions disproportionately impact women, as monetary compensation is typically given to men and women are more dependent on direct access to natural resources for survival. This often forces women into illegal forest activities, leaving them vulnerable to harassment and physical abuse by officials.
• In India's Panna district, adivasi communities have been evicted from the Panna Tiger Reserve since 1982. While the government claims conservation goals, it has granted mining leases to companies like Rio Tinto and allowed wildlife tourism in the same areas, while evicted adivasi often end up working in the mines destroying their traditional lands.
• In Kenya, the Sengwer people have faced routine denial of land rights and forced evictions from the Embobut Forest. A World Bank-funded Natural Resource Management Project (NRMP) from 2007 to 2013, implemented by the Kenyan Forest Service, was found by the World Bank Inspection Panel in 2014 to be non-compliant with safeguard policies on Indigenous Peoples.
• The document recommends that conservation policies be aligned with human rights and inclusive development, specifically calling for the implementation of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) and the securing of community land rights rather than relying on 'benefit sharing' or compensation.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2016). Forest people forced off their land in the name of conservation. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Forest-people-forced-off-their-land-in-the-name-of-conservation.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. Forest people forced off their land in the name of conservation. 2016. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Forest-people-forced-off-their-land-in-the-name-of-conservation.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=Forest people forced off their land in the name of conservation |date=September 2016 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Forest-people-forced-off-their-land-in-the-name-of-conservation.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2016forest, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{Forest people forced off their land in the name of conservation}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2016}, month = sep, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Forest-people-forced-off-their-land-in-the-name-of-conservation.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }