Send us Fan Mail

Be sure to subscribe or follow, and share this podcast

We talk with investigative journalist and filmmaker Zahra Moloo about how conservation in Southeast Cameroon has meant the eviction of the Baka people from their ancestral forests, while logging, trophy hunting, and fortress conservation-style "protected areas" expand side by side. We trace the colonial and capitalist roots of fortress conservation, what violence associated with fortress conservation has done to the Baka people community over time, and what justice might require if conservation is going to include human rights.
• fortress conservation and why “pristine wilderness” often means forced removals of the indigeous inhabitants
• Zahra’s reporting in Southeast Cameroon around Lobeke, Nki, and Boumba Bek parks
• Baka communities living on the roadside and the daily cost of losing forest access
• trophy hunting zones, logging concessions, and how “sustainable development” gets justified
• the 2019 access agreement, reduced violence claims, and why fear can still keep people out
• sedentarization, citizenship paperwork, and how colonial land law shapes dispossession
• violence as a tool of enclosure and discipline across parks and trophy hunting areas
• what accountability could look like beyond so-called grievance mechanisms
• centering Indigenous knowledge as the world pushes 30x30 conservation targets

If you’re enjoying this episode of Breaking Green, please subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. Consider leaving a review and sharing it with friends and colleagues.

You can find the full catalog of previous episodes and sign up to have future episodes delivered straight to your inbox at breakinggreen.org. Breaking Green is made possible by tax-deductible donations by people like you.

Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forests, defend human rights, and expose false solutions. Simply text Give G I V E 2 1716 257 4187. That’s 1716 257 4187.

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Photo: Orin Langelle / Global Justice Ecology Project

UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

It is tasked with the promotion of global peace and security through international cooperation in education, science, culture, and information.

Yet recent reporting by Survival International focuses on how UNESCO has used its influence to support the forced relocation of the Indigenous Maasai People from their ancestral land in Tanzania.

We talk with Survival International researcher Paul Renaut about the model of “fortress conservation,” that is driving forced evictions of Maasai people in Tanzania and how the UNESCO World Heritage status is amplifying that pressure.

We trace what these forced relocations look like on the ground, who profits, and why Indigenous land rights are central to real biodiversity protection.

In the episode we discuss:
• Survival International’s campaign to decolonize conservation and expose human rights abuses committed in the name of nature protection
• How the “empty nature” myth frames Indigenous people as threats despite long-term stewardship
• Violence linked to protected areas including beatings, torture, rape, and armed repression by ranger forces funded by major conservation groups
• Maasai displacement history from Serengeti and the ongoing threat across Maasai land tied to tourism and trophy hunting
• UNESCO’s role through World Heritage designations, “population pressure” language, and legitimizing forced relocation narratives
• What “voluntary relocation” can mean in practice including cattle confiscation, arrests, and suspension of vital services
• Scientific and cultural arguments for pastoralism as a biodiversity-positive land management system
• How carbon credits and offset thinking can shift environmental burdens onto Indigenous communities
• Maasai-led resistance through legal work, organizing, mass protests, and direct engagement with international institutions

If you're enjoying this episode of Breaking Green, please subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. Consider leaving a review and sharing it with friends and colleagues.

You can find the full catalog of previous episodes and sign up to have future episodes delivered straight to your inbox at breakinggreen.org.

To learn more about Global Justice Ecology Project, visit GlobalJusticeEcology.org.

Breaking Green is made possible by tax-deductible donations by people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forest, defend human rights, and expose all solutions. Simply text GIVE to 716 257 4187.

link to the Maasai International Solidarity Alliance’s website : https://www.misasolidarity.org/

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In the face of new studies showing increased dangers of exposure to radiation, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is proposing the repeal of a 50 year old safety regulation known "As Low As Reasonably Achievable" or ALARA. This is being done to fast track small modular reactors (SMRs). A proposed new nuclear technology, SMRs are seen as a possible answer to the energy bottleneck for the expansion of data centers that feed artificial intelligence.

SMRs would be smaller but spread out in more communities. They would be less efficient and use a more dangerous nuclear fuel. All of this is being greenwash under the banner of a so-called nuclear renaissance by big tech corporations and some supporters, who claim that it is an answer to climate change. On this episode of Breaking Green, we will speak with Peter Jones.

Peter Jones is trained as a physicist and as a lawyer, and he is director of nuclear waste policy at the Samuel Lawrence Foundation.

We track how the NRC’s push to weaken long-standing radiation safeguards lines up with the rush to license small modular reactors marketed as climate solutions. We connect new research on low dose radiation risk to the unresolved nuclear waste crisis and the growing demand for electricity from AI data centers.
• Why a “nuclear renaissance” narrative is gaining traction
• How San Onofre illustrates the problem of stranded nuclear waste
• The missing federal repository problem and the Yucca Mountain dead end
• How NRC staffing pressure and rushed rulemaking change the regulatory landscape
• Why data centers and AI are reshaping energy investment and political incentives
• What recent studies suggest about low dose ionizing radiation and cancer risk
• Why repealing Alara shifts risk onto workers and nearby communities
• How SMRs can be less efficient and generate more waste per unit of energy
• Liability limits, the Price Anderson Act, and gaps for newer reactor categories
• HALEU fuel, higher enrichment, and increased non-proliferation concerns
• The danger of reducing security requirements while using hotter fuel
• Why nuclear contamination is difficult to contain, clean up, and reverse

If you're enjoying this episode of Breaking Green, please subscribe or follow wherever you get your podcasts. Consider leaving a review and sharing it with friends and colleagues. You can find the full catalog of previous episodes and sign up to have future episodes delivered straight to your inbox at breakinggreen.org.

To learn more about Global Justice Ecology Project, visit GlobalJusticeEcology.org. Breaking Green is made possible by tax-deductible donations by people like you. Please help us lift up the voices of those working to protect forest, defend human rights, and expose all solutions. Simply text GIVE to 716 257 4187. That's 1 716 257 4187.

Support the show