Balach Bakundane

Balach Bakundane is an indigenous environmental and human rights defender working with oil-affected communities in Uganda. For the past seven years, he has been a leading voice in grassroots campaigns opposing fossil fuel expansion—especially oil and gas—across Uganda and the African continent. As a community mobilizer, his work brings together environmental justice, legal reform, and the defense of land and water systems under threat.

He has helped lead efforts to protect vital ecosystems such as River Rwizi, the Lwera wetlands, and the Bugoma Forest—each facing pressures from extractive industries, sand mining, commercial agriculture, and deforestation. Balach’s work has also been central to national and international resistance to the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), while advancing broader calls to hold major polluters accountable and resist the financial pipelines that enable environmental destruction.

Through his organizing, Balach continues to champion community sovereignty and ecological integrity in the face of powerful fossil fuel interests.