Partners fighting for rights within natural resource exploration in Uganda
A recent visit to Uganda highlighted the country as the latest example of ethical, environmental and human rights dilemmas brought forth by natural resource exploration.
Under the guise of economic prosperity and energy security, the future of Uganda’s forests, lakes, national parks, and by extension that of the people that depend on these resources, is increasingly endangered. Both ENDS partners in Uganda work with local communities to preserve these natural environments and the livelihoods that come from it.
Kikandwa Environmental Association (KEA), an organization that Both ENDS has worked with, for example, is a community based organization that addresses natural resource management. By mobilizing the community to plant trees, and training them on agroecological practices, KEA has improved food and nutrition security, reduced poverty, and improved soil fertility and biodiversity. Other Both ENDS’ partners we visited in Uganda such as SEATINI, similarly aim to protect Uganda’s natural resources and those using them by tackling unequal trade relations, and economic, social and cultural rights. For example, by addressing women’s right to land, or issues brought by GMO crops.
Displacing communities
Another partner we visited is actively advocating to halt sugar cane companies from cutting a forest that their community relies on for firewood, medicinal plants and income generating products such as honey. Expansion of pine forests for logging, or sugar cane plantations increasingly endanger these forests and displace communities reliant on them. Their successful lobbying has led to a delegation of EU ambassadors visiting the area in 2021 and pledging to secure the boundaries of the forest. This has to date not been done, something that we followed up on during our visit to the Dutch and EU embassies on this trip.
Discovery of oil
One of the newest menaces to Ugandan communities and environment is the discovery of oil, and the building of a pipeline by TotalEnergies to export this oil. EACOP will transport crude oil from the Albertine region in northwest Uganda to Tanga, a port in Tanzania from where it will be exported around the world. The oil drilling and the pipeline threatens biodiversity, water supply and fishing resources for millions of people and displaces thousands of households. It now already leads to human rights violations, especially targeted at activists speaking out against EACOP. Both ENDS is extremely concerned about the shrinking civil space in Uganda, and the safety of our partners and the local communities they work with.
A new Finance Risk Update, published recently in collaboration with Both ENDS also sets out the growing risks of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline to financiers, including banks, insurers and investors.
Traveling with two Both ENDS partners from Nigeria showed that oil exploration in Uganda risks (and in many cases already has) repeating the mistakes that led to widespread environmental devastation and social upheaval caused by oil exploration in the Niger Delta. From land grabs and displacement, to pollution and health hazards, the negative impacts are already profound, with more sure to follow if nothing is done. Local communities, reliant on land for their livelihoods, have borne the brunt of these consequences. Jacob Iniodu, from the Kebetkache Women Development Centre in Nigeria, writes about the parrallels he saw during our trip between Uganda and the Niger delta risks here.
The quest for oil, and exploitation of other natural resources in Uganda underscores the broader dilemma facing the world: the urgent need for a transition to renewable energy sources that are developed together with, and benefit local communities. Uganda is a good candidate for many off-grid renewable energy solutions. Both ENDS partners such as AFIEGO work with their communities to promote these community led solutions already.
“They told us we would get rich, and we would get jobs but instead I lost my home and my land”
Creating change
It is clear that decision makers do not sufficiently take into account the environmental destruction, human rights abuses, and devastation that natural resource exploitation projects have at the local and national level. Through our trip we were able to see the important work that our partners in Uganda do, and bring their stories back to policy makers, investors and donors in the Netherlands. We follow up this trip with new collaborations with partners and new pressure we can put on decision makers.
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Publication / 1 juli 2016
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Dossier /Uganda’s Energy Future
Despite the existence of many hydropower dams, foreign investments and large government spending on energy, and new plans for hydropower, oil and gas projects, the vast majority of rural Uganda still remains without electricity. Together with our local partners we are striving towards a sustainable energy strategy for Uganda that starts from the needs and wishes of local communities.
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News / 18 juni 2024Impact of oil extraction on women's health in Bayelsa
In the context of Shell's imminent divestment from onshore oil industry in the Niger Delta, Both ENDS partner Kebetkache publishes a new report showing severe health and environmental challenges faced by the women of Otuabagi in the Niger Delta due to Shell's crude oil exploration. -
Letter / 16 december 2024
Urgent call to halt all divestments in the Niger Delta, including Shell's refused sale of SPDC shares
The proposed sale of Shell’s shares in the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to the Renaissance consortium, alongside similar divestments by TotalEnergies and other oil companies, threatens the Niger Delta and its people environmental and social well-being for generations to come.
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News / 13 december 2023Response from Both ENDS and OxfamNovib to new FMO climate fund
Both ENDS and Oxfam Novib welcome the new SDG Loan Fund launched by FMO. The fund aims to invest more than a billion euros in loans to small and medium-sized enterprises in low- and middle-income countries, in the energy, inclusive financial services and sustainable agriculture sectors. At the same time, both organisations are concerned about the impact of money from the fund on normal people in future recipient countries.
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Dossier /Communities Regreen the Sahel
In various countries in the Sahel, vast tracts of land have been restored by the local population by nurturing what spontaneously springs from the soil and protecting the sprouts from cattle and hazards.
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External link / 31 mei 2018Supporting farmer managed natural regeneration to gain ground (Annual Report 2017)
Many people in the desertifying Sahel region have to choose: claim their land back from the desert, or leave their farms behind. In 2017, Both ENDS started a new project here, introducing a method for regreening the landscape: Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). It has proven itself in Niger, where we worked on FMNR for 15 years. By 2017, 15.000 ha of dryland had been regreened.
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Publication / 29 mei 2019
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Event / 13 april 2018, 11:30Small grants, big impacts: workshop on Africa Day
On the 14th of April, Both ENDS wil host a workshop called 'Small Grants, Big Impacts' on the annual Africa day in Amsterdam. The workshop aims to demonstrate that so called 'small grants funds' effectively deliver (devopment and climate) money where it matters, to people that need it the most. Large development banks, funds, donors and governments could use small grants funds as alternative financing mechanisms to make sure their money benefits people and their environment now and it the far future.
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Press release / 27 september 2022Call to Dutch investors: get out of TotalEnergies
Utrecht/Amsterdam, 27 September 2022 - On Wednesday 28 September, Dutch civil society organisations will organise a protest at the offices of oil giant TotalEnergies in The Hague, drawing attention to the problems surrounding the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) in Uganda. They are calling on investors to get out of TotalEnergies because of this project, which is causing human rights violations and serious environmental pollution. Two weeks ago the European Parliament passed a resolution against the human rights violations linked to EACOP.
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Blog / 27 mei 2022Divest from EACOP before it’s too late
and Abigail Kyomuhendo*
This week the annual shareholder meeting (AGM) of TotalEnergies took place. Whilst the shareholders celebrated their profits, Ugandan people were being evicted from their lands, thousands of kilometers away, for Total's East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP). -
News / 26 november 2024The Time to Rethink Investment Rules: Amplifying Civil Society Voices
At the core of the Fair, Green, and Global (FGG) Alliance’s mission is the commitment to building a just and sustainable world. As members of this alliance, Both ENDS, SOMO, and the Transnational Institute (TNI) recognise the urgent need to reimagine global investment frameworks. These frameworks, entrenched in outdated treaties such as Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), often prioritise corporate profits over human rights, environmental sustainability, and social justice.
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Dossier /Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA)
GAGGA rallies the collective power of the women's rights and environmental justice movements to realize a world where women can and do access their rights to water, food security, and a clean, healthy and safe environment.
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Dossier /Fair Green and Global Alliance (FGG)
Together with civil society organisations from all over the world, the Fair Green and Global (FGG) Alliance aims for socially just, inclusive and environmentally sustainable societies in the Netherlands and the Global South.
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Letter / 9 december 2024
People and the Planet Entebbe Declaration: Reclaiming investment frameworks for people and the planet
The time for change is now. Civil society demands international investment
frameworks that are aligned with economic justice, social and environmental
sustainability, and the needs of communities worldwide. -
News / 25 november 2024Empowering Civil Society: Shaping investment policies for climate and sustainable development in Africa
From 26-29 November 2024, Both ENDS and its partners will host the Civil Society Forum on Investment Policies, Climate and Sustainable Development Goals in Entebbe, Uganda. Our colleagues Iván and Fernando explain the importance of this event: “Through this event, we aim to provide an in-depth perspective on the impact of current investment policies on climate and environmental issues, with a strong focus on the African continent.”
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Blog / 30 september 2024Of EACOP and tales of a defender in development
The Joke Waller-Hunter (JWH) Initiative creates opportunities for young people in the environmental sector in developing countries to unfold their full potential. By providing small grants to individuals to expand their knowledge, experience and training, the Initiative aims to strengthen environmental Civil Society Organisations capacity and efficiency. Grantee Brighton Aryampa wrote a column for Monitor about his journey to becoming a Human Rights Defender, and his work battling the EACOP.
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Video / 18 mei 2024Charity Migwi of Oil Change International
Oil Change International is mainly focused on research, communication, and advocacy. Charity Migwi helps with campaigning to get fossil fuel companies to face out their production of oil and gas. In Africa, for instance Nigeria and Senegal, she works together with communities, especially where the projects are happening to see how they can collaborate and strengthen each other. And they are under pressure of time. Where advocacy takes patience and time, climate change impacts are rising daily. A personal talk about the importance of things that are worth fighting for. At Both ENDS, our aim is to connect people for change.
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News / 15 april 2024Statement of International Civil Society Organisations in response to the abduction of Stephen Kwikiriza, community environmental defender in Uganda
Update Monday June 10: On the evening of June 9 Stephen has been found abandoned on the side of the road. His condition is bad, after having suffered severe beatings, mistreatment and abuse through the week. He is alive, safe and reconnecting with his family. We thank everyone that has shared the solidarity statement. This international pressure helped in ensuring his release.
June 8: This is a joint statement by over 115 international civil society organisations to call upon the Ugandan authorities to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of Stephen Kwikiriza, who has been held incommunicado since his abduction by plain clothed officers in Kampala on 4 June 2024.
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External link / 24 juni 2023Joining voices to advance advocacy and security in a hostile environment (Annual Report 2022)
Uganda is one of many countries where the situation for environmental organisations has significantly deteriorated. Both ENDS has taken steps to develop a more systematic and proactive approach to supporting partners in addressing safety and security issues. In 2022 we successfully mobilised resources to support six Ugandan organisations to strengthen collaboration, increase their visibility, and carry out joint advocacy towards a green and sustainable future.
