*This article has been updated to reflect the Bank’s 2 April report announcing the launch of a redress fund.

The World Bank has cancelled its $150 million loan in support of financing the Resilient Natural Resource Management for Tourism and Growth (REGROW) project to expand Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park (RUNAPA), which threatened the livelihoods of over 84,000 people.

The announcement was made public in January, after nearly two years of advocacy “to hold the Bank accountable for enabling the expansion of RUNAPA and supporting TANAPA, the paramilitary Tanzania National Parks Authority,” one of the leading implementing agencies. Since the project’s inception in 2017, villagers have reported killings, evictions and cattle seizures among many other violations by members of TANAPA.

The Bank initially suspended disbursements to the Project in April 2024 – over the course of an investigation by the Inspection Panel (IP), the Banks’ accountability mechanism – alleging the Tanzanian government’s “non-compliance with [the Bank’s] Environmental and Social (E&S) obligations.” In October 2024, nine UN Special Rapporteurs sent a letter to the Government of Tanzania, expressing serious concerns and seeking clarity on the project’s due diligence.

In a context where the Bank’s accountability has been increasingly questioned (see Observer Winter 2024, Autumn 2024), “The historic cancellation of the REGROW project – after the Bank ignored and continued financing the grave crisis in Mbarali District for an entire year – was a necessary first step towards justice,” said Andy Currier, Policy Analyst at the Oakland Institute. “The Bank must now be held accountable by revoking the park expansion enabled by the project and paying comprehensive reparations for the killings and economic devastation it has caused,” he added.

On 2 April, the Bank released a report noting “critical failures in the planning and supervision of [the] project”, which “resulted in serious harm.” As noted by The Guardian, the report also details a $2.8m Trust Fund project to support alternative livelihoods for communities inside and around Ruaha National Park. The Bank’s response is “beyond shameful”, said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, adding, “Suggesting that tens of thousands of people forced out of their land can survive with ‘alternative livelihoods’ such as clean cooking and microfinance is a slap in the face of the victims.”