IUCN's Role in Lom Pangar Dam

Director General
IUCN International
Rue Mauverney, 28
Gland, CH1196 Switzerland

Dear Mr. Steiner,

We are writing in response to Mr. Ngantou’s letter to the Director General of ARSEL, the electricity regulatory authority in Cameroon, dated October 13, 2005. The letter and its attachment identified 14 NGOs which IUCN’s Central Africa regional office suggested be invited to ARSEL’s restitution workshop marking the completion of the proposed Lom Pangar Dam Environmental Impact Assessment by contracted consultants.

The names of the organizations listed in the attachment were apparently compiled from two documents:

• A letter regarding IUCN’s role in the Lom Pangar Dam in Cameroon, signed by three of the organizations (available at www.irn.org); and

• A letter regarding IUCN’s role in the Nam Theun 2 Dam in Laos, signed by the other 11 organizations. Aside from International Rivers, none of these organizations has been involved in any way in monitoring the Lom Pangar project, and several are located in Southeast Asia.

The names of these 14 organizations were then sent on to ARSEL, which is overseeing the proposed Lom Pangar Dam project; ARSEL subsequently printed the list of names in a pamphlet under the headline "PRINCIPALES ONG CRITIQUES DES ETUDES [Principal NGOs critical of studies]". This is of course not true, as none of these groups have even seen the EIA. Of the 14 NGOs listed, only two are based in Cameroon, and only three have been involved in correspondence regarding the Lom Pangar project.

This embarrassing incident shows a lack of due diligence, poor judgment, and the poor execution of IUCN’s “facilitation” role in this project. IUCN has repeatedly denied that its role as facilitator for the independent expert panel includes assisting NGOs with accessing project information, yet willingly used its position to prepare this incredibly flawed list of NGOs to be invited to ARSEL’s meeting. Not only did IUCN provide poor information regarding civil society involvement, it has allowed ARSEL to misrepresent these NGOs without any recourse. We demand immediate corrective action to this incident.

IUCN has publicly stated its desire and intent to continue playing an active role in the Lom Pangar Dam project. This raises additional concerns for us about IUCN’s position and the quality of their work going forward on the Lom Pangar project.

In a letter addressed to Mr. Noupa (dated April 15, 2005), NGOs stated three primary concerns regarding IUCN’s role in the Lom Pangar project:

1. The exploitation of IUCN’s narrow participation to legitimize the entire Lom Pangar process and project;

2. The passive facilitation role and lack of an explicit position on Lom Pangar by IUCN; and,

3. The lack of information shared by IUCN Cameroon with civil society groups who are attempting to participate in the decision-making process of this project.

Based on:

• the poor identification by IUCN of NGOs to involve in Lom Pangar;
• the poor receptivity by IUCN of civil society requests and concerns regarding access to information about Lom Pangar;
• the lack of recourse by IUCN towards the poor process used by project proponents, namely ARSEL; and
• the lack of adherence to the recommendations of the WCD;

We urge IUCN to halt any further involvement in the Lom Pangar project. IUCN must hold itself accountable for its poor judgment in this issue and the misuse of its role facilitating the expert panel of the Lom Pangar project. Until this situation is resolved to the satisfaction of all aggrieved parties, IUCN should discontinue its involvement in this project.

Sincerely,

Samuel Nguiffo
Centre pour l’Environnement et le Développement, Cameroun

Emmanuel Wirsiy
Global Village Cameroon

Terri Hathaway
International Rivers, USA

Shannon Lawrence
Environmental Defense, USA

Alec Marr
The Wilderness Society, Australia

Satoru Matsumoto
Mekong Watch, Japan

Hanna Matinpuro
Finnish Association for Nature Conservation, Finland

Copies to:

Mr. Daniel Ngantou, Regional Director
IUCN – Central Africa Regional Office

Mr. Paul Noupa, Facilitator
Lom Pangar EIA Independent Expert Panel, IUCN – Central Africa Regional Office

Dr Hessameddin Tabatabai, Cameroon Country Director
GTZ

Available in PDF format

• Read IUCN’s response to this letter (PDF, en français)
• Visit International Rivers’s Lom Pangar Campaign

For further information, please contact:

Lori Pottinger, International Rivers
E–mail: lori [at] internationalrivers [dot] org'
Phone: +1 510–848–1155