Cameroon's Baka People Say They Are Part Of The Forest: That's Why They Look After It

(MENAFN- The Conversation) The Congo Basin's hunter-gatherer people have the secret to living well with the forest.

While doing fieldwork in 2020, I remember walking with Indigenous elders Ferdinand Mbita and Félix Mangombe up the small, winding path into their forest in Cameroon, jumping over highways of vicious black ants, shadowed by grand trees. We almost always encountered monkeys chattering when venturing down this path. Once we came across the prints of a gorilla.

Félix Mangombe in a shelter used for people to rest when returning from forest trips. Simon Hoyte

This path, near the Dja river in the south region of Cameroon, lay next to the small village of Bemba. The village folk, Baka hunter-gatherers, used the path regularly to find forest medicines, work on their farm plots, or to embark on fishing or hunting trips.

When I returned to Cameroon to stay again in the village a year later, the path was unrecognisable. The dense vegetation had been stripped away, trees cut, rivers restricted. The path was now an industrial road, developed by a logging company with permission from the government to chop down trees in a large area behind the village for a year.

Inspecting the damage, Mbita and Mangombe noticed how trees they used for medicine and the places where they'd found honey had been transformed into scarred, muddy earth. We used to see animal tracks here; now the only tracks we could see were those of logging trucks.“The Baka are dead,” Mbita said, taking in what he was seeing.

Read more: What Cameroon can teach others about managing community forests

This story is not unique. At least 40% of Cameroon's forests have been allocated for logging. Add to that concessions also granted to mining companies, sport hunting companies and big agro-industry. They have cut down forests and set up rubber and palm oil plantations. The social and environmental effects have been devastating.

I lived in the Baka village of Bemba in south-eastern Cameroon for long periods between 2019 and 2021. It is a small village of 70 people. The Baka number around 40,000 in total. They are one of many forest-dependent communities in the region, but are the only hunter-gatherers.

Mangombe and Mbita collect dandù honey from the forest. Honey is valued as the best food of the forest. Simon Hoyte

Initially a lot of time had to be spent on building trust so that I was sure the community could understand and agree to my research , which aimed to understand the community's relationship to the forest and conservation. Over time, I learned the Baka language. I went with people on their fishing, hunting and gathering trips, ate with them, joined in ceremonies and discussed their relationship to the forest. Through this process their worlds opened up to me.

I published an article about these experiences co-authored with Félix Mangombe. We describe how the Baka practice of sharing is a valuable forest management and conservation technique that can transform how the forest is used.

The damage of conservation

Conservation schemes can cause devastating social and environmental impacts. Of Cameroon's 54 conservation parks and their peripheries, 70% have been associated with forced displacement of people living in the area. So-called“conservation refugees” have also been created because their land has been turned into a conservation area. (There has not yet been a study into how many“conservation refugees” there are in Cameroon.)

When communities are physically and psychologically severed from the forests with which they have lived for so long, this can lead to poverty and alcoholism . It sets a path for people to fall into environmentally damaging activities such as wildlife trafficking or damaging biodiversity.

There is a gradual shift across the world towards bottom-up strategies to sustain forests , where those who live in the landscapes remain major players in how they are protected. Unfortunately, this collaboration is often done badly , with big organisations or governments trying to retain control over designing and implementing projects.

Relating to the forest
Mbita after a forest trip to cut raphia fronds used to make njɛ́ɛ̀njɛ̀ fishing rods./ Simon Hoyte

Since at least the 1980s, logging concessions, a large sport hunting zone, and the Dja protected conservation area have restricted the Baka people of Bemba's access to their forest. Yet, they have maintained a strong relationship with it, and the forest is still the foundation of their identity. They believe the Baka were created with the forest. They interact with it constantly through their livelihoods, and engage with forest spirits and the spirits of ancestors who roam the forest.

This close relationship informs how the Baka use forest resources and sustain the forest in the long term. For example, they do not believe that trees or animals should be left untouched unless give permission. Nor that they should give thanks or give back for what they take.

They believe the ultimate way to achieve joy is through sharing. Elders told us:

As they consider themselves as a part of the forest, the well-being of people is no different from the well-being of the forest. Sharing should take place with other people, forest spirits and animals, but also with ancestors and future generations. Non-material things such as laughter and ceremonies are also actively shared.

What this looks like in practice is restraint when harvesting, the free-sharing of belongings, and a high value placed on promoting collective happiness.

Read more: Community forestry can work, but plans in the Democratic Republic of Congo show what's missing

Baka often see logging, sport hunting and conservation as destructive because they take timber, animals and land excessively and do not share. These activities are regarded as an existential threat, given that the Baka people cannot envisage life without the forest.

Sharing the forest

The lesson to learn from the Baka is that conservation should not be centred on achieving biodiversity targets, or capturing a certain amount of carbon. A forest is a social landscape. Responsible sharing of resources and of benefits between all those who use the forest protects the whole system.

The path I walked with Mbita and Mangombe has now partially regrown, a reminder of the forest's ability to fight back. But inside, the scars inflicted on the forest remain, and the Baka of Bemba await the arrival of the next outsiders.

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