Fairness, Equity, and Justice Implications of French-Influenced Environmental Policy in Africa

Abstract

France has played an active role in the environmental policy field in Africa prior to, during, and since the European colonial era on the continent in the 19^th century. However, because France's overseas activities receive inadequate attention in the Anglophone literature, knowledge of this role is scant among English-speaking scholars. This article analyzes French activities in the environmental policy field in Africa. The focus is on five specific substantive environmental policy areas: land tenure, forestry, agriculture, mining, and the built environment. The main objective is to highlight the environmental fairness, equity, and justice implications of French activities in these areas. The activities are shown to be unfair, inequitable, and unjust to traditionally marginalized societal groups. These groups were comprised of indigenous Africans during the colonial era and, thereafter, of the poor, women, and ethnic minorities. National and international authorities would do well to institute fairness, equity, and justice as a requirement for all initiatives, especially by multinational corporations, in the environmental policy field in Africa.