The Data Room

ReconAfrica’s Broken Trust: How A Canadian Driller Profits By Exploiting Namibian Laws and Communities

Published January 15, 2025

By Saving Okavango’s Unique Life (SOUL) 

And the Economic and Social Justice Trust of Namibia  (ESJT) 

Table of Contents 

Executive Summary 3

Introduction         4

ReconAfrica’s Seismic Amendment 5

IHRP Documented Seismic Damage 8

ReconAfrica drilled without doing an EIA in 2022 9

ReconAfrica’s ongoing use of consultant Sindile Mwiya 10

ReconAfrica does not partner with Conservancies     12

ReconAfrica partners with the Ministry of Environment 14

Conclusion 16

List of Acronyms 19

Executive Summary

Canadian driller ReconAfrica’s oil exploration activities in Namibia’s Kavango Regions have been defined by significant legal, environmental, and ethical violations. The company has conducted seismic surveys and drilling operations in this sensitive ecosystem, which is part of the Okavango Delta watershed, without consulting communities, as required under Namibian law and the country’s international agreements. 

ReconAfrica’s Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) and Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) have also been criticized for inadequate consultations and failure to address environmental impacts on protected areas, including community forests and conservancies. Additionally, the company has been accused of bypassing regulatory requirements by exploiting procedural loopholes, such as irregular amendments to its Environmental Clearance Certificates (ECCs). 

Allegations of corruption, lack of transparency, and unethical practices, including backdated documentation and dismissing stakeholder concerns at the expense of the company’s own shareholders have characterised ReconAfrica’s operations over the last four years.

Despite ongoing appeals and legal challenges, government inaction and delayed rulings have obstructed justice for the frontline communities. ReconAfrica’s newly acquired ECC for seismic will do permanent harm to the Ncaute community forest. The company will also drive their impactful seismic equipment through famer’s fields.  Urgent international and domestic actions are needed to ensure proper legal redress for impacted Namibian communities does not continue to be delayed.

Introduction

Saving Okavango’s Unique Life (SOUL) and the Economic and Social Justice Trust (ESJT) are Namibian civil society organisations investigating Canadian company ReconAfrica’s ongoing contravention of Namibian law and the rights of communities who reside within their licence area in Namibia. 

ReconAfrica’s press release of October 3, 2024 announced that they received official approval for an intrusive seismic testing program in the Ncaute Community Forest in Kavango East Region in the north of Namibia, which the community says was approved without legally mandated consultations. An Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) is an authorization to undertake listed activities outlined in the Namibian Environmental Management Act, required before conducting oil and gas exploration. An ECC is issued by the Environmental Commissioner in the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism.    

The same press release which announced ReconAfrica’s ECC was approved without the legally required consultations also introduced a former Canadian regulator, Gitane DeSilva as ReconAfrica’s new Senior Vice President for ESG, Communications & Stakeholder Relations. ReconAfrica’s new CEO, Brian Reinsborough’s recent media statements attempt to rebrand the company as ‘’ReconAfrica 2.0’’ but a clear line can be drawn through their modus operandi in 2019  to their new seismic ECC. 

The evidence presented in this report, alongside numerous other investigations, legal challenges, and community testimonies demonstrate that ReconAfrica ignores the rights of communities, contravenes Namibian national law as well as the country’s international agreements like the UN’s Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 

In November 2021, the Namibian Minister of Environment, Pohamba Shifeta said  aggrieved community members should use the Namibian legal appeal process. ‘’They have to appeal. You can even go to the Supreme Court. 

However, two separate appeals were launched in June 2022 against the decision to award ReconAfrica an ECC to drill based on the same sort of ‘’amendment’’ process. Multiple Conservancy and Community Forest Associations took action alongside the Economic and Social Justice Trust of Namibia (ESJT). The minister only heard the case in April 2023 where he said he would deliver his ruling in May 2023. Over 2 years have passed without any kind of ruling, which has made redress impossible.

The minister prevents the legal challenges from getting to court by dragging out any kind of decision.Therefore this non-decision cannot be appealed.  

ReconAfrica’s Seismic Amendment 

ReconAfrica’s October 2024 press release announced that  “we recently received the Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) for the undertaking of a 3D seismic survey operation on PEL 73.” The problem is that ReconAfrica’s current seismic program is 3D, while their previous ECC was only for 2D seismic. The new “3D” acquisition program involves an even more impactful technology which, according to Namibian law, requires further consultations with the communities. 

ReconAfrica’s EIA consultant, Risk Based Services (RBS), made the following claim in the company’s June 2024 Environmental Management Plan (EMP), “local communities and stakeholder consultations activities were undertaken during the month of June 2024 covering Shakambu, Mutwe Ghombahe, Kawe, Gcana, Makandina, Cumezao, Ncaute, Gcogco, and Ncaute Villages and Gwatjinga and Ncaute Community Forests. Appropriate meeting delivery methods and materials were adapted for each of the public/stakeholder and community meetings undertaken. Details on the outcomes of the meetings are attached to the EIA Report.”

The attachments provided by RBS contain no proof of these consultations and no evidence is provided in the appendix of the consultant’s EIA report. 

A letter from the Legal Assistance Center of Namibia to ReconAfrica on 12 November 2024 shows that ReconAfrica told conservancies in April 2023 that they could not engage with them due to the ongoing appeal process, yet they claim extensive consultations in their EMP for this new round of seismic testing. 

Figure 1. Letter from Legal Assistance Center to ReconAfrica, November 12, 2022

The map below is from ReconAfrica’s ECC submission and shows that the company plans an extensive grid of seismic testing lines through the Ncaute Community Forest and neighbouring subsistence farms in 2025. The company provides no evidence of having consulted the Community Forest Association or the communities named in their own EMP for this highly intrusive activity. For the local subsistence farmers this seismic testing could also cause serious financial harm. 

Figure 2- Map provided by ReconAfrica’s consultant Risk Based Solutions to support the 2024 ECC application. 

According to the Environmental Management Act (EMA) regulations, each ECC application must address comments from all Interested and Affected Parties (I &APs). According to the Act, an I&AP is: ‘’Any person, group of persons, or organisation interested in or affected by a proposed activity or project that may have significant environmental effects (EMA, sec. 35(7)’’. This includes farmers, conservancy committees, forestry committees, the communal land board, as well as regional bodies such as National Parks, among others. Also according to the law, RBS, as the company’s environmental consultant, was required to “open and maintain a register of all interested and affected parties in respect of the application in accordance with regulation.” None of this was done. 

Section 33 (2) of the EMA states that in reviewing the application for the ECC, the Environmental Commissioner (EC) must ‘take into account’ any comment received during the process. The EMA requires the comment of Interested and Affected Parties, but the process followed by REN  ensures that no comments from registered I&APs were received or made available for the EC to take into account. 

There was also no evidence provided of any legally required advertisement of the amendment to the company’s seismic surveying license and/or renewal placed in a relevant newspaper or any proof that public notices for Interested and Affected Parties to respond were ever posted in accordance with the law. Those I&APs for the original seismic testing were also not notified, and those who made inquiries with RBS have to date received no reply. This all in contravention of Namibia’s laws.

International Human Rights Program documented serious seismic damage 

The International Human Rights Program (IHRP) from The University of Toronto went to Namibia’s Kavango Regions in November 2023 and took affidavits from community members already affected by ReconAfrica’s operations. The IHRP filed a 187-page petition with the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE) which is publicly available.  

The following testimony is a direct quote from the IHRP complaint of an indigenous San community member who occupies land in the village of Ncaute. “In April 2023, ReconAfrica built roads across his land to provide access to the Kawe and Mbambi drill sites”. The complaint goes on to note that “ReconAfrica did not seek to obtain Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) as required by Article 32(2) but provided an English consent form to Witness 3, which the Company presented as an offer of compensation in exchange for permitting the Company to build these roads. ReconAfrica did not explain that the Company would use the land for seismic testing and that such testing would damage the land. Nor did the Company provide the promised compensation for its use of the land.”  

Smallholder farmers told National Geographic in 2022 that ReconAfrica representatives “entered their properties without permission, concluded seismic survey activities, and compelled them to sign papers without explaining their contents before leaving,”

Community members further testified that ReconAfrica began seismic operations before receiving a a permit to do so, called an Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC): “in August 2019, the Company began conducting their first seismic survey in Mbambi, located in the Kapinga Kamwalye Community Conservancy (KKC) without consultation with or obtaining consent from affected communities, including the KKC management committee”.  

ReconAfrica’s eventual 2021 ECC seismic testing application stipulated that they would stick to existing roads, but the IHRP complaint recounts that “ReconAfrica conducted a number of seismic surveys between 2021 and 2023 in the following areas: Likwatera Community Forest, Ncaute Community Forest, Ncumcara Community Forest, Khaudum North Complex Conservancy, and Kapinga Kamwale Conservancy, including the villages within their respective boundaries.”

ReconAfrica asked local farmers to sign permission forms only after the damage from the seismic testing had occurred. Forms presented by ReconAfrica to Forest Management Committees in October 2022 were back-dated to October 2020. The Management Committees say they have refused to sign them. 

The University of Toronto report explains that “these activities required the removal of native vegetation and threatened the well-being of protected animal species found within the area”.  ReconAfrica lacks the permits required to up-root any plants, trees or other protected species. 

ReconAfrica’s community engagements are often done in English and allow few questions from the public. “In 2019, Mr. Muronga attended a meeting in the remote village of Makadina where ReconAfrica was expected to elaborate on the procedures of seismic testing and the impact on the environment and local community. However, rather than discussing these details, ReconAfrica’s representatives focused on the benefits of seismic testing and encouraged villagers to cooperate. The presentation lasted 45 minutes and ReconAfrica avoided answering questions thereafter.”

Community members also complained to the International Human Rights Program from the University of Toronto (IHRP) about poor soil condition and reduced crop yields since ReconAfrica’s heavy machinery passed through, detailing a pattern of how, they sayReconAfrica “conducted seismic surveys without regard for Indigenous residents, their representatives and their decision-making processes.” 

 Recon’s drilled without doing a new EIA in 2022

ReconAfrica has also been disregarding the ongoing legal appeal against the ECC amendment brought by multiple Conservancy and Community Forest Associations and The Economic and Social Justice Trust of Namibia. The organisations appealed against the Environmental Commissioner’s decision to grant ReconAfrica a new drilling ECC in June 2022 based on a previous amendment to their original ECC for drilling granted in 2019. Even though the matter has been waiting for a ministerial ruling since April of 2022, the company continues drilling wells under this irregular amendment process. 

In 2022, a lawyer for the Economic and Social Justice Trust of Namibia wrote to ReconAfrica’s EIA practitioners Risk Based Solutions (RBS) regarding the short timeline provided for comment on their amendment to their original ECC. This ‘’amendment’’’ added 12 wells to their original 2019 ECC which gave environmental clearance to drill only 3 wells.

On May 20, 2022 Sindile Mwiya of RBS responded that the ESJT, despite registering as an Interested and Affected Party in accordance with the instructions provided in the public notice, were not eligible to comment, telling their legal representative, Julian Comalie that, “your client is not a registered stakeholder with respect to the public consultation process that was conducted during the months of March and May 2019 for the drilling ECC No: ECC0091 with a serial No. tJMgvk91.” That was the original application to drill. Denying legal I&APs the right to further register their concerns is also in contravention of Namibian law.

The distinction between having an amendment instead of performing an entirely new EIA also means that no public hearing of concerns was required, as would be during a procedural EIA process. It is instructive to recall that in 2019, no list of Interested and Affected Parties was provided by RBS when they applied for their original drilling ECC This is again another legal infraction by the company. 

As noted above, the legal appeal against the decision to award ReconAfrica a new ECC based on this flawed amendment process has been delayed by the Minister of the Environment for over 2 years. At the appeal hearing in April of 2023, nearly 18 months ago, the Minister said his ruling would come in May of 2023. There is still no ruling. The delay is to the benefit of ReconAfrica, who keep drilling for oil and gas Since no ruling was ever made, there has been no way to appeal to Namibia’s court system. 

ReconAfrica’s ongoing use of consultant Sindile Mwiya’s RBS

ReconAfrica continues to employ Risk Based Solutions despite a public track record of this kind of unprofessional conduct.

When Muduva Nyangana Conservancy Chairman Max Muyemburuko questioned claims made by Mr. Mwyia which were then included in the 2021 seismic ECC application, Sindile Mwiya, the owner and CEO of Risk Based Solutions referred to Muyemburuko’s’s concerns as ‘’utter blindly and stupidity (sic) nonsense of the highest order’’ and ‘’ignorant environmental advocacy”. 

Sindile Mwiya of RBS also accused other registered I and APs to that ECC of being racists and opportunists who were looking to profit financially. When challenged, Mwiya mocked interlocutors based on their presumed lack of expertise and accused them of “sabotaging national development programs’’. 

Mwiya also publicly advised other critics of his work to purchase shares in ReconAfrica. These exchanges were included in the appendix of ReconAfrica’s 2021 seismic ECC application, which should have been disregarded on that basis alone. The attacks were so extraordinary they were reported on by Canada’s Globe and Mail and National Geographic. 

When asked about the possible effect of seismic operations on elephants, Mwiya replied that “there are no elephants roaming on the road (sic) where the surveys are to be conducted”.  Publicly available elephant studies document that elephants are regularly in the area where ReconAfrica conducted its seismic surveying. 

Mwiya stated in 2021 that no study on plants was needed for the company’s  Environmental Impact Assessment despite it being in the national regulations.  ‘’A detailed flora study would only be needed if cutlines were to be made through an undisturbed area such as a community forest”. No flora study is provided in the EMP for the planned seismic testing through the Ncaute community forest, or for the one already conducted through other community forests in 2022.

The original 2021 seismic ECC application saw the company hold a single, heated public meeting in Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia, which was recorded on video by journalists over the objections of ReconAfrica. Audience members commented on the hostile and defensive tone of the meeting, while Mr.Mwiya shouted over those in the audience who challenged his statements. 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) took the extraordinary step of criticising the work of Risk Based Solutions during the extended 44th session of the World Heritage Committee in July 2021 stating that UNESCO “urges the State Parties of Botswana and Namibia to ensure that potential further steps to develop the oil project, which include the use of new exploration techniques, are subject to rigorous and critical prior review, including through an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that corresponds to international standards”.

According to Canada’s Globe and Mail the International Association for Impact Assessment, which represents more than 1,100 environmental assessment practitioners, said Dr. Mwiya’s behaviour “directly contradicts our code of conduct.”

ReconAfrica does not partner with Conservancies 

ReconAfrica misleads outsiders about their relationship with the Conservancies and Community Forests in PEL 73, their drilling area in Namibia. For example, an email from then company spokesperson Claire Preece on December 15, 2020 to Canadian Consular and Trade Officials falsely claimed that the conservancies thanked ReconAfrica for “clarifying the incorrect information they had received from outsiders”.

The conservancies have consistently contradicted statements like this by the company. A letter to chairperson for Kavango East and West Regional Conservancy and Community Forestry Association Thomas Muronga on the 9th of December 2022 illustrates this. In the letter ReconAfrica officials stated that “there was no need for them (ReconAfrica) to consult the Forestry Management Association.” Yet, as noted above, consultations like this are required by Namibian law. (Figure 2) 

Figure 3: December 2022 letter to Conservancy leader Thomas Muronga 

On January 6 2022, ReconAfrica founder and former CEO Jay Park shared a draft version of the oil company’s response to the UN with Allan Edwards, the new Senior Trade Commissioner at the High Commission of Canada’s Trade Office in Johannesburg, which stated that ReconAfrica ‘’is working collaboratively with and- at the invitation of- national governments, regulators, conservancies and Traditional Authorities’’ 

ReconAfrica’s response to the UN also says they add value to Namibian conservancies through unlicensed conservation efforts, saying ReconAfrica “has conducted joint wildlife monitoring surveys in the Kapinga Kamwalye Conservancy and the George Mukoya Conservancy to determine the abundance, diversity, and distributions of wildlife. REN identified wildlife management as being critical to the management objectives of conservancies and decided to add value to the wildlife monitoring program of the two conservancies we engaged.” The problem is that the conservancies deny this, and the company has no license or permit to conduct conservation activities like these at all. 

Just prior to making these representations, then ReconAfrica board chairman Jay Park was aware, or ought to have been aware, that between August and December 2022 ReconAfrica bulldozed protected community-owned land inside the Kapinga Kamwalye Community Conservancy for their 2nd well near Mbambi village and had also bulldozed trees, fields and new roads in the conservancy for seismic testing with no permission granted from either the conservancy or the Communal Land Board as required by Namibian law.

Furthermore, a new access road for ReconAfrica’s huge semi trucks and equipment was illegally extended by the company nearly 4km through the conservancy then south across the Omatako River to a farm called Wisdom, where a new drilling pad was constructed for a fourth exploration well. “We were not informed,” Thomas Muronga, the Chairperson of Kapinga Kamwalye conservancy said about this new road. Permission was never given, and “it worries us deeply” he told National Geographic.   

The IHRP submission to the Canadian government’s CORE Ombudsman demonstrated this year that the company’s activities like this breach international and Namibian law. ‘’ReconAfrica not only violated such requirements imposed by domestic laws and regulations but also violated international human rights law in the course of its operations in the Kapinga Kamwalye Conservancy (including Mbambi and Shakambu villages), Ncaute Community Forest (including Kawe and Ncaute villages), Ncumcara Community Forest, Likwaterera Community Forest (including Shiwandamo village), Khaudum North Complex (composed of George Mukoya Conservancy and Muduva Nyangana Conservancy), and surrounding areas.’’

ReconAfrica partners with the Ministry of Environment.

The Ministry of Environment granted ReconAfrica’s 2019 drilling ECC on August 26 which is Heroes Day, a Namibian national holiday where all government offices are closed. ReconAfrica’s relationship with Namibia’s Ministry of Environment raised other red flags too.

On 29 March 2021, Timoteus Mufeiti, The Namibian Environmental Commissioner (EC), responsible for issuing ECCs, appeared onTalk of the Nation on the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) and made a series of extraordinary claims.

On the program, Mufeti said that ReconAfrica ‘’went the extra mile’’ to work with communities and that ‘’dark forces’’ were opposing ReconAfrica’s operation, apparently in regards to communities being upset about the company’s actions and journalists who reported on these concerns.

The Namibian Environmental Commissioner also stated on the Nationally broadcast TV show that oil and gas drilling  was not being done in an ecologically sensitive area and they were drilling ‘’far from conservancies,’’ despite the fact that the second drill site location is inside a conservancy, and was placed there illegally as noted above. 

Namibian Environmental Commissioner Mufeti also refuted ReconAfrica’s own published literature when he  told Talk of The Nation that ReconAfrica’s plans to use the controversial method of fracking were invented by the media:  ‘’We call for people not to entertain these rumours propagated by the media’ he said on the program. 

In a February 25, 2021 press release, Namibian Minister of Environment. Pohamba Shifeta, said opposition to fracking was “confusing and premature” but also refused to rule out the practice. The minister’s carefully worded statement implied that if ReconAfrica decided on fracking, it would still be an option. 

But according to ReconAfrica’s own press releases the company always intended their Namibian drilling operation to include fracking. According to a lawsuit settled in U.S court by ReconAfrica in 2024: “From the time ReconAfrica was introduced to public stock markets in February 2019 and over the following year and a half, the Company touted its plans to frack in Namibia as its primary (for all practical purposes, only) business plan.”

The lawsuit noted that after public opposition the “Defendants (ReconAfrica et al) abruptly overhauled ReconAfrica’s public messaging to focus exclusively on conventional resources, while stripping all references to shales, unconventional resources, and fracking from their published statements. The defendants did not even acknowledge their about-face, but brazenly acted as though their plans had all along focused on conventional resources.”

The lawsuit stated that ReconAfrica “possessed data from ReconAfrica’s first and second test wells that revealed poor prospects for achieving conventional oil and gas production that would be commercially viable” indicating that if any resources are found, it would require fracking. 

In 2021, the Namibian Government announced a campaign against “misinformation’’,   apparently on behalf of ReconAfrica. This came shortly after The Namibian Sun live-streamed the 2021 public meeting for seismic consultation. During that meeting, Claire Preece, ReconAfrica spokesperson at the time, also refused to rule out fracking. 

The Ministry has also participated in ReconAfrica’s public relations efforts. According to the Ministry, oil and gas company ReconAfrica is, improbably, required to help with wildlife collaring and demining exercises.  

ReconAfrica’s 2023 Sustainability Report stated that “we are supporting Namibia’s wildlife collaring and management initiatives, led by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT). Our support of collaring programmes for elephants, crocodiles and other important and valued wildlife in Namibian National Parks and surrounding areas is ongoing. In these efforts we collaborate with MEFT and other conservancies. We participate in wildlife monitoring and wild game counts outside of our lease area as well as data gathering exercises.”  

No data has ever been published or shared with conservancies about the behaviour of these animals in the area, two of which are on the endangered species list.

ReconAfrica’s sustainability report also claimed it is “working on reforestation initiatives” but community members told the IHRP that fruit trees which people depend on for food were never restored after the company’s first round of seismic testing.  

Namibia’s Ministry of Environment has also allowed ReconAfrica to pass off their seismic operations off as ‘’firebreaks’’:“ReconAfrica conducted the second set of seismic surveys in the Ncumcara Community Forest in April 2022. The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism permitted ReconAfrica to engage in seismic activities within the  thirty-meter wide firebreaks, primarily because doing so would also help maintain the existing cutlines.  However, ReconAfrica cut through protected areas of the forest instead- not along existing cutlines, as required by the ministry – and created new paths through virgin forests.”

Emails obtained under Canada’s Access To Information legislation show that ReconAfrica is currently under a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation for corruption. Park, founder and former CEO of the company, has previously been investigated in Tunisia and Chad. Park was also investigated by the UK’s serious fraud office over his actions in Somalia. Park is also, according to a March 2024 investigation in New Lines Magazine, now writing new oil legislation in Namibia. 

This is not the first time Park has written oil legislation while representing companies that benefit from that legislation, a clear conflict of interest.

Conclusion 

As outlined in this report, the company has demonstrably misled shareholders, regulators and the Namibian communities where it operates. 

From our own investigation, backed up by the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto, ReconAfrica has lied about consent forms to both Conservancy Management and impoverished farmers. The company employs a Namibian consultant who specialises in getting approvals for his ECCs without consulting the communities affected. ReconAfrica is doing this despite a legal challenge lodged against the company in 2022 for using the same tactic to exclude the public. ReconAfrica is now poised to do extensive damage to the legally recognized Ncaute Community Forest while misleading Namibian officials and their own shareholders about consulting these communities as required by law.  

The company’s relationship with the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism is highly unusual and makes clear that the company’s outsized political influence, whatever its origin, is preventing legal redress for Namibian communities. 

ReconAfrica directors have made tens of millions of US dollars in shareholder profits after claiming they found a ‘’working petroleum system’’ in April of 2021, but have refused to treat subsistence farmers with dignity and the respect due to them under Namibian law, or provide any financial redress for the harms already inflicted upon them. Despite all the arm-waving about how the company is sitting on billions of barrels of oil,  the company told regulators that as of March 31, 2024, “the Company has no reserves”. Communities negatively affected by the company’s drilling are still waiting for justice two and half years after their first legal complaints were lodged.

Since the beginning of 2024 the company has tried to distance itself from their former conduct, with their new CEO marketing ReconAfrica as if they have made a clean break from the past, but their recent actions outlined in this report make clear this is simply untrue. 

Given these serious violations by the company against the communities in the Okavango watershed in Namibia, upstream of the World famous Okavango Delta World Heritage Site in the neighboring country of Botswana, the government of Botswana should also immediately review the company’s oil and gas exploration lease. 

Canada and Namibia have obligations under international law to provide a remedy to the people whose rights have been violated by ReconAfrica, but both countries have failed to do so. It is time for ReconAfrica, as well as the Canadian and Namibian governments, to allow Kavango communities to get their day in court. 

Both governments should forcefully request that the Namibian Minister for the Environment, Pohamba Shifeta, rule on the community’s legal appeal which was lodged twenty-nine months ago. 

List of Acronyms

ECC: Environmental Clearance Certificate. The ECC is a permit issued by the Namibian government that allows companies to conduct activities that may have an impact on the environment. ReconAfrica has been accused of violating the ECC by, for example, conducting seismic surveys outside of existing roads and too close to homes.

EIA: Environmental Impact Assessment. The EIA is a process for identifying and assessing the potential environmental and social impacts of a proposed project. The sources allege that ReconAfrica’s EIA for its seismic survey program was flawed. For example, it failed to properly assess the impacts on elephant behavior.

EMA: Environmental Management Act of 2007. The EMA is a Namibian law that governs environmental protection and management.

EMP: Environmental Management Plan. The EMP is a document that outlines the measures a company will take to mitigate the environmental and social impacts of its operations. ReconAfrica violated its EMP by conducting seismic surveys too close to homes and cutting new roads without consent.

FPIC: Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. FPIC is the right of Indigenous peoples to give or withhold consent to projects that affect their lands and resources. It is alleged that ReconAfrica violated the FPIC of Indigenous communities by conducting seismic surveys and drilling operations without their consent.

I&AP: Interested and Affected Parties. These are individuals or groups who may be impacted by a proposed project.Sources state that ReconAfrica failed to properly identify and consult with I&APs during its seismic survey program.

KKC: Kapinga Kamwalye Conservancy. A communal conservancy in Namibia, which is a community-based natural resource management area.6The KKC is one of the areas where ReconAfrica conducted seismic surveys.

NCF: Ncaute Community Forest. A community forest is an area of forest that is managed by a community for its own benefit.3844 The NCF is another area where ReconAfrica conducted seismic surveys and drilling, and is alleged to have caused environmental damage.

RBS: Risk Based Solutions. An environmental consulting firm hired by ReconAfrica to conduct its EIA and EMP for its seismic survey program. The consultant has repeatedly violated the rights of Namibians, yet ReconAfrica has never distanced themselves.  

UNDRIP: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is an international human rights instrument that affirms the rights of Indigenous peoples. ReconAfrica is accused of violating UNDRIP by failing to obtain FPIC from Indigenous communities before conducting its operations

ESJT Economic and Social Justice Trust is a  Namibian civil society organisation.The Economic and Social Justice Trust (ESJT) is a Namibian civil society organisation established in 2012 to enhance and promote the social and economic rights of Namibians.

SOUL Saving Okavango’s Unique Life is a Namibian civil society organisation opposed to drilling in the Okavango watershed. SOUL teamed up with the IHRP to launch a 187 page complaint about the company’ human rights. 

IHRP– International Human Rights Program from the University of Toronto. They took affidavits from Community members on a 2023 trip.