Protected areas, community rights and affirmative action: The plight of Uganda's Batwa people

Abstract

The intersection between protected areas, community rights, statutory legal frameworks and customary law and practice is complex. Several cases heard by members of the African judiciary over the last decade have dealt with this intersection and provided valuable guidance on forging solutions promoting the contemporary conservation discourse that recognises the role of local communities and indigenous peoples in the governance and management of protected and conserved areas. The recent claim brought by the Batwa people of Uganda to land and resources situated in three protected areas provided the judiciary with another opportunity to draw from and contribute to the emerging relevant jurisprudence. This contribution overviews this jurisprudence and its strong link to the contemporary conservation discourse, and critically reflects on the latest contribution to it. It ultimately concludes that while the Ugandan Constitutional Court in the Batwa case missed a clear opportunity to draw from and develop the existing relevant jurisprudence, it did add a new dimension to it in the form of forging solutions through affirmative action redress.