State of the Rainforest 2014

One example from my own experience is the history of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda – now a well-protected UNESCO World Heritage Site, known for mountain gorilla trekking and bird viewing. However, when the park was created in the early 1990s, the Batwa forest dwellers who still lived in the forest and depended on hunting and gathering were expelled. Most of them have become landless squatters, cut off from their traditional livelihoods, living in destitute conditions and dependent on charity and tourist hand-outs. Such sacrifices for conservation should not be expected from anyone: no charity or compensation can make up for the loss of identity. We need ways to achieve conservation that do not harm local people and turn them into conservation victims. Workingwith local people is a process that will necessarily have different outcomes in different places. We need to understand and engage with local needs and priorities to be able to make site-specific choices. We need to accept that there is no ‘one size fits all’ plan– and that may require an attitude shift on the part of conservation practitioners.

descriptions, like ‘we used to live here till the village flooded. We still go back to harvest fruits and visit graves’, or ‘this area is sacred to us and should not be entered without our permission’. Mapping guided our fieldwork and helped us in discussing land management across the village lands and beyond. We left the maps in public areas and would often find people discussing them and adding details. People took pride in their knowledge, and the maps became valued products which we left with each community. These maps played an important role in discussions about future land use, among themselves and with outsiders. Asking local people makes better conservation Knowledge of what is important to local people can guide more effective conservation planning and actions. That is particularly so when synergies exist between local needs and aspirations and global conservation aims. But it is also better to know incompatibilities in advance, so that at least some conflicts can be avoided and compromises sought. The people of Mamberamo regency, West Papua, are fiercely protective of their land. Large tracts of undisturbed forest remain; only small areas have been cleared for growing crops. Customary regulations and taboos to protect sites and resources are still respected. The people consider themselves rich because they can find all they need in the natural environment. They also welcome some recent developments and a school and health centre in the village. But they do not want to lose control over their land, they do not want to see their forests disturbed, and with it their children’s options for the future. Spending sufficient time with local people helps to build the trust needed for conservation efforts to be possible and effective. When Conservation International announced they had found several hitherto undescribed species on an expedition to the Foja Mountains of West Papua in 2005, those discoveries would have been impossible without permission and participation from the local communities, who consider the mountains sacred and protect them from any incursion by outsiders. We found in West Papua that our attitude ‘local people are the experts: ask them what is important to them’ made people proud and confident. Sharing some things from our perspective, like showing pictures of Birds of Paradise or Tree kangaroos and explaining that they are found only here, nowhere else in the world, raised their interest. Asking is the right thing to do Asking local people what is important to them, and giving their priorities due weight in democratic decisions about conservation, is ethically the right thing to do. Far too often, it is the local people who suffer most from forest degradation and destruction, and yet they are not consulted before logging, industries or even conservation projects take over their traditional forests.

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STATE OF THE RAINFOREST 2014