Protecting Uganda from Oil Industry Abuses

Please join us in welcoming ELAW Fellow, Dickens Kamugisha, CEO at the Africa Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO).
 
Dickens is collaborating with ELAW’s law and science teams to advance AFIEGO’s work protecting communities from oil development schemes that displace communities, and threaten national parks and fragile ecosystems.
 
“Oil exploration began in Uganda in 1990s,” says Dickens. “Since then, British, Chinese, and French companies have signed production licenses with our government to commence oil exploitation. This threatens community lands and livelihoods, as well as Murchison Falls National Park, the River Nile, Lake Albert, Budongo Forest, and other critical biodiversity.”
 
Dickens is collaborating in Eugene with current ELAW Fellow Olivier Ndoole from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Olivier is working near DRC’s shared border with Uganda, helping communities speak out against risky energy schemes, including oil production.
 
Dickens and Olivier will discuss their work helping communities speak out against oil industry abuses at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. Their panel will be on Saturday, March 7 at 4:00 pm, in UO Law School room 241.

Many thanks to The 11th Hour Project for making Dickens’s ELAW Fellowship possible.

Find more information here about the ELAW Fellows Program.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who joined us at ELAW on Friday night to watch Virunga, and learn more about ELAW Fellow Olivier Ndoole and his work advancing human rights and protecting ecosystems in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We look forward to building on our work with Olivier and Dickens as they collaborate across borders.