Nasako Besingi, the director of Struggle to Economise Future Environment (SEFE), was detained without charge on November 14 2012 with three of his colleagues in the town of Mundemba, Cameroon.
Besingi has been a vocal and peaceful critic of the plans and working practices of US-based company Herakles Farms, whose large-scale palm oil plantation project in the region would cause widespread environmental destruction and threaten the livelihoods of residents in an area home to vital biodiversity.
The activities of SEFE have always been based on legal court actions and peaceful social dialogue around the only real tangible asset of people in the region – land.