Exxon's £1.3bn Chad-Cameroon pipeline stretches 1,000km across arid lands and equatorial forest to the African coast. When it reaches west Cameroon it runs adjacent to an old wildlife reserve where, for centuries, thousands of indigenous Bagyeli pygmies have depended on the forest for hunting and medicines. As "compensation" for any disturbance, the World Bank, the Dutch government and international conservation group Tropenbos combined in 1999 to create the giant Campo Ma'an national park. The stated aim was to protect the forest, alleviate poverty and to allow scientific research. But a new book, From Principles to Practice, documenting nine major African conservation efforts in six central African countries, claims that the Campo Ma'an project is a disaster, threatening to destroy the Bagyeli cultural heritage and knowledge and impoverish the people further.