IPRB: Context & Dynamics

"Nous autres, les Akwa, nous autres, nous sommes petits, petits, nous sommes petits entre les petits. Mais nous sommes les "Hommes", les maîtres du temps, les maîtres de la terre, les maîtres de tout. Ceux qui ne veulent pas croire, que Tox les écrase et leur ferme les portes du Dan" R.P. Trilles, Les Pygmées de la forêt équatoriale, 1932

Excerpt from WHO archives: "...the indigenous hunter-gatherers of the central African forests, so-called Pygmy peoples, consist of at least 15 distinct ethnolinguistic groups including the Gyéli, Kola, Baka, Aka, Bongo, Efe, Mbuti, western Twa, and eastern Twa living in ten central African countries: Angola, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Their estimated total number is from 300,000 to 500,000 people. ...The term Pygmy can have pejorative connotations, but is used here as a term adopted by indigenous activists and support organisations to encompass the different groups of central African forest hunter-gatherers and former hunter-gatherers, and to distinguish them from other ethnic groups who may also live in forests, but who are more reliant on farming, and who are economically and politically dominant.."

Excerpt from Conservation and Society, pp407-435, Vol 3 No 2, December 2005 by Axel Kohler, Centro de Estudios Superiores de México y Centroamérica, Universidad de Ciencias y Artes de Chiapas (CESMECA-UNICACH): "..In contrast with ‘aboriginal’ Pygmies, Bantu forest dwellers are usually described as relatively recent 'colonisers'. Their penetration of the forest started with the so-called Bantu expansion about 4–5000 years BP in an area north-west of the great forest, from where western Bantu-speakers gradually occupied all of central Africa...Coming from the savannah they brought with them crops, livestock and a technology that were in many ways ill fitted to the requirements of their new environment. Their oral traditions often confirm a self-image as intruders into a foreign world..."

Excerpt from "African Hunter-Gatherers: Survival, History and the Politics of Identity", Kiroku, Kyoto University: "...It is difficult to generalize across the continent. In fact, hunter-gatherers in Africa today are strikingly diverse socially, ethnically, and economically...Despite a diversity of origins and present circumstances, a few general points can be made. In some ways African foragers display the characteristics common to other societies in their regions, speaking local languages and adopting local customs. In other important ways they have maintained distinct identities. Most of the hunter-gatherers exhibit a pattern of flexible and relatively egalitarian band organization common to hunter-gatherers elsewhere. In their internal sociopolitical organization they tended to be far less rigid and hierarchical than the norm of their agricultural and pastoral neighbors..Their flexibility and mobility worked both to their advantage and disadvantage. In the event of war or famine, they had the desert or the rainforest to fall back on as survival strategies. They had the power to survive outside the “system.” On the other hand, their lack of hierarchy meant that when outsiders presented sufficient political or military force, the foragers could not easily resist and sooner or later came to be dominated by others..."

Excerpt from Maricopa.edu website: "...Nowadays many pygmy groups no longer spend the whole year in the forest. Four or even six months of the year, in the dry season, they build their huts outside a settled village of cultivators who use them as plantation labor and treat them as land servants...In reality, many cultivators consider the pygmies less than human. They have created a system of hereditary service: a pygmy always works for the same master and subsequently for his heirs, and the pygmy's children go on working for the same family...The economic arrangement between the two groups usually works to the disadvantage of the pygmies, who do not use money and have no conception of its value...The pygmies are considered the poorest of the poor, the occupants of the bottom rung of the economic ladder. As far as possible, the cultivators make sure they remain unaware of the value of money, for fear they will become too expensive..."

Excerpt from ProCOR Discussion Forum: "...Indigenous people also face direct discrimination in their daily lives. Derogatory attitudes held in the general community and shown by health workers can create barriers to accessing health care: “The Babendjelle [of the North-West Congo Basin] are nicknamed out of prejudice “la viande qui parle” (the animal that can speak) and so do not receive the same treatment as others.” The poor formal recognition of Indigenous peoples also poses problems for gathering evidence about their health status…. In public health terms, this bias …limits the scope of epidemiological studies. Information about health status and access to services, and social determinants of health including the right to occupy and use land, clean water, sanitation, and education, is difficult to find..."

Excerpt from PlusNews.org website: "...Aucun recensement officiel n’a été mené dans le pays auprès de ces hommes originaires des forêts tropicales d’Afrique centrale, que l’on retrouve aussi au Cameroun, au Gabon, en République centrafricaine et jusque dans la région des Grands Lacs. Au Congo (Brazzaville), ils vivent dans les régions forestières du nord et du sud du pays...Longtemps restés à l’écart du reste de la population, les Pygmées, ces chasseurs et cueilleurs...Mais souvent considérés comme des 'sous-hommes', des être 'inférieurs' ou 'impurs' par leurs voisins Bantous, majoritaires au Congo...et leurs droits continuent à être régulièrement bafoués en matière d’accès à la terre, à l’éducation et aux services de santé..."

Excerpt from planetafrique.com website: "...Etant donné que les pièces de l'Etat civil sont les principaux documents réunissant les éléments constitutifs de la personnalité juridique, on peut dire que du point de vue de la loi, ces milliers de Pygmées ne sont pas reconnus par l'Etat congolais. Le gouvernement ne juge pas nécessaire d’envisager des mesures de facilitation ni d'élaborer un programme de sensibilisation pour inciter les Pygmées à se faire enregistrer ou se faire délivrer de cartes nationales d'identité. » Le comble dans tout cela est que des agents de l’ordre profitent de cette situation pour rançonner les pygmées qui ne disposent pas de pièces d’identité..."

Excerpt from the Gorilla Journal: "...Even during colonial times, attempts were made to drive pygmies out of their traditional habitat, the primary forest. Officially, they were relocated from the forest in 1970, when the national park was founded. Even today they feel as if it had happened only yesterday. They are longing for their old home because they find it very difficult to get on in the world in which they are now forced to live..."

Excerpt from IRIN website: "...Throughout Central Africa, governments have denied pygmies the right to organise and represent themselves, which has led to increasing cases of ethnic discrimination, violence, poverty and a general and gradual disintegration of pygmy culture. The majority of pygmy communities do not benefit from any form of political representation and also lack institutions able to directly defend their rights. Being geographically and politically dispersed and having little trans-national consciousness as an ethnic group, they remain politically weak...The traditional power structure of representative institutions is entirely foreign to pygmy society, as hierarchy is not necessarily a dominant feature of pygmy clans. Executive power over the clan often stems from elders’ collegial decisions. Consensus, rather than imposition, is the general way of Batwa governance in eastern DRC, for example. This often collides with the protocols of modern administration, which call for a delegate, spokesman or leader to centralise decision-making after consultation. A “flat” power structure is hardly adapted to project-management frameworks, which now permeate most development programmes...Societal prejudices against pygmies further impede their being included in development schemes. Often considered “inferior”, “impure” or even “sub-human” by their Bantu neighbours, pygmy groups are segregated and excluded from the sphere of public action and decision-making. As a result, development – or emergency relief – operations are channelled to other populations..."

Excerpt from CNN archives: "... They have no legal title to any land in the forest they've occupied since ancient times...Government policy refers to them as "marginal social groups," to be made into productive members of Cameroon's society by surrendering their nomadic life to clear land and plant crops...In other words, Bakas are expected to abandon the culture and spiritual life that connects them to the forest, and to join in its destruction -- a process already begun...Alcoholism, prostitution, unemployment and exploitation by dominant Bantus are common dangers confronting Bakas when they leave the forest. "They are facing a very violent civilization, and from this civilization they tend to take only the bad aspects," says university lecturer Roger Ngoufo. In their new settlements, the Baka people are in transition, no longer depending on hunting and gathering in the forest - and facing an uncertain future in the fast-growing towns and villages around them... Several residents in the roadside settlements say they are happy to be there - the forest is too dangerous. But others say the forest is paradise lost..."

Excerpt from UN OCHA,IRIN In-Depth report "Minorities Under Siege: Pygmies Today in Africa": "...Pygmies have depended on the forest since time immemorial. Today, heavy-handed environmental projects, such as the introduction of national parks, have caused tragic consequences for the well-being of the pygmy community..In an effort to protect natural resources, many conservation projects were launched in the 1990s throughout Central Africa. However, the practice of “gazetting” land – passing legislation that declares an area to be a natural park or a wildlife sanctuary – has pushed many indigenous groups out of their traditional habitat. The struggle to preserve the environment has had tragic consequences for some pygmy communities, which have fallen victim to heavy-handed environmental conservation projects...It started with the establishment of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park in South Kivu, DRC, a forest that was declared in 1980 a World Heritage in Danger site by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Zairian Institute of the Conservation of Nature violently expelled 580 Batwa families from their land - with a view to protecting one of the last populations of mountain gorillas - without informing, consulting or offering them any reparation. The eviction destroyed their livelihood, culture and spiritual practices that tied them to the land...“We did not know they were coming,” said a Mutwa widow and mother of five who was among the 3,000 to 6,000 pygmies evicted from the forest. “It was early in the morning. I heard people in uniforms with guns. Then suddenly one of them forced the door of our house and started shouting that we had to leave immediately because the park is not our land. I first did not understand because all my ancestors have lived on these lands. They were so violent that I left with my children.” ..According to the NGO Refugees International, the trend continues.."

Excerpt from report by Jerome Lewis, Dept of Anthropology, London School of Economics - Minority Rights Group: "...The Batwa were not informed or consulted on the nature or terms of their eviction. No provision was made to assist the expelled families to find land or alternative sources of income. At a stroke, their culture, spiritual practices and hunter-gathering way of life were outlawed. Nothing can compensate Batwa for the loss of their forests. No other environment can provide them with the same economic, social and spiritual well-being...Despite risking beatings, fines and imprisonment if caught, the Batwa’s dependence on the forest is so fundamental that they cannot stay away from it. Batwa feel persecuted by this denial of their rights, and find it increasingly difficult to access forest resources. Without assets or independent means of production many now live in extreme poverty. It is estimated that up to 50 per cent of those expelled from the forest have died, and among those that remain infant mortality is much higher than in other groups...

‘ ..Since we were expelled from our lands, death is following us. We bury people nearly every day. The village is becoming empty. We are heading towards extinction. Now all the old people have died. Our culture is dying too.’ - Mutwa man from Kalehe, DRC..."

Excerpt from "Health Situation of Women and Children in Central African Pygmy Peoples" by Dorothy Jackson, Forest Peoples Programme (May 2006): "...We are completely neglected and forgotten. Even our wives do not have access to midwives. They are permanently exposed to death because of lack of care during their pregnancy and deliveries. This came with the so-called modern life into which we were dragged. It did not exist when we were living in our natural environment. We had so many plants for such problems... Twa man from Kalehe district, Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.."

Excerpt from "Health of Indigenous Peoples in Africa" from WHO document archives: "...Mortality rates in Pygmy communities are high...Infant mortality rates in forest-dwelling Aka in the Central African Republic during the 1980s, and former forest-dwelling Twa in Uganda at the turn of this century, are reported as 20–22% and 20–21%, respectively...These rates are more than twice the national infant mortality rates (9·8% and 9·7%, respectively) cited by the World Bank in 2000; and in the Ugandan study are 1·5–4 times higher than nearby non-Twa com munities. For children younger than 5 years, mortality rates of 27% reported in forest-dwelling Mbendjele in northern Congo in the mid-1990s were 1·5 times higher than neighbouring Bantu...In the study of Ugandan Twa, mortality rates for children younger than 5 years (40%) were 1·8–2·4 times higher than in non-Twa villages. Loss of a forest-based life can be associated with increased mortality..."

Excerpt: "...By the 1990s, the last remaining Batwa still practising clandestine hunting and gathering were forced to the edges of their ancestral forests to make way for national parks and military training areas. With no compensation and no alternative livelihoods, most have become beggars and landless labourers; only a small number still have access to forest resources, and much of the extensive forest knowledge once held by the Batwa is no longer being passed down from one generation to the next...A comparison of census figures from 1978 and 1991 indicates a 40 per cent fall in the Batwa population, as opposed to a 50 per cent (approximately) rise in the population of other Rwandans. Although little research has been conducted on Batwa demographic trends, it seems likely that as well as loss of land and livelihoods, high infant mortality rates, extreme poverty and poor access to healthcare have contributed to this decline..."

Excerpt from Unrepresented Peoples and Nations Organization website: "...Infant mortality among Congolese Mbendjele Pygmies was around one and a half times higher than among their Bantu neighbours. Tellingly, infant mortality rates for Ugandan Batwa dropped from 59 percent to 18 percent when families were given land. The Batwa of Chombo have been reduced to squatting since being evicted from their ancestral forests..to make way for the national park.."We are refugees in our own country," said Mwendanabo, "and we will stay like that until we are given some land." Without their own land to work, diets are poor. Children are acutely malnourished and there is nothing to spend on livestock, healthcare or education. ..Sitting in the darkness of Chombo's one classroom Salome Ndavuma knows what she wants her surviving children to do. "We die like animals because we don't have the money to go to the hospital. If some of our own can train to be doctors then perhaps we will get treatment. So that's what I'd ask of Kabila if he came to Chombo - train my child to be a doctor."

Excerpt from "La marginalisation sanitaire des ilots Pygmees de la Likouala, Republic of Congo", Gerard Salomone, Universite de Paris VII et Francois Taglioni, CNRS: "...Ces affections touchent en revanche les villageois Grands Noirs qui bénéficient d’une certaine attention des pouvoirs publics et des différents programmes de coopération. Cette inégalité dans les allocations de ressources selon le groupe considéré est encore plus choquante quant, on connaît l’importance des financements internationaux investis dans les parcs naturels de la région, comme celui de N’Doki-Nouabalé. Un des objectifs officiels de ce parc est de sauver les gorilles argentés migrant dans les mêmes territoires que les Pygmées. Paradoxe d’autant plus frappant que ces animaux sont également atteints par le pian et traités régulièrement pour cette maladie, contrairement aux pisteurs pygmées...Pourquoi cette différence d’accès aux soins pour des groupes humains voisins?..."

Excerpt from "Conservation Refugees" by Mark Dowie, Orion Magazine: "...It's no secret that millions of native peoples around the world have been pushed off their land to make room for big oil, big metal, big timber, and big agriculture. But few people realize that the same thing has happened for a much nobler cause: land and wildlife conservation. Today the list of culture-wrecking institutions put forth by tribal leaders on almost every continent includes not only Shell, Texaco, Freeport, and Bechtel, but also more surprising names like Conservation International (CI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Even the more culturally sensitive World Conservation Union (IUCN) might get a mention...In early 2004 a United Nations meeting was convened in New York for the ninth year in a row to push for passage of a resolution protecting the territorial and human rights of indigenous peoples. The UN draft declaration states: "Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories. No relocation shall take place without the free and informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned and after agreement on just and fair compensation and, where possible, with the option to return." During the meeting an indigenous delegate who did not identify herself rose to state that while extractive industries were still a serious threat to their welfare and cultural integrity, their new and biggest enemy was "conservation."...Later that spring, at a Vancouver, British Columbia, meeting of the International Forum on Indigenous Mapping, all two hundred delegates signed a declaration stating that the "activities of conservation organizations now represent the single biggest threat to the integrity of indigenous lands." These rhetorical jabs have shaken the international conservation community, as have a subsequent spate of critical articles and studies, two of them conducted by the Ford Foundation, calling big conservation to task for its historical mistreatment of indigenous peoples..."We are enemies of conservation," declared Maasai leader Martin Saning'o, standing before a session of the November 2004 World Conservation Congress sponsored by IUCN in Bangkok, Thailand. The nomadic Maasai, who have over the past thirty years lost most of their grazing range to conservation projects throughout eastern Africa, hadn't always felt that way. In fact, Saning'o reminded his audience, "...we were the original conservationists." The room was hushed as he quietly explained how pastoral and nomadic cattlemen have traditionally protected their range: "Our ways of farming pollinated diverse seed species and maintained corridors between ecosystems." Then he tried to fathom the strange version of land conservation that has impoverished his people, more than one hundred thousand of whom have been displaced from southern Kenya and the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania. Like the Batwa, the Maasai have not been fairly compensated. Their culture is dissolving and they live in poverty..."

Excerpt from Forests Monitor study in the Republic of Congo entitled "Sold Down the River": "...CIB is actively pursuing certification and argues that to achieve a sustainable cut they require a large concession area. Thus they now have three concessions totalling over one million hectares and are undertaking an extensive survey of the flora in the concessions in collaboration with WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society). The social aspects of sustainability may prove more of a challenge to the company, such as offering compensation to local people for lost non-timber forest products, involving local people in management and decision-making and securing local land rights. WCS and CIB are sceptical that local communities have the capacity to manage resources responsibly. Partly in consequence of this belief, WCS employ eco-guards armed with automatic rifles to patrol the buffer zone and logging roads around the national park. This is very unpopular with local people who see this as a gross violation of their traditional rights...In some cases, important elephant poachers are made eco-guards in an attempt to take them out of the poaching circuit. It has been reported in the past that these guards often intimidated local people, and allowed their former poaching colleagues to pass freely through checkpoints but confiscated local people’s small amounts of game. The system has created distrust and antagonism between some conservation workers and local people and, in certain places, may have strengthened the position of some of the best-connected poachers who are commissioned to hunt trophy animals..."

Excerpt from Cultural Survival website:

ISSUE: "..According to John Nelson of the Forest Peoples Programme, an international NGO that promotes the rights of forest peoples, this question is at the heart of the problems in the northern forests of the Republic of congo where the semi-nomadic Baka Pygmies live. In a recent interview, Nelson told Cultural Survival that the process of trying to protect wildlife from excessive hunting by the employees of logging companies has come at a high cost to indigenous peoples — particularly the semi-nomadic Pygmies.

FACTS: In cooperation with the Ministry of Forestry Economy and Environment (MEFE) of the Republic of Congo, the World Conservation Society (WCS) operates Nouabale-Ndoki National Park, which is located in the north of the country. Congolaise Industrielle des Bois (CIB), a timber company operating in the country, holds timber concessions adjacent to the park. Together, the three organizations form the Project for Ecosystem Management of the Periphery of the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park (PROGEPP). Both the timber concessions and the park are situated in...the Congo Basin, an area with immense biological diversity and home to many endangered or threatened species, along with several indigenous Pygmy populations. In an effort to curb illegal hunting, PROGEPP eco-guards monitor vehicles leaving the concessions and patrol the forests looking for poachers. While PROGEPP administrates the eco-guard program, WCS is responsible for its implementation.

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HUMAN RIGHTS: "..One of the problems," Nelson explained, "is in the way the eco-guards are being trained. They are not being taught to distinguish between poachers and the Baka. When an eco-guard comes across an indigenous person, they assume he is a poacher. The eco-guard searches them, confiscates their game, takes their tools; sometimes they beat them." According to Nelson, some of the eco-guards will follow Pygmies back to their camps and search all of the homes in the camp, looking for illegal bushmeat...Abuses by the eco-guards were well documented prior to Nelson’s visit. The Situation of Pygmies of the Republic of Congo, a 2004 report published by the Rainforest Foundation in cooperation with Congolese Observatory of Human Rights, details the historically abusive and exploitative relationship between local Bantus and Pygmies. Bantu researchers found in interviews that "many Bantu [consider] the Pygmies to be sub-human, and not entitled to the same rights as themselves." Bantus, according to the report, regularly beat, torture, and rape Pygmies. In a letter to Dr. Paul Elkan, the director of WCS operations in the Congo, dated October 25, 2005, Jerome Lewis of the Anthropology department of the London School of Economics, who also served on the 2004 Greenpeace mission, expressed his concerns that Pygmies are abandoning their semi-nomadic lifestyle "at alarming rates" because they are afraid to enter the forest. Nelson echoed Lewis’ concerns: "These [Pygmy] groups suffer trauma because they have nowhere else to go. They can not sustain their culture and so they face complete social collapse. Traditional practices are stopped."

FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CONSERVATION: In an interview with Cultural Survival, James Deutch, Director of the Africa Program for WCS, could not comment on the allegations brought forth by Nelson. However, he did address the incidents in Lewis’ letter. "We conducted a formal investigation of abuse by eco-guards," Deutch said. "The upshot of the investigation was that we found most of the individual reports were exaggerated, but some instances were true. There was use of force and incidents of manhandling." Deutch added that while there are a small number of Pygmy eco-guards, the majority of the eco-guard force is comprised of Bantu. "In recruiting Bantu eco-guards, we face the challenge of teaching against a backdrop of cultural and societal discrimination," Deutch said. As a result of these abuses, Deutch said that several individuals were fired and others were disciplined. In addition, he told Cultural Survival that WCS plans to institute a new complaint procedure that would give anonymity to witnesses and victims of abuse; when an investigation is called for, the findings will be made public. WCS also reportedly plans to institute additional training modules for eco-guards to deal with indigenous peoples. "They [human rights groups] are absolutely right to find problems with us." Deutch said. "We completely support the concern they have for semi-nomadic people and we are concerned about their future. Criticizing us where we haven’t done a good job is absolutely right." Deutch also pointed out that WCS’ main concern was to protect area wildlife, and as such, it was the first initiative of its kind to work with a timber company to monitor illegal hunting. "WCS is the only soft target," Deutch said. "No one expects the government or the logging company to care.."

Excerpt from California Studies in Food and Culture No. 6., University of California Press website:

"...A few years ago, I was invited to visit the home of a Swiss compatriot, an elderly lady by the name of Martha ("Poppi) Thomas living the life of the privileged in upstate New York. I knew that she was a trustee and a serious financial supporter of the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society, and after lunch I showed her a copy of the Slaughter of the Apes brochure that included some of my photos and a little explanatory text...Her reaction was more than shock. Her conservation world had just crumbled. Since she felt very strongly about the environment and animal welfare, she had been making major donations to conservation organizations essentially as her way of getting a good night's sleep. After leafing through the pamphlet together, we left the luncheon table and all the other guests before dessert. Her chauffeur drove us a few miles to the home of Howdy Phipps, who was then the big boss of WCS. We motored through a beautiful estate right up to the main entrance of a mansion. Poppi informed the servants that we wanted to see Mr. Phipps immediately. She was informed that Mr. and Mrs. Phipps had retired for their Sunday afternoon rest. She made it clear that she did not care. We waited in the hall until the awakened couple descended the wide staircase. We all went to the living room but never got to sit down. Poppi shoved the pamphlet under Mr. Phipps's nose, wanting an immediate response, wanting to know if indeed this sort of thing was still going on in Africa. Of course, I felt like sinking away into the parquet floor...As the CEO of WCS, Howdy Phipps would have a good idea what was going on in the field, and certainly his Africa experts at the Bronx office and the people in the field in Africa would have been able to tell him that things were not under control—but that is not the message on which money is raised from supporters like Poppi. Poppi, of course, received the WCS annual report with the largely green world map in the center, but she would not have been privy to what I had begun to see as the organization's policy of not publicizing the bushmeat problem in order to maintain "good relations with the African government[s] and indigenous people so that the Society's conservation projects will be permitted to continue." In this case, WCS maintained these "good relations," but on the back of the very wildlife it was meant to protect...What I found surprising was that somebody like Poppi, a very alert and compassionate lady, believed in all the beautiful "world in order" images and documentaries that the Discovery and National Geographic channels were feeding the American and world public almost 24 hours a day. She also believed the WCS annual report, with its smiles and promises and that largely green world map. She was genuinely convinced that her donations and those of her friends were buying the gorillas and chimps of Africa a safe world...This gave me the first inkling of the power of selling "feel-good conservation"—on the back of small and ultimately ineffectual "Band-Aid projects"—and the extent to which the conservation establishment had come to depend on it. Individual donors and, I am sure, even the big institutional ones badly want to believe that their money pays for a better world. In the case of WCS, where the top seven executives earned a total of more than U.S. $2.6 million in the year 2000, keeping the cash flow going has to be priority number one..."

Excerpt: "...In 1751, Edward Tyson published a book entitled, The Anatomy of a Pygmy Compared with that of an Ape and a Man, which effectively introduced the Western world to the Pygmies as a subhuman entity...In 1906, the Bronx Zoo displayed its newest addition to the gorilla cage, a Pygmy man named Ota Benga. The New York Times touted the exhibit by calling it “the most interesting sight in the Bronx.” The animal-like perception of Pygmies penetrated the Western consciousness. Unable to return home, Ota Benga committed suicide ten years later...The 1988 movie Gorillas in the Mist presented the Pygmy as savage gorilla poachers, a concept that has never been largely questioned, despite the fact that Pygmies lived with gorillas in the forests of Central Africa for centuries without the gorilla becoming endangered, as it is today..."

Excerpt from Axel Kohler study in the Republic of Congo, Conservation and Society: "...Examining the footprints of a gorilla, a Baka companion told me that we had now entered gorilla territory: ‘The gorilla is a soldier, man! When you enter his area and meet him, he is going to ask you for your passport. And you better have your papers in order, because he doesn’t like to fool around. If you haven’t got a laissez-passer, he will go after you, slap you in the face and kick you out of his territory.’ The image used here is one of a policemen or border patrol, administrative staff who are all non-local Bantu and professional soldiers. They use their power to control the movement of people and goods across the Congo-Cameroon border in a rather autocratic fashion. Not uncommonly, they extort money and services, lock people up overnight in a prison cell in town and are known for beating them up. For their part, gorillas are competitors for wild forest fruit, and occasionally raid fields and feed on agricultural produce. They thus tax human efforts in a different way than do policemen, but in a fashion that Baka experience as similarly unsubtle and arbitrary..."

From Living On Earth radio, recorded show from Dec 04: "...Can conservation groups protect natural habitats without abusing the people who live in them? This issue is the focus of a number of articles, most recently "A Challenge to Conservationists" by anthropologist Mac Chapin. Chapin says the big conservation groups - World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, and The Nature Conservancy, focus on large conservation schemes that attract lots of corporate and government money but lead them to neglect indigenous peoples' needs..."

House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Africa, Committee on International Relations, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:30 p.m. in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Edward R. Royce, [Chairman of the Subcommittee] presiding.

Mr. ROYCE: This hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa will come to order. The tropical forests of Central Africa’s Congo Basin are second in size only to those in the Amazon Basin. Now, that is nearly seven times the size of California. They are an important economic resource for an estimated 20 million people in this region. These forests also play a critical role in sustaining the environment—absorbing carbon dioxide and cleansing the water and holding soil. The Congo Basin contains the most diverse grouping of plants and animals in Africa, including rare and endangered species such as the eastern lowland gorilla, mountain gorilla, chimpanzee and the white rhino. These plants and animals are invaluable for so many reasons, including their genetic and biochemical information, which could spark advances in medical, agricultural and industrial technology...Last September, Secretary of State Colin Powell launched the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) in Johannesburg. The partnership, involving governments, international organizations and businesses, is focused on 11 key landscapes in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. It aims to support a network of national parks and protected areas and well-managed forestry concessions...The Congo Basin Forest Partnership, building upon previous U.S. efforts, is working to combat illegal logging and poaching and other unsustainable practices and to give local populations an economic stake in the preservation of the forests, including through the development of ecotourism. This initiative has received widespread applause, including from leading conservationists...Now, there are three non-governmental organizations that I want to mention — Conservation International, the World Conservation Society (sic), and the World Wildlife Fund. They deserve recognition for their early financial contributions to this effort...In 1997, this Subcommittee held a hearing on managing Africa’s natural resources. At that hearing I said, ‘‘As much as some would like it to be, Africa cannot be one big preserve.’’ With that hearing, we featured the U.S. backed CAMPFIRE program, designed to give southern Africans an economic incentive to manage well their natural resources. Too many conservation efforts, cooked up far away, ignore the interests of average Africans. That day we heard from a witness who brings this kind of pragmatism to his work and who has done more than anyone else to bring attention to the stakes we all have in conserving the Congo Basin forests, and that is Michael Fay. Among his many activities publicizing these magnificent forests and the threats they face has been his 440 day trek through the Congo Basin in 1999 and 2000, fully documented by National Geographic. Michael Fay recently worked with President Bongo to help bring about his landmark declaration of a new national park system. Especially for young people watching today, Michael Fay is a testament to the great difference in the world that one determined person can make. I will now turn to the Ranking Member, Mr. Payne, for any opening statement he may wish to make.

Mr. PAYNE: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me commend you for calling this very important hearing, Saving The Congo Basin: The Stakes, The Plan. It is good to see Assistant Secretary Kansteiner and Assistant Secretary Turner and Assistant Administrator Newman and Dr. Fay, who we will hear from later. Let me just commend our representatives from State Department for the outstanding work that they continually do to try to keep the issues of Africa before the Congress...More commonly, Africa is known for its great wealth and beauty even today, even though we see abject poverty and a lot of problems because of perhaps neglect or other priorities during the past decades, but the wealth and beauty is still there. As we know, it has the largest concentration of natural resources, the abundance of diamonds, a wide variety of gems, minerals like coltan, plants with extraordinary healing properties that are often used in pharmaceuticals, although rarely attributed about where the source of these drugs come from, many right from this Congo Basin...The continent is also famous for its wildlife, as we know, including the gorillas, as we have heard, and elephants and zebras and hippopotamus and so forth. We certainly are hoping that this initiative will help preserve the wildlife that had in the past been in great abundance, but, as we see, a trend in the wrong direction...Too often, we hear about exploitations of these precious natural resources in Africa, so the discussion about a new partnership which will work to preserve and protect precious wildlife and raw materials is certainly a welcome one and one that is certainly overdue. In that vein, I commend the Administration and Secretary Powell for the leadership shown on the issue and the commitment to give $12 million a year to the partnership totaling $53 million by the year 2005. The partnership is between NGOs, industry and governments who have put forth a sustained effort toward thwarting deforestation in the Congo Basin and in 11 priority landscapes. The money will go toward the establishment of, as we have heard already, new national parks which will serve as a haven for floral and fauna, whose survival is so key to the environmental climate and the communities which live among them and toward the strengthening of government forest authorities and providing opportunities for sustainable development. I am encouraged by this progressive move, and we hope that the intent of the initiative is carried out and will be implemented properly, and we hope that even with some of the new initiatives some of the African new initiatives like NEPAD and with the potential MCA here, the Millennium Challenge Account, that all of these can be used to shore up and assist the continent as it tries to work its way back...I would now like to turn it over to John Turner and to Connie Newman. The three of us are enjoying kind of a new triumvirate where we are learning to pull various bureaus in the State Department, as well as AID, together in behalf of these efforts, and we are kind of forging new pathways as we go along. But the three of us are committed to this partnership, and we are going to see it through. Thank you very much.

Mr. TURNER: Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, I join Walter and Connie in thanking you for the opportunity to appear before you today...I think, as you opened the hearing with, that we need to remind ourselves of the immensity of this region, some 700,000 square miles of opportunity. If my calculations are right, that is a size that is equivalent to the five states of California, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. I believe the partnership promises to be the most ambitious conservation project in the history of Africa. Working together, we have the potential to positively impact over 75 million acres of one of the largest intact tropical forests left anywhere in the world, including the establishment and making reality some 27 national parks. It is a great opportunity for the United States to build on the impressive efforts and existing cooperation that is already ongoing in the Basin between the governments there, between the non-profit community and the private sector. Of course, that great work is exemplified by Michael Fay, who is with us here today, whose mega transect of 1,200 miles captured the imaginations of Americans and people all over the world over this special place and the need to protect it...I am very pleased that President Bush indeed has committed $53 million for the partnership through 2005. These resources we hope to leverage against the resources from other public and private partners. I think the President’s support for the Congo Basin reflects the leadership that he has given to protect tropical forests out around the world..It was mentioned the recognition of the outstanding partnerships that we have, now. The Wildlife Conservation Society, Conservation International, World Wildlife Fund were mentioned...I am pleased to note that folks from our American forest industry are joining us. The American Forest and Paper Association, as well as the Society of American Foresters, are bringing their expertise and management experience. We have a large team of interagency participants—the National Forest Service, the National Park Service, Soil & Conservation Society, Fish & Wildlife Service, Department of Commerce, NASA, USGS and OPEC to name a few. Of course, our main partners are the six African countries that are represented here today, and we are also joined by the U.K., South Africa, Japan, Germany, France, Canada and Belgium...I think we all realize that this magical region of Africa is indeed at a critical crossroads in its history. I believe that U.S. leadership, resources and experience, in tandem with all other partners, can contribute significantly to economic development, alleviation of poverty and suffering, and the improvement of the overall governance through workable conservation and a resource management program.

Mr. ROYCE: That is very forthright of you, Constance. Thank you very much...Let me ask a few questions. I will start with Assistant Secretary Turner. Several Members of Congress have written Republic of C0ngo Pres1dent Sass0u-Nguess0 asking for his cooperation on various environmental initiatives, including on the issue of trying to do something to combat the poaching of elephants. As far as I know, we have not received an answer. I was going to ask, Assistant Secretary Turner, is the Republic of C0ngo fully on board with this initiative, or are there areas of concern?

Mr. TURNER: Mr. Chairman, I had the opportunity to meet with Pres1dent Sass0u and express the interest of the United States to help build capacity and governance to help bring training opportunities and capacity building to the Republic of the C0ngo. I think we have to note that that country committed itself to parks many years ago, so it is a challenge for the United States to work with that country to show that better practices are in the best interest of their economy, developing tourism and sustaining the wonderful wildlife and tourism opportunities. The minister for their parks and forestry is coming to Washington soon, Minister Djomb0, and I hope to meet with him. We have had meetings in the past. We did have our interagency needs assessment team recently in Brazzaville to look at specific training and monitoring and accountability, so I think it is an opportunity for us to work positively with Pres1dent Sass0u and his administration.

Mr. ROYCE: Well, we will look forward to conversing with you on that after that meeting takes place here...

Mr. ROYCE: Thank you, Congressman Payne. Without objection, we will submit for the record testimony from the World Wildlife Fund. At this time we will go to our second panel. I thank each of you for testifying here today. [Pause.] This Committee will come to order, and we will now go to our second panel. Dr. Michael Fay is an ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York, and he is a conservation fellow at the National Geographic Society...In 1984, he went to work at the Missouri Botanical Garden. His first assignment was a study of a mountain range on Sudan’s western border, eventually leading to his doctorate on the western lowland gorillas...From 1999 to 2000, he walked the entire corridor, more than 1,800 miles, systematically surveying trees, wildlife and human impacts on uninhabited forest areas. Fay is now analyzing data from this expedition, which was funded by the National Geographic Society’s Expeditions Council and the Wildlife Conservation Society. This trek was a catalyst for Gabon’s landmark national park effort. Michael testified to this Subcommittee in March 1997 on a hearing, ‘‘Economic Development of Africa’s Natural Resources.’’...We are pleased to again have him with us.

Mr. FAY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank Chairman Ed Royce and Congressman Donald Payne for having us here today to talk about sustainable development in Africa and the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. I would also like to thank in particular Assistant Secretaries of State Kansteiner and Turner for their leadership in the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. Certainly I do not think if we had not been meeting, you know, kind of around town here over the last several months talking about the forests of Central Africa and the problems, the solutions, none of this would have ever happened, so I am really happy that we have folks like Mr. Kansteiner and Turner in office...

I believe that Teddy Roosevelt had it right. In 1907, when the United States was at the stage in its development not dissimilar to the Congo Basin today, he said, ‘‘In utilizing and conserving natural resources of the nation, the one characteristic more essential than any other is foresight. The conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life.’’ President Roosevelt, with Congress, made the creation of 230 million acres of protected areas the cornerstone of that foresight...I think that when you look at what Roosevelt did, that is what he did. He brought that debate to the United States, and it has been very important in every land use decision made in this country for over a century.

My work in the Congo Basin has been basically to try to bring this U.S. model to Africa. People think well, you know, that is this, that is that, but I do not see that there is any great difference in the United States’ development over the last 150 years and what is currently happening in Africa almost throughout—resource exploitation, people occupying the landscape. That is what is happening everywhere.

The model starts with the identification of large landscapes where land use management systems can be put in place before the arrival of industrial resource use and human expansion. This model does not call for the curtailment of resource use, only for well-reasoned land use and resource management. It requires, I think, a ground up plan that includes the creation and management of core national parks to protect the biodiversity mother lode, integrated with land use management in exploitation zones in the surrounding landscapes that maximizes benefits for local people. We find that parks quickly become national treasures, but they also become the cornerstones in a process where logging companies and other resource users change wasteful practices, local people change land use practices, and governments change policies. Other development objectives that help people like poverty alleviation, health, education and private investment are also facilitated in these landscapes. It goes right up to the national level...

[The prepared statement of Mr. Fay follows:]

..As part of our model we put in place management programs in the logging concessions surrounding parks. These programs work closely with logging company employees to reduce bushmeat exploitation, limit human settlement in the permanent forest domain, eliminate illegal and wasteful practices, and improve livelihoods for local people. Over the past 20 years, a number of US NGOs in association with the US Government have gained considerable experience in projects that change the course of natural resource management and development in large landscapes in Congo Basin countries...An example: In 1985, an idea to create a large, tri-national forest management area in the Central African Republic (CAR), Congo, and Cameroon was born by Richard Carroll and myself. The objective was to create three national parks and management systems in the landscapes around the parks, in particular in logging concessions where there was no history of land-use management. This initiative grew, and by the year 2000, with funding from USAID, GEF, ITTO, GTZ, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and other private investment, we had the following outputs:
• 350,000 acre Dzanga-Sangha National Park in CAR,
• 1,000,000 acre Nouabale-Ndoki National Park in Congo,
• 600,000 acre Lac Lobeke National Park in Cameroon,
• Significant, permanent management infrastructure in seven main camps,
• A large force (>350) of trained local and government management personnel,
• Wildlife management implemented with villages surrounding the parks,
• Forestry management projects with logging companies covering ca. 4,000,000 acres.
• Declaration of the first trans-border reserve to be created by three national governments.

The benefits go far beyond the local impacts, they are:
• Vastly improved forest management capacity at a national level in three countries,
• Significantly increased national contribution to operations,
• Shift in the logging industry from pure exploitation to the notion of management in logged forests,
• Shift in land-use practices of local people,
• Shift in government policies and laws governing forest management.

How do we propose to replicate this model elsewhere and how much is it going to cost? There are currently many organizations, American and European, working with national governments on projects that seek to implement the landscape model in places like Odzala, Nouabale-Ndoki, Minkebe, Lope, Loango and many others. These initiatives have strong national government support and the three major US conservation NGOs working on the ground in the Congo Basin (WWF, WCS and Conservation International) are united in the belief that these ground-up projects should be the basis for sustainable development. The Congo Basin Forest Partnership Some months ago a number of NGOs, the US State Dept. and USAID developed a plan that is now called the Congo Basin Forest Partnership. This plan calls to extend an existing USAID project, called the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE), which has been learning about resource management in the Congo Basin for seven years. The new plan shifts the focus to the ground, starting with a network of national parks in six Congo Basin countries that would span out to logging concessions, other resource extraction zones and local communities in geographical landscapes. This plan would attempt to get all regional governments on board, expand the number of NGO partners, and increase assistance from several Departments of the US Government. In more formal meetings with USAID the logic of the landscape concept was understood but the questions were: how much is it going to cost and how were we going to pull it off? In particular how could we be assured there was the political will to create parks and manage forests in Congo Basin countries? I estimated, if we included 11 endangered landscapes in six countries, that we would need 15 million dollars a year from USAID. Other international partners, American NGOs and national governments would match this.

What I ask of Congress today is to assure the following:

1) Appropriation of $15 million a year for the CBFP program to be funded for a period of ten years;

2) Funds allocated exclusively to US NGO partners of the Congo Basin Forest Partnership with substantial diplomatic and technical assistance provided by the Departments of State, Agriculture and Interior;

3) Matching funds be required of NGOs who receive a grant from USAID for these activities;

4) US Government funding should be restricted to on-the-ground conservation that directly supports protected area and land-use management projects in the 11 designated landscapes such that we avoid top down, expensive and ineffective programs;

5) Nations benefiting from the CBFP should agree to address a number of objective deliverables that are judged to be essential to the program.

6) Funding should be dependant on progress such that nations who take the risks to enact such a process also reap the maximum benefits;

è) USAID should not use a competitive bidding process between partners to fund disparate actions, but rather a collaborative process that will result in a comprehensive program for the 11 landscapes that demonstrates buy-in from partners and a clear ground-up approach.

I don’t think that Teddy Roosevelt could have ever imagined that over 300 million people would enter the national parks in the United States in 2003. This is a tribute to his vision. I believe that, if we get it right, the CBFP will be one of the most successful programs ever undertaken by USAID in our search for a model of sustainable development. Land-use and resource management must be at the core. Please support this program. Thank you.’’

Mr. Royce: Thank you, Dr. Fay.

Excerpt from Wikipedia: "...Carpe diem has some nuances beyond the usual translation "seize the day". Definitions of carpe include pluck, pull off, gather, snatch, even in some contexts, make a journey. Here it means something like enjoy. The idea, then, would be to get everything you can from right now, because you cannot trust that you will have future opportunities..."

Excerpt from USAID February 2006 CARPE mid-term review, p.3 - "CARPE Budget by Partner": Total of USAID Funding under 3-year agreement (Year 1-operating in FY04; Year 2-operating in FY05; Year 3-operating in FY06:
-African Wildlife Foundation: $3,789, 867
-Conservation International: $5,496,104
-Wildlife Conservation Society: $14,247,302
-World Wildlife Fund: $13,757,226

Excerpt of USAID determination document: Funding Begin: FY2003, Central Africa, Managed by USAID/DRC
Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) Funding End: FY2010
lOP Amount: $55 million ($45 million,DA, $10 million ESF)
Current Date:. May 3,2004

ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION RECOMMENDED: (Place X where applicable)
Categorical Exclusion: X
Negative Determination: X
Positive Determination:
Deferral: X
ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS: (Place X where applicable)
CONDITIONS:
PVO/NGO:_X_

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS: This amendment to the subject lEE recommends changes in threshold determinations in the lEE for the Central African Regional Program for the Environment Phase II (CARPE II). It recommends changing the Positive Determination in the original lEE to a Categorical Exclusion and Negative Determination, forthose activities associated with Reduced Impact logging (RIL) and Sustainable Forest Management, respectively. Likewise, threshold determinations are provided for those activities for which a Deferral had been recommended, due to insufficient information at the time. Thus, this lEE resolves the previous deferrals. Except as noted above, all other terms and conditions remain in force and unchanged, and are recapitulated in the present amendment of the CARPE IIlEE, for the sake of clarity and coherence
(with the exception of Section 2 and Annexes 1-4 in the original lEE, not included here). The Strategic Objective of the Program is to reduce the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity through increased local, national, and regional natural resource management capacity. There are three Intermediate Results (IRs) to be covered under this lEE: IR1, "Sustainable Natural Resources Management Practices Applied", 1R2,"Natural Resources Governance Institutions, Policies, Laws Strengthened", and IR3, "Natural Resources Monitoring Institutionalized. The lEE covers the strategy period FY 2003-2010. Most of the activities addressed herein were initiated and developed under the previous CARPE I project, and have been proven to be beneficial to the environment and to sustainable management of natural resources in the Congo Basin1.

Negative Determinations with Conditions are recommended, per 22 CFR 216.3(a)(2)(iii) for the following previously deferred activities:

a) Build Community Conservation Center (Sub IR 1.2).
Centers will be within the 10,000 square feet surface area disturbed size limit for small construction, and follow the guidelines as described in the USAID/AFR Environmental Guidelines for Small Scale Activities in Africa (EGSSA) located at www.encapafrica.ora.

b) Establish health clinic(s) with humanitarian partners (Sub IR 1.3).
Small buildings less than 10,000 square feet will be constructed or repaired to receive populations for vaccines and health
care. Guidelines for environmentally sound construction and healthcare waste management will be followed as described in the USAID/AFR Environmental Guidelines for Small Scale Activities in Africa (EGSSA) located atwww.encapafrca.ora:

Excerpt from USAID Feb06 Midterm Evaluation of CARPE, p 11: "..Recognizing the importance and difficulty of conservation in the Congo Basin, USAID began a 20 year program in 1995 aimed at reducing the threats of deforestation and decrease in biodiversity. The current strategic phase of the initiative, CARPE II, began in 2003 and will operate until 2010. CAPRE II works in nine countries within the Congo Basin with the strategic objective of reducing the rate of forest degradation and loss of biodiversity through increased local, national and regional natural resource management..Unforeseen during the evaluation, the timing of the design and implementation of CARPE II corresponded with the initiation of an international agreement reached at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) where governments, NGOs and the private sector recognized the importance of conserving the Congo, the world’s second largest remaining tropical forest, by creating the Congo Basin Forestry Partnership (CBFP). The USG chose to use the CARPE II results framework as an umbrella for many of the activities that the US is undertaking in support of the CBFP...The USG commitment to CBFP was to provide $52 million support to the CBFP over the period 2002 to 2005. The majority of that funding is being passed via CARPE..encompassing nine countries (Burundi, Congo/Brazzaville, Central Africa Republic, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Democratic Republic of Congo Gabon, Rwanda, and Sao Tome-Principe). Additionally, CBFP includes partners other than CARPE partners..."

From CARPE website: Link to a map of CARPE zones of the Congo Basin. With six of the eleven intervention zones in its borders, the Republic of Congo is the epicenter of USAID's CARPE intervention. Target areas encompass the traditional lands and the highest population densities of indigenous peoples in the Congo Basin. The impacts of CARPE (the largest conservation initiative in the history of the Afican continent) on this acutely vulnerable population remain unmonitored.

Excerpt from article "Black Gold", The Economist (Oct 2002), republished at Global Policy Forum website: "...Why are Americans suddenly flocking to western Africa?...In September Colin Powell paid a flying visit to Angola and Gabon; early next year George Bush is expected to follow suit. Last month ten African heads of state visited the American president...The reason is oil. Walter Kansteiner, America's assistant secretary of state for Africa, suggests that “African oil has become of national strategic interest to us.” In quiet moments he confides that it is the only American interest in Africa..."

There are strategic reasons why western countries and firms are keen. Dick Cheney's National Energy Policy Report suggests that the region is one of the “fastest-growing sources of oil and gas for the American market”. African oil already provides 15% of American imports; that is likely to rise to 25% by 2015, lessening to a degree dependence on supplies from the troubled Persian Gulf. More African exports would also mean more non-OPEC oil... Investments are not driven by American strategic interests alone. “It is more important that African oil is good quality and companies can get good recovery rates,” says Duncan Clarke, an expert on African oil. Though not as pure and light as Saudi oil, west African crude is easily good enough for refineries on America's east coast. It is also usefully close, half the distance of Persian Gulf supplies..."

Excerpt from article by By Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File staff writer posted on U.S. Embassy in Nigeria website "U.S. Officials Cite Importance of African Oil to U.S. Economy" (Assistant Sec. Kansteiner speaks at seminar, Jan 2002): "...U.S. officials stressed the growing importance of African oil to the U.S. economy at a recent energy seminar, among them Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner, who rushed from a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell to make that point...Kansteiner, a former businessman with the Scowcroft Group, an international consulting firm, spoke at a January 25 breakfast meeting entitled "African Oil: A Priority for U.S. National Security and African Development," sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS). "It is undeniable," he said, "that this [oil] has become of national strategic interest to us." According to Kansteiner's assistant, James Dunlop, who also spoke at the event, the United States now gets 15 percent of its total oil imports from the African continent -- and that figure is growing...In terms of development for Africa, John Flynn, a former British foreign service officer who is now an executive with Chevron/Texaco, agreed with the U.S. officials' assessment, saying, "U.S. investment is crucial in Africa," and he told his audience, many of whom represent companies that do business on the continent, "If you lead, others will follow."

U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, a political/military officer assigned to the secretary of defense's Office of African Affairs, also emphasized that "Africa is important to U.S. national security." Noting that she was speaking as "a U.S. government policymaker in the area of sub-Saharan Africa and national security interests," she said, "The U.S. relationship to African countries is non-colonial, based on a generally positive history, past and present trade, and shared interests in democratic and accountable governance." Referring to the National Intelligence Council's "Global Trends 2015" report, which came out last December, Kwiatkowski pointed out that 25 percent of U.S. oil imports in 2015 will come from sub-Saharan Africa. The prime "energy locations" identified in the study are West Africa, Sudan, and Central Africa. It follows, the Defense Department official explained, that "U.S. trade, freedom of movement, government transparency, protection of U.S. interests are even more important in these [regional] areas." She cited a number of areas of interest for government policymakers, including: - "more fully understanding the challenges of U.S. energy companies and investors in sub-Saharan Africa; -"working where we can to improve today's security for U.S. investments and operations; and "working where we can to increase the level of accountable government and overall economic development that comes with adherence to rule of law, freedom of the marketplace, freedom of the media, and well-trained, small, professional and apolitical militaries." Robert Murphy, an economic specialist with the State Department's Office of African Analysis, told the seminar that Africa is important to "the diversification of our sources of imported oil" away from the troubled areas of the Middle East and other politically high-risk areas. He noted that "political discord or dispute in African oil states is unlikely to take on a regional or ideological tone that would result in a joint embargo by suppliers at once."

In addition, Murphy said, "much of West Africa's oil is offshore, thereby insulated from domestic political or social turmoil, and can be delivered via open sea-lanes devoid of canals or narrow straits." With "proven reserves of well over 30 billion [30,000 million] barrels of oil, and over 40 different types of crude," the official said, "under current projections, we will import over 770 million barrels of African petroleum in 2020." While oil is critical to the U.S. economy, the revenues Africans earn from its production also play a key role in their nations' development, Murphy noted. "When we hear of a Chevron or Exxon oil well in Africa, we think of the oil companies as investors, but they are also service providers, sellers of services, and contractors of services. By 2003, investment in the African oil industry will exceed $10 billion [thousand million] a year. Between two-thirds and three-fourths of our foreign direct investment in Africa will be in the energy sector," he said.

Excerpt entitled "African Oil: A Priority for U.S. National Security and African Development" by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies" from IASPS document archive:

SYMPOSIUM: FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 2002

* * *
The symposium was held in University Hall, the University Club, 1135 16th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., at 8:30 a.m.

SPEAKERS:

TOM CALLAHAN, Department of State
JAMES R. DUNLOP, Department of State
JOHN FLYNN, Vice President ChevronTexaco
THE HON. WILLIAM JEFFERSON, U.S. House of Representatives
WALTER H. KANSTEINER, III, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs
LT.COL. KAREN KWIATKOWSKI, African Affairs, Department of Defense
MALCOLM MORRIS, President, Stewart Title Guaranty Company
ROBERT BARRY MURPHY, Bureau of Intelligence Department of State
THE HON. EDWARD R. ROYCE, Representative, U.S. House of Representatives
BARRY SCHUTZ, Foreign Service Institute, State Department
JANICE VAN DYKE WALDEN, Vanco Energy
PAUL MICHAEL WIHBEY, Institute for Advanced Strategic & Political Studies

Excerpt from Transparency International website: "...Corruption in aid is generally associated with: (a) grand corruption or corruption in major contracting projects involving public officials or politicians and private companies (b) corruption of domestic origin in the recipient country spilling over into foreign assistance, mainly in the form of petty corruption (c) corruption that is directly linked to internal policies and practices of donors themselves...A common argument is that foreign aid presents perverse incentives to recipient governments by, for example, investing in sectors not prioritised by the government...Privatisation policies are criticised for creating opportunities for corruption in countries with weak regulatory capacities. Aid agencies are also accused of ignoring, or even denying, evidence of systematic corruption and large-scale capture, especially if the disbursement of their own aid money is not directly involved...Within the academic discourse it has been argued that aid flows, much like natural resources, provide opportunities for wealth. They can be spent on public investment or be diverted for private use by public officials. According to Coolidge and Rose-Ackerman (2000) aid can also be diverted by governing elites towards projects that provide more opportunities for rent seeking such as capital-intensive projects versus community-controlled and basic needs programs..."

Republished article "Charité bien ordonnée" par Elise Colette, Jeune Afrique (Aug 2003):

"...Personne ne manque à l'appel : Banque mondiale, Nations unies, World Wildlife Fund, Organisation internationale des bois tropicaux (OIBT), Commission européenne, États-Unis, France, Japon, et même Afrique du Sud... Tous les acteurs importants de l'échiquier africain dans le domaine de l'environnement ont répondu favorablement au cri d'alarme lancé par les pays du bassin du Congo. Miné par l'abattage anarchique de ses arbres, par une agriculture désordonnée, par la corruption des entreprises qui l'exploitent, le deuxième poumon de la planète craint de porter en lui une maladie incurable. Des quelque 190 millions d'hectares qui le composent, éparpillés sur six pays d'Afrique centrale - Cameroun, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon, Guinée équatoriale, République centrafricaine et République démocratique du Congo (RDC) -, cette forêt pourrait perdre un cinquième de sa superficie d'ici à quinze ans si rien n'est fait. Une destruction des ressources naturelles qui serait catastrophique pour les 500 millions de personnes qui vivent grâce à elles, pour l'écosystème mondial et pour les espèces animales en voie de disparition.

Dans un élan de solidarité, lors du Sommet sur le développement durable qui s'est tenu à Johannesburg en septembre 2002, les grandes puissances occidentales se sont mises d'accord avec les responsables des pays africains concernés pour tenter de sauver ce qu'il restait de bonobos, chimpanzés, et autres gorilles menacés par la déforestation, pour rationaliser les concessions forestières et créer 10 millions d'hectares de parcs naturels protégés. En janvier 2003, lors du lancement officiel du partenariat pour la forêt du bassin du Congo, les Américains ont promis de verser 53 millions de dollars sur quatre ans, tandis que la France réaffirmait son engagement à hauteur de 50 millions d'euros sur trois ans.

Les deux plus gros bailleurs de fonds se sont montrés très concernés par les problèmes écologiques que connaît aujourd'hui l'Afrique centrale. Et ne se sont pas fait prier pour venir en aide aux gouvernements africains. Les États-Unis s'intéressent « passionnément » à la protection des forêts du bassin du Congo, a affirmé WALTER KANSTEINER, secrétaire d'État adjoint chargé des Affaires africaines, en mars dernier, en mettant en exergue le programme Carpe (Central African Regional Program for the Environment) mis en oeuvre par le gouvernement américain dans la sous-région. Tandis que la France rappelait l'engagement de l'Agence française pour le développement (AFD) au Gabon, au Congo-Brazzaville et en Centrafrique sur les mêmes questions, ainsi que l'existence préalable du programme européen Ecofac (Conservation et utilisation rationnelle des écosystèmes forestiers d'Afrique centrale). Une philanthropie évidemment bien calculée à l'heure où les deux pays se disputent les faveurs de cette région, certes premier poumon d'Afrique, mais également bien pourvue en pétrole. Tout comme les entreprises privées sont aujourd'hui sommées par les populations de prouver leur respect de l'environnement, les gouvernements qui s'intéressent à l'or noir préfèrent mettre en avant leur « passion » pour des ressources naturelles plus propres.

Si l'argent promis arrive jusqu'aux racines du mal dénoncé, il ne faudra pas s'en plaindre. Après tout, que la forêt en péril suscite autant d'intérêt aujourd'hui prouve une relative moralisation des politiques internationales, même si elles sont dictées par des motivations économiques. « Pour les États-Unis, c'est de l'argent bien dépensé, avait affirmé Jeffry Burnam, sous-secrétaire d'État adjoint à l'Environnement. Nous ne demandons rien en retour. Il n'y a pas d'arrière-pensée politique, seulement un objectif géostratégique. Nous le faisons parce que c'est nécessaire. » La distinction entre politique et géostratégie pourra sans doute paraître trop subtile à établir. Certes, les arbres qui ne seront pas arrachés, grâce à l'argent des États-Unis et de la France, devront leur survie à l'extraction des barils de brut du golfe de Guinée. N'est-ce pas finalement le résultat qui compte?..."

Excerpt article by Jessica Allen, Washington File staff writer posted on the US Department of State, United States Diplomatic Mission to Italy website: "...Why Does America Want to Help Save African Rain Forests?" (Rep. Royce outline commitment at House hearing) Washington.

"...Why is the United States Government donating $25 million to preserve a forest halfway around the globe in sub-Saharan Africa? What compels America's representatives, agencies and the Department of State to devote so much time and money -- up to $53 million by 2005 -- on this area and issue?...On March 11, House Africa Subcommittee Chairman Ed Royce (Republican of California) told government officials, legislators, the press and interested on-lookers why the U.S. cares about "Saving the Congo," the world's second largest forest. According to Royce, when a tropical rain forest is destroyed by overlogging and other industrial development, its precious biochemical information that could spark advances in medical, agricultural, and industrial technologies is lost forever. Royce added that it is important to realize that as the forest is depleted so are the natural mechanisms that provide the world with clean air and water. And if clean air and water, possible cures for diseases, and the evolvement of technology and agriculture are not sufficient reasons to save the Congo rain forest, "the 20-plus million people who rely on its resources to survive are."...According to the Environment and Development Group, a respected non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to conservation worldwide, American efforts in the Congo River basin have been a "worthwhile enterprise" that is "worthy of support."

While the Subcommittee gave answer to the "why" of saving the Congo River Basin, the question of "How it can be saved?" was raised of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Assistant Administrator for Africa Constance Berry Newman. "The people [of the Congo] and their government are concerned about the deterioration of their environment and want action to be taken," she said. In order to help them, she explained, USAID is funding an initiative called the Central African Regional Program for the Environment (CARPE) that facilitates partnerships with NGOs to help preserve the vanishing rain forest...The U.S. official said CARPE works to improve logging policies and practices, enhance protected areas within a lived-in landscape, encourage better environmental governance, and strengthen local resource management systems. To accomplish these goals, Newman said, CARPE partners with a variety of environmentalist organizations and wildlife protection agencies around the globe by supplying funds for the individual organizations to enact programs to meet their - and CARPE's - conservation goals...For example, CARPE funds the Wildlife Conservation Society to improve logging policies in the Congo through its work with Congolaise Industrielle des Bois, a major European logging company. "Such collaborations between logging companies and NGOs is new in the area but is proving to be a promising partnership," according to the U.S. official. "CARPE funds are also helping innovative resource management make citizens of the Congo feel a sense of ownership of the forest," said Newman. The U.S. partnership with field-based workers in the area has also improved monitoring of the forest through remote sensing techniques.

Excerpt from Forest Peoples Programme documment archives: "...The 2nd Heads of State Summit for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Central African Forest Ecosystems, was hosted in Brazzaville by the Republic of Congo in February. This meeting was a follow up to the 1999 Yaoune Declaration which enabled the Conference of Ministers in Charge of Central African Forests (COMIFAC) to establish a regional framework for the management of the biodiversity of the Congo Basin, now known as the COMIFAC Convergence Plan. This plan covers a diversity of region-wide initiatives to support better forest management and conservation, including the establishment of two transboundary protected areas between Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon and the Republic of Congo. Under the facilitation of the US for the past several years a regional conservation initiative known as the Congo Basin Forest Partnership (CBFP) has been enabled through the COMIFAC framework. Funding for this has come mostly from the US and Europe, with Europes proportion expected to rise now that the French government has taken over the facilitation role within the CBFP...The CBFP facilitating the provision of financial support to extend the total area destined for protection in Central Africa through the establishment of 11 so-called landscapes or eco-regions covering up to 20% of the Congo Basin. The theory is that these landscapes will be zoned to accommodate a mixture of exploitation and conservation, with the involvement of local communities where appropriate. Experience elsewhere in the Congo Basin suggests, however, that the extension of conservation and logging will lead to increased restrictions against local communities, especially indigenous communities relying on hunting and gathering to secure their subsistence needs. This threatens to exacerbate the negative social and economic impacts on indigenous communities from conservation and logging...In most forest planning, local and indigenous communities have so far been unable to secure representation in discussions on new plans for forests, in spite of clear donor guidelines requiring this..."

Excerpt from Environment News Service "Congo Creates New Wildlife Protection Areas" September 2006: "...These two new protected areas are a tremendous addition to the Republic of Congo's protected-area network and to global protection of biodiversity," said Dr. Paul Elkan who directs WCS's Congo program. "There is already a great deal of local community support for the creation of both these protected areas. We look forward to working with the Congolese Government in making these effective protected areas and foundations for landscape scale management in the Congo basin...The announcement comes in the wake of a deal brokered by the World Wildlife Fund to work with the Danzer Group, an international timber giant and leading producer of hardwood, to promote sustainable forest management through Africa. As part of the cooperation, Danzer's subsidiaries in Congo, which manage a combined total forest area of more than 12,000 square miles, are scheduled to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) starting in 2008. This is the largest concession in Africa currently being prepared for FSC certification...The announcement was made at the United Nations by Congo's Minister of Forestry Economy Henri Djombo along with officials from the U.S. based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Djombo said his nation depends on forest resources for much of its economic development, but it is also "deeply committed to biodiversity conservation and sustainable forest management..."

Excerpt from "Greenpeace Report on the site visit to CIB in Congo-Brazzaville, December 2004" (published August 2005): "...Rather than bringing sustainable development, the current logging system has been for many decades a driving factor for environmental degredation, corruption, social conflicts and poverty..In this highly problemmatic political, social and economic context, Greenpeace does not support any further expansion of logging in the region. Without drastic improvements in transparency and governanace in general in the Congo Basin and in the forest sectors in particular, it is an illusion to hope that industrial logging will bring sustainable development. There currently are few indications that sufficient political will exists - both in African States and at the international level - to implement the reforms required...A reform of the forestry sector will take time. Meanwhile, the logging industry in the Congo Basin is still impacting the lives of millions of people depending of these forests and the many thousands of people depending on the employment generated by the logging sector. Many of the active logging operations are occurring in areas which are very ecologically and culturally significant. Therefore, it is imperative and urgent to drastically improve the environmental and social performance of current logging operations. The FSC is currently the most credible global forestry certification system to guarantee responsible forestry standards. Greenpeace considers the development of FSC in the Congo Basin as one of the tools to help protect biodiversity and the communities depending on these forests. However, FSC is not yet established in any country of the region. It is important that multi-stakeholder national FSC working groups develop appropriate national standards for the Congo Basin. Meanwhile, FSC certifiers working in the absence of such national standards will need to take great care in interpreting FSC's international principles and criteria for forest management..."

Excerpt from Rainforest Foundation website on COMIFAC: "....We, the undersigned non governmental organisations from Central Africa, which attended the ministerial conference of AFLEG or participate in the implementation of the Forest Code in the Democratic Republic of Congo, note the organisation of the 2nd commit of heads of state on the conservation and sustainable management of forest ecosystems in Central Africa, held in Brazzaville 29th January to 6th February 2005...We encourage such meetings which address important issues around sustainable management of forests in central Africa, and the challenges that Central African states and civil society face in assuring the well being of local communities. We think that regional cooperation is a key means of resolving common problems faced in the region...In the absence of an invitation for the undersigned organisations to participate in the summit, and in the absence of a consultation on the issues to be discussed, we present below, in writing, our observations and recommendations..."

Excerpt from forests.org website: 'Pygmy' peoples today urged World Bank President James Wolfensohn to halt plans that could unleash a wave of destruction on the rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where they live. The 'Pygmys' put their case directly to Mr Wolfensohn during a video conference organised by the Rainforest Foundation UK, which is challenging Bank plans for a massive increase in industrial logging in the Congo. The Bank is pushing through new laws and a 're-zoning' of the Congo forests - the second largest in the world - that could see up to 60 million hectares (an area the size of France) handed out to logging companies..."You must not forget that the lives of indigenous peoples depend on the forest," Adolphine Muley of the Congolese Union of Indigenous Women (UEFA) told the World Bank President. "For a 'Pygmy' to talk of forest exploitation is to talk of reinforcing misery and poverty. You must put strategies in place so that the 'Pygmy' peoples are not damaged by the system that you are developing."..Simon Counsell, director of the Rainforest Foundation UK said: "The World Bank must strictly apply its own environmental and social safeguards, and fully respect international laws, to avoid what could be the world's first major environmental and humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century. We will be working to ensure that the people of Congo have a say on the future of their forests, and that the rights of the people living in the forest are respected," he said.Responding to these pleas, James Wolfensohn pledged the Bank to further discussion with Congolese people and non-governmental organisations about the future of the of the country's rainforests...The Rainforest Foundation first raised its fears about the threatened 'carve-up' of Congo's rainforests with the World Bank in early December 2003. The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention (APPG), which has a membership of 148 MPs and Peers, has said that it "intends to follow closely" the World Bank's response to the concerns of the Foundation and Congolese campaigners..."

Excerpt from "The Position of Indigenous Peoples in the Management of Tropical Forests". NB: Report notes that findings and opinions are those of the authors of and do not necessarily reflect the position of Tropenbos International, Wageningen, the Netherlands (2004): "According to different estimates there are about 300 million indigenous people in the world with approximately 5,000 different cultures, which represent the larger part of the world’s cultural diversity. At present, the close relationship between cultural and biological diversity is widely discussed...Since the United Nations (UN) officially declared 1993 as the “International Year of the Indigenous Peoples”, which was followed by the announcement of the “International Decade of the Indigenous Peoples” (1994-2004), the international discourse on indigenous peoples has gained in relevance. The Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples will be discussed by the UN in the course of 2004. All major international donor agencies like the World Bank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) as well as agencies for nature conservation such as the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) have issued policy guidelines for dealing with indigenous peoples in the implementation of their activities. Many individual countries have also followed these practices, and most western countries have issued similar policy guidelines. Furthermore, at the level of the Convention of Biological Diversity and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the protection of indigenous knowledge and practices is officially recognized. This recognition of particular rights of indigenous peoples in the development process, and also in relation to nature conservation activities, is the core element within these policy guidelines and convention texts. At present, many of these agencies are already in the second or third phase of policy revisions based on practical experiences with the implementation of these guidelines. Another important aspect is the increased level of organization of the indigenous peoples themselves and cooperation between the indigenous organizations. Furthermore, the representatives of the indigenous peoples have become more vocal. Although a number of individual countries have issued national legislation in line with international development in this field, other countries are more hesitant to do so. Simply because of the fact that they do not recognize the existence of indigenous peoples within their national boundaries..."

Excerpt from Forests Monitor press release 2002: "...In a statement issued today in Brazzaville, at the African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance Ministerial planning meeting, the NGOs said “almost everywhere, forest resources are under the threat of criminal activities by unscrupulous loggers, traders, and corrupt government officials.” The NGOs amongst other things, also blamed the “unhindered trade in “Conflict Timber" and the lack of transparency in the logging sector” for the high level of illegal logging. They alleged that “regional governments and the international community have shown a high degree of indifference to these issues”...In a number of action points presented in their statement, the NGOs called on “regional governments and the international community to impose a ban on trade in conflict timber and for donors and the international community to integrate conditionalities directed at addressing the problem of illegal logging and other forest crimes, in aid and grant negotiations”. They also called on developed countries “to halt support and subsidies to their national companies engaged in illegal logging in Africa...The African Forest Law Enforcement and Governance (AFLEG) Ministerial Planning meeting convenes against the background of widespread failure of forest governance and law enforcement which is directly undermining African nations attempt to achieve sustainable economic growth, societal equity, and environmental protection..The meeting was hosted jointly by the Republic of Congo and the World Bank and was sponsored by the United States, United Kingdom and France..."

Excerpt of closing address by Poul Nielson, European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Conference "Speaking Out: Indigenous Views of Development and the Implementation of the EU Policy on Indigenous Peoples": "...The Commission believes that securing access to land and natural resources is crucial for Indigenous Peoples. The Commission is supporting land reform processes throughout Africa and Latin America with the aim of providing legal frameworks that respect existing customary rights over land. However, in the case of indigenous peoples, the question of land rights goes beyond the traditional debate between property rights and customary tenure as both these concepts inadequately reflect the complex link between indigenous communities and the territory in which they have lived on for centuries. Indeed the rights of indigenous people to gain authority on and autonomy in the management of their territory have been often overshadowed in land reform processes. It is time to reverse this tendency and support Governments in devising land tenure laws that adequately take into account the special relationship of these communities with their land. This is a precondition for successful land reform. Participation in project design, implementation and monitoring is clearly important for the responsiveness of donor-funded projects to the needs of indigenous people. However, the revision of the legal framework is often beyond the scope of projects. In this event, the EC, through its policy dialogue with Governments, will be further promoting the development of appropriate frameworks that recognise such rights while supporting indigenous peoples' capacity to articulate their needs and expectations in negotiations with Governments, both at the macro level and at project level..."

Excerpt from "Sold Down the River" by Forests Monitor: "...Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon - all contain large expanses of rainforest that have provided livelihoods, building materials and medicines to millions of forest-dependent peoples. These countries' governments, often under strict structural adjustment and liberalisation policies imposed by multilateral and bilateral creditors, are promoting industrial timber exploitation in most of their forest areas whilst local people have no opportunities to participate meaningfully in deciding how best to use forest resources. Although governments and creditors actively promote transnational private investment in the forestry sector, they have done little to establish a framework for controlling these private interests. Forestry and environment laws, which provide a minimum operating standard, are often unclear and are rarely enforced. This has led to forest policies that, on the one hand, undermine the livelihoods and increase the insecurity of local peoples whilst, on the other, facilitate the dominance of unaccountable corporations..the EU continues to play an important role politically and economically in Central Africa, directly and indirectly shaping forest development and conservation policies. Secondly, EU-based logging companies continue to be significant players in the forestry sector of the region, controlling most of the logging concessions and processing plants and playing an active role in international fora on forest management in the region. Thirdly, the EU continues to be the primary destination for exports of timber products from the region. For these reasons, EU member states, and the multilateral institutions of which they are a part, can and should play a strategic role in establishing sustainable principles by which EU-headquartered companies should operate..."

Excerpt: Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, Capitol Hill event transcript 18 May 2000:

Q: Which logging companies are causing the problem? Are any of them American?

A (Mittermeier): For the most part, they're not American companies; they're European companies. And then there are Malaysian companies and other southeast Asian companies that are a major issue. The Malaysian companies are all over the tropical world. And the European ones are mostly French, some Germans, Belgian, thats the bulk of it. And the European ones can be pressured to some extent. The Malaysian ones are fairly difficult to deal with...

Goodall: ...I wanted to add one thing about the logging companies, too. I was talking to one of the big German companies and it was explained to me that the responsible companies - that is, the ones that aren't clearcutting had got together and created a code of conduct: how many trees per hectare can be cut, and the size of the trees you mustn't cut anything if it is smaller than a certain diameter. The governments refused to allow them to sign it, because that would have meant less revenue for the government.

Excerpt from the Forest Peoples Programme briefing on indigenous peoples and private sector project financing (August 2006): "...This briefing looks at international financing for private sector projects from three different sources: the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Equator Principles Banks (EPBs) and Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). In 2006, these institutions adopted or are in the process of adopting new policy standards on indigenous peoples. The IFC is part of the World Bank Group (WBG) and until recently employed World Bank policies on indigenous peoples and other issues. On 1 May 2006, a new set of IFC private sector-specific policies came into force, including a new instrument concerning indigenous peoples. The EPBs are 41 major commercial banks that have signed on to a set of environmental and social standards known as the Equator Principles. These Principles are based on the policies employed by the IFC and were recently updated to be consistent with the new IFC policies. ECAs are national level bodies owned and operated by most industrialized countries that provide loans and export credits to their own national companies for their operations abroad....The activities funded by these institutions are increasingly affecting indigenous peoples and arguably may now have greater impact on the territories, livelihoods and cultures of indigenous peoples than the public sector funding provided by the multilateral development banks. Together, the IFC, EPBs and ECAs provide the vast majority of private sector project financing around the world. The EPBs alone financed US$125 billion of direct foreign investment in 2005 and ECAs are estimated to support twice the amount of oil, gas and mining projects as all multilateral development banks combined. In addition to financing projects on their own, these bodies often co-finance projects, including those part-financed by public sector bodies such as the World Bank and bilateral development agencies. In fact, it is increasingly common for projects to be financed by a variety of sources and, therefore, it is important to know who these various actors are and what their policies, if they have one, on indigenous peoples require..."

Excerpt from World Bank Inspection Panel Recommendations: "...The EESRSP is supported by an IDA Credit of SDR 35.7 million and an IDA Grant of SDR 117.0 million to DRC, approved on September 11, 2003. The Credit and Grant Agreements became effective on December 5, 2003. The closing date is set for September 30, 2008. The TSERO was approved on December 8, 2005 and is supported by an IDA Grant of SDR 62.1 million to DRC. The Grant Agreement became effective on December 27, 2005. The expected closing date is December 31, 2006...The Organisations Autochtones Pygmées et Accompagnant les Autochtones Pygmées en République Démocratique du Congo submitted the Request on their own behalf and on behalf of affected local communities living in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Representatives of local communities of Kisangani in the Orientale Province, of Béni and Butembo in the Nord-Kivu Province, of Kinshasa/Mbandaka and Lokolama in the Equateur Province, of Inongo in the Bandundu Province, of Kindu in the Maniema Province, and of Bukavu in the Sud-Kivu Province, are signatories to the Request..The Requesters claim that they have been harmed and will be harmed by the forestry sector reform activities supported by the EESRSP and the TSERO. They are concerned about possible negative effects of a forest zoning plan under preparation with IDA support and fear the implementation of a new commercial forest concession system that may cause irreversible harm to the forests where they live and on which they depend for their subsistence..."

Excerpt from "Request submitted to the World Bank Inspection Panel" by Indigenous Pygmy Organizations and Pygmy Support Organizations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (October 2005): "...We have learned of the submission, in the near future, to the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors of a new project entitled, “Transitional Support for Economic Recovery Credit”, which should include a “forestry governance” component. To date, while we have not had access to the details of this component, we would like to take this opportunity to highlight in this request the risks and issues associated with this project, and with any other forest-related projects that may soon be submitted to the Board of Executive Directors. If such a project were to once again be approved as a credit that fails to implement the Bank’s safeguard policies and procedures, and if this credit were to be disbursed without prior consideration of the interests of the indigenous peoples, without assessing the impact that it could have on both the environment and the inhabitants of the forests in the DRC, the World Bank would run the risk of further marginalizing the indigenous peoples, thereby compounding errors committed in the past, as was the case in Cameroon, reinforcing the industrial approach outlined in the Forest Code, and consequently, exacerbating the threats that the Congolese legislative framework poses to the rights and survival of the indigenous peoples....World Bank failures and negligence within the framework of the EESRSP - Failure to implement Operational Directive 4.20 - The World Bank decided that Operational Directive 4.20 on Indigenous Peoples would not apply to EESRSP activities, by specifying that “the Project is not supposed to include activities for areas inhabited by indigenous peoples.”..The Bank’s rationale is inconsistent with the prevailing situation. The Pygmies, who are the first inhabitants of the region, have for centuries, and even millennia, inhabited and moved around in the forests in the Equateur and Orientale provinces. These indigenous Pygmy peoples are the “people of the forest.” Their existence, survival, cultural identity, and traditional knowledge are intimately linked to the forest, their element and life source which they revere..."

Excerpt from "Preliminary Findings of the World Bank Inspection Panel" Rainforest Foundation(August 2006): "...Information released today by the World Bank reveals that it has failed to ensure proper protection of the environment and local peoples in its programmes to 'develop' the vast rainforests of the Democratic Republic of Congo, which are the second largest on Earth after the Amazon...The revelations come following a preliminary investigation by the World Bank Inspection Panel, the official independent watchdog agency. The World Bank has been supporting the development of new laws for the management of DRC's forests. Under a project entitled 'Emergency Economic and Social Reunification Support project' (EESRSP) approved by the Board of the Bank in September 2003, the Bank also intended to support a pilot project to 'zone' Congo's forests into areas for industrial logging, conservation, and community use. According to the report of the Panel: *the Bank has acknowledged that it did not properly apply its own internal 'safeguard policies', which are designed to ensure that it does not harm the environment and local peoples; * the Bank claims it was not 'aware of the existence of 'Pygmy' communities' in areas that would be affected by its projects, but that it would now develop a plan to ensure that 'Pygmy' people are not harmed by new developments funded by the Bank; * the Bank has acknowledged that it was 'inappropriate' to set targets for the number of new logging concessions that should be allocated by the Congolese government as a result of World Bank projects...As a result of its preliminary findings, the Inspection Panel has decided to open a full investigation into the role of the World Bank in Congo's rainforests..."

Excerpt: "...Behind the hills next to the Pygmy village of Mabolo in the Central African rainforest, a pipeline is to be built in a few years to carry oil to the Atlantic coast, where it will be shipped to the West. The pipeline, which the World Bank endorsed in June after heated debates, will be a huge project, costing more than $6 billion. It represents a big, risky test for the bank and for African development policies. Historically, oil exploitation in Africa has generated ruinous corruption or long-running wars, not wealth for nations and their citizens. In this village, there are doubts and hopes..."

Excerpt from study "Traversing Peoples Lives: How the World Bank finances community disruption in Cameroon" published by CED: "...The Chad-Cameroon Oil and Pipeline Project is the biggest foreign investment project in sub-Sahara Africa today. It involves the drilling of 300 oil wells in the Doba region in the South of Chad and the construction of a 1070 km pipeline to transport the oil from Chad through Cameroon to an offshore loading facility at the Atlantic Coast. The offshore terminal facility will be connected to the port of Kribi by an 11 km underwater pipeline. The expected oil production is 225,000 barrels per day. The project is expected to start operating end of 2003. The project sponsors are ExxonMobil of the U.S (operator, with 40% of the private equity), Petronas of Malaysia (35%) and Chevron of the U.S (25%). The project is estimated to cost US$3.7 billion. Apart from the World Bank, the project is financed by the European Investment Bank (144 million euros), US Export-Import Bank (US$200 million), the French export credit agency COFACE (US $200 million) and a consortium of private banks lead by Dutch ABN-Amro and Crédit Agricole Indosuez..."

Excerpt from report by Forest Peoples Programme document archives: "...basic elements of good governance, including informed participation, transparency, fairness and accountability are being undermined by the pipeline project, causing increased marginalisation of the Bagyeli within civil society in Cameroon. The evidence for this general finding falls under the following headings: lack of clear information; inadequate compensation plans, and reinforcement of discrimination. Lack of information access exists throughout the project’s institutional framework. Inadequate consultation, poor communication between stakeholders and a lack of informed participation by all parties, particularly the Bagyeli, has caused confusion at all levels about the construction of the pipeline and the compensation process...The pipeline’s compensation process is deepening the inequality and conflicts between the Bagyeli and their Bantu village neighbours. The criteria for individual compensation are weighted towards Bantu livelihood systems, and regional compensation plans and development programmes which are meant to benefit the Bagyeli do not adequately address the needs and priorities of the Bagyeli. The Bantu communities’ better access to information and greater political power has enabled them to capture the process, claim Bagyeli lands as their own and appropriate compensation due to Bagyeli. No Bagyeli have so far been compensated by the pipeline, even though it crosses their lands, has damaged forest resources and threatens indirect impacts that will have a adverse effect on Bagyeli hunting and their forest resource base. The pipeline project is not promoting Bagyeli participation in consultation and decision-making, and provides no mechanisms for Bagyeli to contribute to policy reforms which would address the fundamental problems of discrimination against the Bagyeli and their exclusion from civil society. The net effect of the lack of access to information, and the inadequate compensation for Bagyeli production losses, is a reinforcement of the inequality and discrimination already experienced by Bagyeli within Cameroon civil society..."

Excerpt from "Traversing Peoples Lives", published by CED: "...The project has attracted large numbers of migrants, workers or jobseekers, most of them male adults, to the often remote areas where the pipeline is being constructed. As early as 1997, NGOs warned of the emergence of widespread prostitution that has now developed in the rural areas all along the pipeline route, with all the related problems of AIDS-HIV and other Sexually Transmitted Diseases...Because of the high level of HIV infection in some regions, sexual intercourse with young girls who were previously not sexually active is considered, by some men, an efficient prevention against HIV-AIDS. Many cases of prostitution of minors involved with foreign employees of the project have been identified. In some cases, this particularly lucrative form of prostitution is encouraged by parents or relatives who see it as a means of getting access to part of the economic fall out from the project. This situation is also found in Chad. In its last report, IAG recalled that “the problem of the prostitution is not only a health issue but equally concerns the application of laws on the protection of minors”. The World Bank, Exxon and the governments have so far ignored the rise of this particular phenomenon..."

Excerpt from UN OCHA-IRIN News: "...At 83 years old Emmanuel Kouang is the oldest person in Ebome. Sitting in a dusty armchair in his wooden house next to the dirt road he recalls how, as a teenage boy, he sat on the beach and watched in disbelief as a dark figure seemed to walk out over the water and sink beneath the waves of the Atlantic. "Mamy Wata" he whispers, "one of the ancestors". Even now, almost 70 years later, he leans forward with his fists clenched and his rhumy eyes wide in remembered excitement. "They lived in the rocks out to sea. But they've gone now". The rocks have vanished too, and with them the villagers' main source of livelihood. The reef, located about 1km off shore, was a rich feeding ground for fish caught by the villagers from dugout canoes. For generations they relied upon its natural abundance of marine life. Serge Kouang, the old man's son, said 80% of the villagers were fishermen. But their way of life was disrupted four years ago by the construction of an oil pipeline. News of the project caused great excitement and expectation in Ebome, as people imagined jobs, a bigger school, a medical centre, tarmac roads, motorised boats. The pipeline came, but the pipe dreams did not. The $3.7 billion project to drill for oil in landlocked Chad and pump it through a 1,100 km-pipeline to the Atlantic coast in Cameroon was the most expensive construction project ever undertaken in Africa and one of the most controversial. The pipeline reaches the coast at Ebome and continues out to sea to a tanker loading terminal 11km offshore. The bank of rocks where the fishermen hauled in their nets was dynamited during its construction, destroying Ebome's main fishing ground. A line of buoys now stops boats from entering the area where the pipeline lies buried under the ocean. "Now we have to buy in fish", Serge Kouang remarked. The Cameroon Oil Transportation Company, COTCO, was responsible for building the pipeline, but the project was overseen by the World Bank, which demanded strict environmental and social standards. A programme of compensation for loss of land, hunting and farming grounds and general inconvenience was drawn up and a community liaison team travelled the length of the route to meet those affected. It held more than a 1,000 meetings with villages and individuals and spent over US $8 million on reparations. "The consortium feels it has gone the extra mile to make it work" said Eric Chinje, the African Projects spokesman for the World Bank. COTCO compensated the villagers of Ebome for the loss of their sea fishing by building two ponds for breeding fresh water fish and a refrigerated storage unit to preserve the fish harvested. Two villagers are being trained to maintain and operate the ponds. COTCO says the project was undertaken at the villagers’ request. However, Samuel Nguiffo, a lawyer working for the Environment and Development Centre, a local NGO, said: "It is nonsense that people living beside the sea are being forced to fish in fresh water pools. These fish ponds do not have the same economic value as the sea. They can only harvest fish a few times per year from these pools because the stocks are limited but from the sea you can fish every single day". For the elders like Emmanuel Kouang, it is not just a matter of money. He laments the spiritual loss. "The ancestors have left us and taken our luck with them,"...

Excerpt from Fortune magazine: "...These are halcyon, once-in-a-generation days for oil producers-and the sustained rise in energy prices is just extra octane in the tank. Better technology has enabled companies to recover more oil from existing deposits and greatly improved the odds of finding new deposits. With three former oilmen at the top of the Bush Administration - the President, the Vice President, and Secretary of Commerce Don Evans - the industry talks hopefully of reducing taxes on producers, opening more U.S. land for drilling, and developing a long-delayed national energy policy. No company is benefiting more from this gusher of good news than Exxon Mobil. In 2000 it returned to the top of the FORTUNE 500 for the first time since Exxon basked there alone in 1984. With adjusted revenues of $210 billion - $17 billion more than No. 2 Wal-Mart - it blew past the competition the way Tiger Woods does on a golf course...

Exxon Mobil has spent 25 years on a $3.5 billion project to extract oil in the African country of Chad, pump it through neighboring Cameroon to the Atlantic Ocean, then distribute it to world markets. The delays began when Chad and Cameroon had to apply to the World Bank for loans to finance their share of the pipeline...They continued as Exxon Mobil spent six years sorting out environmental and social issues that involved tropical rain forests and a tribe of pygmies. Then two of the company's partners backed out and had to be replaced by two others. "This was a good example of long-term persistence, but a bad example of getting things done quickly," says Longwell ruefully. Once the oil begins to flow in 2004, Exxon Mobil expects to pump one billion barrels over the 30-year life of the project, easily recouping its investment and more..."

Excerpt from transcript of Townhall Meeting with Civil Society Organizations, Room MC-13-121, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, N.W. Washington, D.C.:

QUESTION: [Interpreted from French] Thank you. I'd like to ask a question of Mr.
Wolfowitz.. My name is Adrian Sentafasi. I represent a network of indigenous pygmy associations in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and as I was saying last year we had a videoconference with Mr. Wolfensohn, and he reacted to our concern about not taking into account the rights of pygmies who are indigenous people of the forests in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The fact that their rights have not been taken into account, when undertaking a reform of the forest sector in the People's Republic of Congo, especially when financial support is received from the World Bank. Mr. Wolfensohn said he was affected by that question. He was quite touched by it, and he would get personally involved for the future, but it's been a year, and things still are the same as last year. So can we expect that Mr. Wolfowitz will reiterate and actually carry out the promise made by Mr. Wolfensohn towards the pygmies? Thank you.

MR. WOLFOWITZ: I think the first question is about how to engage with the World Bank on Haiti and I think what I can say is let's figure out how we can do that together. Haiti is definitely on the agenda of countries I'd like to pay more attention to and learn more about. I think the situation there is obviously a very painful difficult one. My impression is the World Bank has been accused by some people of taking sides in the civil conflict in Haiti, and I'm assured by my staff that we don't. I hope that we don't. I think our goal in Haiti is to try to provide opportunities for people in that country to make progress. I do think the security situation there is one that makes it very difficult for everyone and obviously the Bank isn't in the business of providing security, so we depend on others for that, but if you'd like to contact me later and figure out how we can engage more, I would be happy to. On the question of elimination of user fees, I don't feel that I know enough to give you a definitive view because I think obviously there comes a point at which user fees are appropriate, but I think when, for example, in the different question, the user fees which is school fees for children in Pakistan, the Bank is supporting a program that not only waves user fees but actually pays parents to send their girls to school. And I think the object has to be what's he best way to improve health and intellectual capital of particularly young people because they're the future of those countries, but people in general in those countries, and I think that's how we should measure the effectiveness. It is, you know, I think health is a place where one is least comfortable, health and education, charging people for something that is valuable. On the other hand, I think we also know, and we've seen this, if you give things away people don't use them prudently, so it's a question of where to draw that line, and I will, partly stimulated by this question, hope to get smarter about it next time we meet. I feel strongly as the third speaker said, about the importance of eliminating this, basically unpayable debt. We have 184 shareholders in the Bank, and Mr. de Rato has an equal number on his side that have to agree, and the important part of the agreement now is they not only committed to cancel the debt but they committed to make up for those payments and making up for those payments is important, not just for the debtor nations, the particular debtor nations, but really for the whole developing world, and personally I'd like those commitments to be as strong as possible, but I hope at the end of the day the perfect doesn't become the enemy of the good because I think this was a big step forward and I share the feeling that you expressed that we should get it done. It's important to get it done and the sooner the better. And on the issue of the situation of the pygmies, I was not aware of Mr. Wolfensohn's comments. I was very struck by the--there's a new issue of National Geographic magazine, which, by the way, in my view, has a very interesting cover, unlike Newsweek a couple years ago, that said "Africa: The Hopeless Continent," this says "Africa: Whatever You Thought, Think Again." And a lot is changing for the better in Africa. There's an article in there about the pygmies, and I think that certainly is not changing for the better, and I don't know what we in the Bank can do about it, but I'm certainly willing to look at that.

MS. RAO: Thank you. Mr. De Rato.

.
Bureaucracy is a giant mechanism operated by pygmies. -Honore de Balzac

Excerpt from "An Indigenous World" by Moises Naim, editor in chief of Foreign Policy: "...At a recent gathering attended by various Latin American heads of state, new Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva commented that his supporters, the workers of Brazil, had waited for decades to influence Brazilian politics. The following speaker, Alejandro Toledo, the first Peruvian president of indigenous descent, trumped Lula by noting triumphantly that his own people had “waited for 500 [years]!” The wait for indigenous people now seems to be over, not just in Peru but all over the world. Their political empowerment has become a global trend...The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador is now a fundamental political force in its home country. So is Bolivia's Movement Toward Socialism, which supports the Bolivian ethnic groups that depend on coca leaf production for their livelihoods. Last August the Canadian government gave the Tlicho Indians ownership of a diamond-rich area in the Northwest Territories, equivalent in size to Switzerland, and another 29,000 square miles to the Labrador Inuits. Indigenous groups have also gained political influence in Brazil, Colombia, and throughout Central America. Constitutional changes in all these countries and regions have given indigenous peoples far more political advantages than ever before. In Mexico, the rebellion in Chiapas brought indigenous groups to the forefront of national politics; recently they declared their autonomy in 30 municipalities. Guatemala's Rigoberta Menchú, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has become an international icon symbolizing the fight for indigenous groups' rights. Australia's Aborigines and New Zealand's Maori are regaining more and more control of their ancestral lands. The Maori, who now field a growing number of elected government officials, are claiming rights to an area that holds an important part of New Zealand's oil reserves. This newly acquired political clout does not mean that the abject poverty, exclusion, and exploitation common among the world's indigenous populations are things of the past. Moreover, indigenous political influence is still quite recent and is often misused by politicians to advance their own interests; sadly, these abusive politicians are often indigenous themselves. But setting aside these caveats, the growth in political influence of indigenous groups over the last three decades has been enormous. Why?

The short answer is globalization..Global and local activism have transformed intolerance for human rights violations, for ecological abuses, and for discrimination of any kind into increasingly universal standards among governments, multilateral bodies, NGOs, and the international media...A working group representing governments and indigenous organizations has met annually in Geneva and, although the declaration remains bogged down, the process has helped create an active and relatively well-funded global network of indigenous groups and other organizations interested in the subject...The increased reach and influence of the environmental movement and the equally intense increase in the activities of multinational corporations around the globe have converged to boost the political fortunes of indigenous groups. As the geographical scope of corporations involved in agriculture, logging, mining, hydroelectric power generation, oil, and other natural resources has expanded, their operations have increasingly encroached on indigenous lands. Environmentalists and indigenous populations are thus obvious political allies. Environmentalists bring resources, the experience to organize political campaigns, and the ability to mobilize the support of governments and the media in rich countries. Indigenous groups bring their claims to lands on which they and their ancestors have always lived. And when idle land suddenly becomes a prized corporate asset, the political and financial appeal of the struggle increases significantly.

Globalization has not, of course, been purely beneficial for the estimated 350 million indigenous people spread over more than 70 countries. Many populations have been ravaged by new diseases, by changes in their habitat, by forced displacement from their land, by civil wars, and by the need to adapt to drastically different habits and lifestyles. Even the increased attention of NGOs to the plight of indigenous peoples can backfire, when the agendas of large, powerful international organizations clash and often overwhelm smaller and weaker local groups. But the fact remains that globalization has also brought indigenous peoples powerful allies, a louder voice that can be heard internationally, and increased political influence at home. More fundamentally, globalization's positive impact on indigenous peoples is also a surprising and welcome rejoinder to its role as a homogenizer of cultures and habits. When members of the Igorot indigenous tribe in northern Philippines and the Brunca tribe from Costa Rica gather in Geneva, their collaboration helps to extend the survival of their respective ways of life—even if they choose to compare notes over a Quarter Pounder in one of that city's many McDonalds. In short, globalization's complexity is such that its results are less preordained and obvious than what is usually assumed. As the Maori, the Mayagnas, and the Tlicho know, it can also be a force that empowers the poor, the different, and the local..."

Excerpt from forests.org website: "...A U.N. Conference on Trade and Development report on protecting traditional knowledge argues that beyond a devastating impact on culture, the death of a language wipes out centuries of know-how in preserving ecosystems - leading to grave consequences for biodiversity...The United Nations estimates half of the world's 6,000 languages will disappear in less than a century. Roughly a third of those are spoken in Africa and about 200 already have less than 500 speakers... "Sons no longer speak the language of their fathers ... our culture is dying," laments Paulo Chihale, director of a project that seeks to train Mozambican youths in traditional crafts. While Mozambique has 23 native languages, the only official one is Portuguese - a hand-me-down tongue from colonial times that at once unifies a linguistically diverse country and undermines the African traditions that help make it unique. Chihale looks up from his cluttered desk at MozArte, the U.N.- and government-funded crafts project, and complains bitterly about how his nation's memory is fading away. "Our culture has a rich oral tradition, oral history, stories told from one generation to another. But it is an oral literature our kids will never hear," says Chihale, who speaks the Chopi language at home...In Mozambique, cheap foreign imports have destroyed the market for local crafts beyond what little can be sold to tourists. Horacio Arab, the son of a basket weaver who learned his father's trade, said he improved his skills at MozArte but then abandoned weaving because he could not make a living. Mozambican linguist Rafael Shambela says the pressures from globalization are often too great to resist. To conserve native languages and culture will require societies to find ways to cast them with an inherent value, he argues.."A language is a culture," says Shambela, who works for Mozambique's National Institute for the Development of Education. "It contains the history of a people and all the knowledge they have passed down for generations."...

Excerpt from Cato Institute website: "...The core message of my last few books is that markets support diversity and freedom of choice, that trade gives artists a greater opportunity to express their creative inspiration. The preconditions for successful artistic creativity tend to be things like markets, physical materials, ideas, and inspiration... My book "Creative Destruction" outlines the logic of what I call a “gains from trade” model, and much of the book is devoted to a series of examples...When the cost of supplying products goes down, people tend to use culture to differentiate themselves from other people, to pursue niche interests, to pursue hobbies...It’s the poorer or more primitive societies in which people specialize in one type of consumption. If you go to pygmy society in the Congo, for instance, the pygmies produce splendid music; it’s truly beautiful. But the pygmies really have just one kind of music, and the richer societies with more markets have given us more diversity, more competing kinds of music..."

Excerpt from UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, Geneva (2003): "...Mr Guissé presented his report on indigenous peoples and globalisation. He outlined the role which colonisation played in establishing the situations in which indigenous peoples now live, having had their land and wealth exploited by the colonial invaders. He claimed that the current processes of exploitation by transnational corporations (TNCs) and Governments in the north are merely the continuation of this in another name, and that the advent of globalisation had destroyed the capabilities for indigenous peoples to live in harmony with the land. He described a system in which "international considerations trump national ones and private interests prevail over the general interest". He argued that globalisation results in the increasing marginalisation of indigenous peoples as it provides no space for alternative cultures and ways of life. He advocated the need for some kind of international restraint over the actions of multinational corporations in view of the fact that national restraints are not effective..."

Excerpt from Forests Monitor database: "...The Bolloré Group is a French conglomerate quoted on the Paris Stock Exchange. Bolloré Investissement (formerly Albatros Investissement) is the parent company of the Bolloré Group, and Vincent Bolloré is the President and Director General of both companies. The Bolloré Group is a powerful force in Africa with wide interests, including freight transportation, timber, agro-industry, and the production and marketing of cigarettes. Through its acquisition of strategic industries over the past ten years, the group has become the number two French-African conglomerate (after oil company Elf-Total) and is linked at high levels to French political interests in the region...Some 65% of Bolloré’s turnover is derived from transportation.Its principal companies in this sector are Saga and SDV (Scac Delmas Vieljeux). Both are leaders in transportation and freight handling, particularly between Africa and Europe, Africa and Asia (timber is a major cargo on these routes) and within Africa itself...Bolloré’s agro-industrial interests are concentrated in its subsidiary, Rivaud. They include palm oil, tobacco, rubber, coffee and cocoa, primarily in Africa (particularly Cameroon) and South-East Asia. Through Rivaud, which owns French hardwood distributor GIPAT, Bolloré is interested in buying the recently privatised Socopalm (a former palm oil parastatal) in Cameroon...The synergies between Bolloré’s various interests in Africa, and the opportunities afforded by a dominant presence in the region, are exemplified by the group’s interests in transport and logging. In 1998, as part of a US$ 90 million World Bank-mandated privatisation and investment scheme of the railway in Cameroon — the Bank lent US$ 15 million — the operation of the railway was conceded to Bolloré’s transportation subsidiary, Saga. The railway, Camrail, derives much of its revenue from the transport of logs. Another Bolloré subsidiary, the logging company HFC (Forestière de Campo), see below, received a contract for supply of timber to the railway in June 2000. Links between the supply of timber to the railway, World Bank funding and Bolloré’s timber companies have all been a source of concern. An agreement between Camrail and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to address the transportation of illegal bushmeat by rail has not yet been concluded...The Bolloré group is active in the timber trade in the CAR through warehousing and transport operations, shipping timber from Bangui to Brazzaville and Pointe Noire in neighbouring Congo (Brazzaville)...The Bolloré group is involved in running the Congo-Océan railway from Brazzaville to Pointe Noire in Congo (Brazzaville), a traditional transport route for timber.36 The railway is not only the economic axis of the country, but also of immense strategic significance in the civil war. Through its interests in the country, the Bolloré group supports the camp of President Sassou Nguesso to a high level...In Gabon, one of Bolloré’s principal transportation companies, SDV, owns a majority in the former Gabonese parastatal shipping line, Sonatram (Société Nationale des Transports Maritime).39 Bolloré manages timber handling activities at Gabon’s four timber ports through the company SEPBG...During the early 1990s, Bolloré acquired subsidiaries which in turn owned two timber companies in Cameroon: HFC (Forestière de Campo), whose concessions are in the south-west, and SIBAF (Société Industrielle des Bois Africains), whose concessions are in the south-east (see below). Bolloré arranged for international journalists to visit SIBAF and HFC logging sites during the 1999 Yaoundé Forest Summit promoted by WWF...HFC operates in the South Province and currently holds a total of 162,790 hectares under concession in and around the Réserve de Campo and Campo Ma’an protected areas. It has two concessions: UFA 09-024 (76,002 hectares), awarded in July 2000, and UFA 09-025 (86,788 hectares)...SIBAF currently has control of two concessions in the East Province, totalling 134,765 hectares; UFA 10-063 (68,933 hectares) awarded in July 2000 and UFA 10-018 (65,832 hectares)...The economy of Kika, a small village of only 25 people ten years ago, but now a town of around 6,000, has developed as a direct result of SIBAF’s operations. Many of the townspeople were brought to the area by the company from other parts of the country. The influx has added to the disruption of the Baka and Bangando people whose traditional territories are in this part of the forest. The construction of forestry roads and the subsequent traffic facilitated the hunting of bushmeat, while the population increase as Kika expanded provided a market for it. A joint survey by the Cameroonian ministry responsible for forests, MINEF, and the German government development agency, GTZ, in 1999 of firearms in the East Province found 146 illegal firearms originating from Congo (Brazzaville) in the SIBAF concession area, weapons which pose a threat to local peoples’ security as well as to the wildlife, such as elephants and lowland gorillas...The near-exhaustion of SIBAF’s former concessions left the town in 1999 facing collapse, dependent on SIBAF being awarded new concessions. That year, half the population left after operations wound down and workers were laid off...SESAM (Société d’Exploitation Forestière de la Sangha-Mbaéré), one of the largest logging concessions in CAR, used to be owned by Bolloré’s subsidiary, Saga. In the early 1990s, SESAM drew on a large loan (in effect, a subsidy) from the French government to prepare a forest management plan, but as it did not have sufficient in-house capacity, the work was in fact prepared by the French government. It is not known whether the plan accommodates, or indeed was ever intended to accommodate, the needs of the settled and nomadic forest people. SESAM has two concessions in CAR, one of 107,000 hectares awarded in 1991, the other of 307,000 hectares awarded in 1995, in a region where many Pygmies live. Since Malaysian logging company WTK64 bought 51% of SESAM65 in the mid-1990s, it is not clear whether this management plan is being implemented or not, although there remains a French interest in SESAM...Bolloré used to operate in CAR through EFBACA (Enterprise Forestière des Bois Africains Centrafrique), a subsidiary of the group’s principal logging company in the Ivory Coast. It had a 200,000 hectare concession in Sangha province. The current status and ownership of EFBACA is not known..."

Excerpt from forests.org website: "...Pygmy chief Mbomba Bokenu says he may soon let loggers cut his people's forests, and all he expects in return are soap and a few bags of salt. "The Pygmies are suffering, we accept what we are given," said Bokenu, draped in brown civet-cat skins and holding a slender carved-wooden shield. "Our children live in dirt, they suffer from disease. Soap and salt is a lot to our people." The Pygmies, though, should expect -- and demand -- much more under proposed rules meant to ensure forest communities benefit from the wealth all around them. But there's reason to question whether poor, illiterate Pygmies, product of years of government neglect and discrimination by ethnic Bantus, will be able to use the law to help themselves. "People who do not have money for clothes are not in a position to apply the forestry code in a reasonable manner," said Richard Mboyo, head anthropologist at Congo's Center for Ecology and Forestry, a government research institution in the northwestern Equator province. "Some of the tribes are facing the modern world for the first time. They don't understand the value of their trees," said Mboyo, who has researched forest communities in Congo for over two decades..."

Excerpt from MediaRights website, "Central Africa: Land of the Pygmies" Global Connections Series. Released in 2000. Film description: "...Timber logging is sounding the death knell for the Pygmies in central Africa. Short in stature and now short of land the Baku and Bayakap pygmies are facing an uncertain future. With loggers, conservationists and the lure of "progress" closing in, can these..."knowledge carriers of the forest" find a place in the modern world?..."

Excerpt from CNN website "Wild Planet": "In a nation dominated by 13 million ethnic Bantus, there are only 40,000 Bakas. And the Bakas who do live in the Cameroon rain forest are overwhelmed by change and the ongoing destruction of their forest home. Samuel Nguiffo of the Center for Environment and Development says the Bakas are caught between the majority Bantu and the logging companies. "Both of them have claims over the forest," Nguiffo said, "and both of them are more powerful than the Bakas. And most of them, for the Bakas, are enemies." As timber companies push logging roads deeper into the forest, outsiders follow the roads to trap and hunt wild animals, and then slash and burn to plant crops...After living in harmony with the forest for thousands of years, hunting and gathering only what they needed to survive, Bakas now find many of the forest's resources are exhausted..."

Excerpt: "...For Pygmies logging the rain forests of central Africa, the chain saw's whine signals the promise of work — and threatens a way of life. As the Congo Republic's timber industry picks up after years of ruinous civil war, international logging companies are cutting swaths deep into the heart of the huge Congo basin. The boom puts the Pygmies in a wrenching dilemma: tree by tree, the jobs it gives them are destroying the forest home where they have lived for millenniums. "It's out of a need to survive that I work with the timber companies," said Bekou, a Pygmy logger. "Our life is impossible outside the forests." Loggers say they offer jobs and schooling, and want to save Pygmy culture. But the Pygmies say each tree felled means less leafy cover for the striped antelopes they hunt and brings them closer to losing their heritage. "Our only hope is that our forests not be totally destroyed," said Daniel Kaya, one of about 160 Pygmies working for the Swiss-German company Congolese Industrial Wood, known by its French acronym, CIB..."

Excerpt from forests.org website: "...Dr Jane Goodall tells the film crew: "The real big trouble has come in the last 10 years or so as the big multinational companies, particularly European companies, are opening up the forest with their roads...Hunters from the towns can use the logging trucks to go along the roads... they shoot everything from elephants down to gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, monkeys, birds - everything. They smoke it, they load it on to the trucks and take it into the cities, where it's not to feed starving people - it's where people will pay more for bushmeat than for domesticated meat... There are huge camps being established for the loggers and their families, their hangers-on, so that you may have 2-3,000 people who weren't there before. The pygmy hunters who've lived in harmony with the forest world for hundreds of years are now being given guns and ammunition and paid to shoot for the logging camps. And that's absolutely not sustainable. The animals have gone, the forest is silent, and when the logging camps finally move, what is left for the indigenous people? Nothing..."

Excerpt from National Geographic news: "...decades of logging and a subsequent increase in illegal hunting for the bush-meat trade is emptying the forest of its resources...the root of the problem is the Central African Republic government's desire to open its forest resources to the international market. Starting in the 1970s, logging has been on a boom-and-bust cycle in the landlocked country...For example, a logging company will come in and make promises to hire hundreds of workers. This spurs immigration from neighboring countries such as Cameroon...After a few years the high costs to export the timber cause the logging companies to go belly up, leaving hundreds of immigrants without jobs. To supplement their income, the immigrants fan out into the forest to hunt wild animals to supply the lucrative bush-meat trade..."

Excerpt from Transparency International website's Forest Integrity Network: "...Degradation of the world's forest resources is one of the most pressing human development challenges facing the planet today... Increasing insecurity of access to forest goods and services impacts the poorest most severely, since they rely on such goods and services for their subsistence. Forest degradation also has catastrophic consequences for the Earth's ecosystems, given that forests are major reservoirs of biological diversity, regulators of the hydrological cycle and storers of carbon. One of the most important underlying causes of forest degradation is corruption. Forest-related corruption has many manifestations, ranging from fraudulent logging concessions, to log smuggling and illegal logging, to the laundering of illicit proceeds, fraud, tax evasion and illegal trade..."

Excerpt from Socio-economic analysis in Pokola, CIB, Republic of Congo: "...The part of the forest tax destined for local social development is by far the largest budget directly linked to the social aspects of forest management. For example, in the Republic of Congo, it represents 50% of the area tax. A title holder of a large concession (1 to 1.3 million hectares) will pay more than 5 billion FCFA over 30 years. Departments where there is a very low population density, but where there is a concentration of several concessions, therefore pay substantial funds for local development. However, in most of the States in Central Africa, the practical modes of allocation and control of these new public resources are not yet established or effective..."

Excerpt: "...War crimes and crimes against humanity, including persecution, murder, forcible population transfer, torture, rape and extermination, have been committed against the Bambuti Pygmies in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. These crimes have taken place since the start of the second war in 1998 and continue up to the present. Bambuti communities remain at grave risk. The atrocities have been committed in the context of a war which has cost over 3.3 million lives through violence and conflict-related starvation and disease. Over 60,000 people have been killed in the north-eastern district of Ituri alone, according to United Nations estimates. The involvement of neighbouring states in the conflict, including Rwanda and Uganda, has been justified by them on security grounds, but is also directed towards the large-scale plunder of the DRC's natural resources, including gold, diamonds and other minerals..."

Excerpt from study commissioned by the UK department for International Development (DFID) "Evolution de l'exploitation des forêts du Cameroun: production nationale, exploitation illégale": Estimated the loss of revenues due to illegal logging in Cameroon over a period of 5 years. The results were alarming: Cameroon lost about 75 million euro in tax revenue. The value of the stolen timber in that period was estimated at 400 - 600 million euro.

Excerpt: "...In September 1997, the Malaysian company Innovest Bhd began logging in a 3360 km2 concession in the southwest of Congo-Brazzaville. It plans to cut 100,000m3 of timber each year. 92% of the shares of the Congolese subsidiary Innovest Congo SA belong to the Malaysian parent company, 5% to the government of Mossendjo (Congo) and 3% to an unknown investment holding..."

Excerpt from Rainforest Foundation website: "...'There is a growing consensus that the traditional concession-based industrial logging model does not generate the desired economic, social and environmental benefits.'...This response comes after parliamentary questions from Lord Eden of Winton, who accompanied Rainforest Foundation Director Simon Counsell on a trip to Cameroon in July. We see this as an important indication that the UK government recognises the serious limitations of the whole concept of 'industrial logging concessions' as a means of 'managing' tropical forests..."

Excerpt from USAID/CARPE strategic plan: "...The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) provides a legal and institutional framework for international action to address climate change that may be caused by greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, including the loss of tropical forests...It was adopted at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development in 1992 by 153 nations, and ratified by the U.S. in 1993. The Kyoto Protocol, an agreement adopted in principle by the parties to the CCC in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, identified emissions targets and timetables for industrialized nations and proposed market-based mechanisms for meeting those targets. To date, the Kyoto Protocol has been signed by more than 80 countries and ratified by 30, but is opposed by the U.S. Government at this time. Market mechanisms proposed in the Kyoto Protocol controlling greenhouse gas emissions include: 1) Joint Implementation, which would allow countries with explicit emissions targets to obtain credit for project-based greenhouse gas emission reductions in other countries; 2) International Emissions Trading, which would allow countries with explicit emissions reduction targets to trade greenhouse gas allowances among themselves; 3) The "Clean Development Mechanism", which would allow countries with explicit emissions targets to receive credit for certified emissions reductions from project activities undertaken in developing countries, and allow private and public sector entities worldwide to enter into cooperative projects to reduce emissions in the developing world....If such mechanisms were adopted, they might provide incentives and new sources of financial support for forest conservation in Central Africa..."

*Key theme. Excerpt from the "Consultation Report on the third meeting of the Ad Hoc Open-ended Inter-Sessional Working Group on Article 8(j) and Related Provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity": "...Given that there were several indigenous representatives on the delegation (e.g. Assembly of First Nations and Metis National Council) as well as dozens of others attending the meeting outside the delegation, I decided to concentrate specifically on environmental issues. I judged that the other issues would be better covered by indigenous representatives, themselves being experts on the matter. The two issues which I decided to focus on were: Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT) and Impact Assessment... Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT) comprises of Terminator technology (which renders subsequent generation of seeds sterile) and Traitor technology (which seeks to make a plant’s trait’s expression dependent on the external application of inducers). Terminator technology is a more powerful tool to control genetic resources than intellectual property rights. Indeed contrary to patents, terminator seeds are not limited in time as there is no expiry date after which they become domain of the public. Furthermore, Terminator technology bypasses the mandatory licence that exists between an intellectual property right and its user..."

Excerpt from FAO document archives: "...une grande partie des gisements mondiaux de diversité biologique tropicale sont situés dans des zones habitées par des populations autochtones qui, de ce fait, en sont les principales responsables, et que la connaissance qu'elles ont des vertus des plantes médicinales est un atout précieux pour les sociétés pharmaceutiques et doit donc être rétribuée..."

Excerpt: "...WE, INDIGENOUS PEOPLES from around the world, believe that nobody can own what exists in nature except nature herself. A human being cannot own its own mother. Humankind is part of Mother Nature, we have created nothing and so we can in no way claim to be owners of what does not belong to us. But time and again, western legal property regimes have been imposed on us, contradicting our own cosmologies and values...WE VIEW with regret and anxiety how, Article 27.3b of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreements will further denigrate and undermine our rights to our cultural and intellectual heritage, our plant, animal, and even human genetic resources and discriminate against our indigenous ways of thinking and behaving. This Article makes an artificial distinction between plants, animals, and micro-organisms and between essentially biological and microbiological processes for making plants and animals. As far as we are concerned all these are life forms and life creating processes which are sacred and which should not become the subject of proprietary ownership..."

Excerpt from UN OCHA-IRIN "Minorities Under Siege" report: ...“In every world region, minorities and indigenous peoples have been excluded, repressed and, in many cases, killed by their governments," said Mark Lattimer, executive director of the nongovernmental organisation Minority Rights Group International (MRG) at a press conference in January 2006. The event was the launch of the first edition of The State of the World’s Minorities Report, compiled by MRG with the assistance of various United Nations agencies...What faces indigenous people and minorities today is not at all new. Throughout human history, the cultures and livelihoods – even the existence – of indigenous peoples have been endangered whenever dominant neighbouring peoples have expanded their territories or settlers from far away have acquired new lands by force. Despite claims that the world has entered a new era of human rights and democratic representation, this process of attrition and discrimination continues today..."

Excerpt from the Monterrey Conference: "...So what about the Amazon Indians, the Penan tribe, or the Baka pygmies who have never seen a greenback, and maybe not even the local currency? Their incomes, livelihoods, and social and cultural integrity depend entirely on the goods from forests. In fact, the moment currency appears in their forest settlements, it may result in the demise of their cultures and the start of real poverty. There are at least 1,400 distinct indigenous and traditional peoples living in the world's forest areas alone. Are they poor because they do not have a monetised system? Perhaps one may point to the comparatively low numbers of indigenous peoples who may have been included among those living in absolute poverty by default. But what about the vast majority of the 1.2 billion poor people who, according to a World Bank study, depend at least partly on forest resources? Twice as many people rely on traditional medicines for their primary health care. Are some of them poor because our current system of national accounts, which measures everything in GNP terms, cannot assess the value of natural goods and services? I am in no way downplaying the crucial importance of poverty eradication, and I understand the need to put numbers to it, but unless we have more sophisticated ways of classifying poverty - which must include social and cultural criteria and account for natural resource use - aid programmes may lead to the same failures as past development programmes. Understanding the root causes of poverty also means analysing the impact of Northern consumer markets and trade on the livelihoods of poor countries..."

Excerpt: "...2004 is the last year of the United Nations International Decade of the World's Indigenous People. The program's accomplishments may be best described as mixed. While indigenous issues are receiving more political attention worldwide, observers say that most indigenous people remain mired in poverty. Hunter-gatherer groups, in particular, are facing persecution and attacks on their way of life. "A lot of people only pay lip service to the indigenous issues," said Fiona Watson, a research and campaigns coordinator with Survival International, a London-based human rights group. "Governments come up with policies, but often those policies are not enforced..."

Excerpt from The Lancet, Series on Indigenous Health: "...Major international policies such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which were set up to target the world's poorest people could, as they currently stand, actually lead to entire populations of Indigenous peoples being wiped out forever. Minority groups such as Indigenous peoples could be ignored because of the way the MDGs work—by focusing on big numbers and encouraging targets to maximise health benefits for the majority. This would mean that the health experiences of minority Indigenous populations will be swallowed up, unnoticed, in the country statistics for the MDGs, and that these communities could become the hidden victims of the global effort to tackle poverty.

Introducing the Indigenous Health series, Lancet Editor Richard Horton comments: "Perhaps the most urgent call of all is to remove the cloak of invisibility from the shoulders of indigenous peoples—not only to reveal their diversity and heritage, but also to reflect on their cultural fragility and to protect and strengthen their essential, foundational place in human society"...

Excerpt from the Fourth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2004: "...The Inter-Agency Support Group on Indigenous Issues considers that indigenous and tribal peoples have the right to benefit from the Millennium Development Goals, and from other goals and aspirations contained in the Millennium Declaration, to the same extent as all others. However, as the 2005 review of the implementation of the MDGs nears, it appears from the available evidence that indigenous and tribal peoples are lagging behind other parts of the population in the achievement of the goals in most, if not all, the countries in which they live, and indigenous and tribal women commonly face additional gender-based disadvantages and discrimination...Detailed information and statistics describing their situation are often lacking, as was made clear during the International Workshop on Data Collection and Disaggregation for Indigenous Peoples held in January 2004 following approval by the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the Economic and Social Council (see report in E/CN.19/2). Lack of adequate disaggregated data is a problem for the achievement of the MDGs. Nevertheless, the information available – both statistics that do exist and experience acquired in the course of our work – indicates that these peoples rank at the bottom of the social indicators in virtually every respect...Concern has also been expressed that the effort to meet the targets laid down for the achievement of the MDGs could in fact have harmful effects on indigenous and tribal peoples, such as the acceleration of the loss of the lands and natural resources on which indigenous peoples’ livelihoods have traditionally depended or the displacement of indigenous peoples from those lands. Because the situation of indigenous and tribal peoples is often not reflected in statistics or is hidden by national averages, there is a concern that efforts to achieve the MDGs could in some cases have a negative impact on indigenous and tribal peoples, while national indicators apparently improve...While the MDGs carry a potential for assessing the major problems faced by indigenous peoples, the MDGs and the indicators for their achievement do not necessarily capture the specificities of indigenous and tribal peoples and their visions. Efforts are needed at the national, regional and international levels to achieve the MDGs with the full participation of indigenous communities – women and men -- and without interfering with their development paths and holistic understanding of their needs. Such efforts must take into account the multiple levels and sources of discrimination and exclusion that indigenous peoples face..."

Excerpt from U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 2005, Republic of Congo: Section 4: Governmental Attitude Regarding International and Nongovernmental Investigation of Alleged Violations of Human Rights: A number of domestic and international human rights groups generally operated without government restriction, investigating and publishing their findings on human rights cases. Government officials generally were uncooperative and unresponsive to local human rights groups; however, they were generally cooperative and responsive to international organizations....The HRC is charged with acting as a government watchdog and reacting to public concerns on human rights issues. Local observers claimed that it was completely ineffective and hasn't met or taken any significant action since its creation.. Section 5 Discrimination, Societal Abuses, and Trafficking in Persons: Although the law prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, gender, language, or social status, the government did not effectively enforce these prohibitions. Societal discrimination and violence against women, reports of trafficking in persons, regional ethnic discrimination, and discrimination against indigenous peoples were problems.

Excerpt from WHO document archives: "...Africa’s 906 million people were the focus of intense international attention in 2005. Health, especially in relation to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, averting health service collapse, and attacking the disease burden, was a recurring topic. Of this population, however, the Indigenous peoples of the continent have received little attention, although the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) in 2005 described them as “some of the most vulnerable groups on the African continent” whose health situation is “often very precarious and receives very limited attention from the responsible health authorities”...

Excerpt from OCDH field report on human rights in the Republic of Congo: "...Mis à part les difficultés liées à la précarité des structures médicales du Congo-Brazzaville et au faible pouvoir d’achat des populations, les pygmées font face souvent aux cas de discrimination en cas d’affluence de malades bantous dans centres de santé. « Quel que soit son rang d’arrivée, le Pygmée alors reçu en dernière position. Ces actes de discrimination, expression du dédain des Bantous à l’égard des Pygmées dans ces dispensaires ont parfois des conséquences dramatiques. Ainsi en mars 2003, M. Boukongo Félix, un pygmée de Ngoua II a perdu son fils âgé d’un an, décédé d’un paludisme parce que l’infirmier n’avait pas jugé utile de lui administrer les soins d’urgence, privilégiant les Bantous alors qu’il avait déjà perçu les frais de consultation...."

Excerpt from "Ensuring the Rights of Indigenous Children" by UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre: "...The Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) is one of the first international human rights treaties to address explicitly the situation of indigenous children. While all the provisions of the Convention apply to these children, Article 30 specifically addresses their reality: “In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origins exist, a child belonging to such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the
right, in community with other members of his or her group, to enjoy his or
her own culture, to profess and practise his or her own religion, or to use
his or her own language.” The very existence of such an article indicates a concern regarding the need for special safeguards to ensure the enjoyment
of indigenous culture, religion and language. It also highlights the importance of
the indigenous child enjoying these elements “in community with other members of his or her group”. In adopting this approach, the Convention acknowledges that certain activities draw their significance from the fact that they are pursued in a group that shares the same values. Thus, while this provision addresses the individual rights of the indigenous child, it further
recognizes the collective dimension of culture, religion and language. Article 30 does not make explicit the important relationship between indigenous
culture and the natural environment. Nonetheless, in indigenous communities
the enjoyment of culture and the profession of religion are so closely linked to sacred sites and the natural environment that preserving this environment and ensuring access to land may be interpreted as a necessary prerequisite for the realization of the child’s right to “enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion”.

Excerpt from "The relationship between the Bakola and the Bantu peoples of the coastal Cameroon and their perception of commercial forest exploitation" by Godefroy Ngima Mawoung, University of Yaounde "...All the Bakola are finally returning to the forest for large-scale net hunting and invocation of protecting spirits,” according to the head of the Antande camp. For the Bakola, the forest is a whole universe without which they cannot live. They think it unrealistic that the forest may sometimes disappear, while the much smaller Bantu villages survive. To induce sedentarization and development in place of the natural mythical milieu for political or any other reasons will, therefore, be fruitless. To deprive them of their forest would force them to live the life of a man without a soul. The exploitation of the forest for logging means “a slow and progressive death” for the Ngoumba and above all for the Bakola, who live solely by, in, with and for the forest. Where such an exploitation has taken place, edible wild yams have almost disappeared, fruit trees destroyed, animals escaped to remote forest parts, the soil damaged, medicinal plants ravaged by heavy machines, and protective spirits and providers of the game no longer reside. The spirits are wandering in the forest in search of more stable space..."

Excerpt from ProCOR Discussion Forum. Article by Laura Haas: "...Pygmy peoples’ health risks are changing as the central African forests, which are the basis for their traditional social structure, culture, and hunter-gatherer economy, are being destroyed or expropriated by logging, farming, and conservation projects..In the Great Lakes area of central Africa, extensive forest clearance has made most Twa Pygmies landless, impoverished, and struggling to maintain cultural identity.Where forest dietary resources are depleted by destructive logging or commercial poaching and Pygmy people do not have lands on which to grow alternative foods, nutritional status decreases. Children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable, the problem being exacerbated by the breakdown of traditional foodsharing systems. Loss of forests also deprives Pygmy communities of their renowned traditional herbal pharmacopoeia, which contains compounds active against diseases including helminthiasis, guinea worm, jaundice, malaria, diarrhoea, toothache, and cough. In much of rural central Africa, primary health services are absent, function only in a rudimentary way, or have been destroyed during conflict. Even where health care facilities exist, many Pygmy people do not use them because they cannot pay for consultations and medicines, do not have the documents and identity cards needed to travel or obtain hospital treatment, or are subjected to humiliating and discriminatory treatment. Pygmy groups who are still able to lead a largely forest-based life have better health in several respects than nearby farming groups. Forests are also where they feel at ease, a vital component of their sense of wellbeing, and mental and spiritual health. By contrast, loss of forest lands and resources, and the consequent sedenterisation, increases Pygmy communities’ risks of inadequate nutrition, infectious diseases, parasites, and HIV/AIDS without necessarily increasing their access to health care. To protect and improve Pygmy peoples’ health, governments, development agencies, missionaries, and non-government organisations must work to secure Pygmy peoples’ rights to their customary lands and resources, and develop policies and programmes that ensure equitable access to health care, on the basis of consultations with Pygmy communities about their concept of wellbeing and good health.

Conclusion: Providing better and more accessible health services is essential. But if the underlying causes are to be addressed, wider social, political, and economic issues need to be tackled. There is a desperate need to improve the social and economic position of most of Africa’s population. Health services are at best inadequate for most and entirely absent for many. We have highlighted the problematic lack of recorded disaggregated data and original research about Indigenous peoples’ health in Africa. Far more information needs to be gathered and analysed to compile an accurate picture, but what is known about Indigenous peoples’ access to health services suggests that poverty, marginalisation, and discrimination compound the problems experienced by the rest of the population. The key is for Indigenous peoples to be empowered to participate equally in debate and decisionmaking. The debate has to address not only the provision of health care, but also the social determinants of health.

Excerpt from FAO document archives: "...In recent years, and for various reasons, some pygmies have become sedentary, village-living farmers In some regions, insufficient areas of forest remain to support the pygmies' specialized hunting and gathering life; in others, overhunting has depleted forest game. Moreover, in every region there have been periodic formal campaigns by national governments to force pygmies, or induce them with gifts, to settle in villages and become sedentary farmers. Those who design and implement sedentarization programmes do not recognize the economic or social value of the traditional farmer-pygmy relationship, nor do they appreciate the contribution that forest nomads make to the national economy by efficiently exploiting forest resources on a sustainable basis. The pygmies themselves are seldom, if ever, consulted or given a decision-making role in the design and implementation of these programmes. Most sedentarization programmes have failed, as the pygmies return to the forest when the gifts run out or they abandon their gardens when the first good honey season begins..."

Excerpt from Serge Bahuchet study: "...Camp mobility is the result of a subtle combination of different causes : food shortage, resources having been exhausted, size of the group, the requirements of visiting, proximity of neighbouring groups, and also social disruption or death. As months go by, communities come together and split up in a perpetual movement of fusion and fission...Hunting plays an essential role in the social organization...First of all because it is an activity that mobilizes the strength of all members of the community, and second because it is aroung hunting that evolve religious activities and the different stages of an individual's social development. There is a high level of interdependence between young people's ability in hunting, their aptitude for marriage and their participation in the big prestigious expeditions to hunt for large mammals (especially elephants). Several rituals surround hunting activities, both propitiatory and expiatory. Great symbolic value is attached to the second most important activity : collecting honey, the life-giving fluid. Collective rituals are carried out before they set out to collect honey the first time in the season (and this is the only gathering activity for which it is the case); among the Mbuti of Zaïre, the honey season is characterized by temporary dispersion of the group..."

Excerpt from UNEP article: "....The Convention on Biological Diversity, which is managed by UNEP and which grew out of the Rio Earth Summit of 1992, makes specific reference to the need to protect the world’s indigenous cultures and traditions. Article eight of the convention states: "subject to its national legislation, to respect, preserve, and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous and local communities embodying traditional life styles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity”...UNEP believes that more urgent action is needed to safeguard indigenous cultures and their knowledge. Its report cites four key reasons why conserving native cultures should be urgently addressed: 1) Traditional economic systems that have a relatively low impact on biological diversity because they tend to utilize a great diversity of species, harvesting small numbers of each of them. By comparison settlers and commercial harvesters target far fewer species and collect or breed them in vast numbers, changing the structure of ecosystems; 2) Indigenous peoples try to increase the biological diversity of the territories in which they live, as a strategy for increasing the variety of resources at their disposal and, in particular, reducing the risk associated with fluctuations in the abundance of individual species; 3) Indigenous people customarily leave a large ‘margin of error’ in their seasonal forecasts for the abundance of plants and animals. By underestimating the harvestable surplus of each target species, they minimize the risk of compromising their food supplies; 4) Since indigenous knowledge of ecosystems is learned and updated through direct observations on the land, removing the people from the land breaks the generation to generation cycle of empirical study. Maintaining the full empirical richness and detail of traditional knowledge depends on continued use of the land as a classroom and laboratory..."

Excerpt from "Au-delà de la «participation»: Peuples autochtones, conservation de la diversité biologique et aménagement des aires protégées" par M. Colchester: "...L'écologie est très profondément enracinée dans les conceptions anciennes de la place de l'homme dans la nature. Cependant, si ces dernières années, on a reconnu de plus en plus la valeur des systèmes locaux de connaissances comme générateurs de moyens efficaces de régulation de l'interaction entre l'homme et l'environnement, on s'est beaucoup moins demandé dans quelle mesure les notions «scientifiques» de conservation de l'environnement ont été façonnées par les traditions culturelles et par les économies politiques occidentales...En effet, les principes occidentaux de l'écologie sont fondés sur une séparation conceptuelle très ancienne entre l'homme et la nature, entre la civilisation et la nature à l'état sauvage. Les espaces naturels étaient considérés comme le repaire d'esprits sauvages et maléfiques, et devaient être domptés ou réservés à une conquête saisonnière et symbolique, par exemple la chasse princière. Selon la logique de la conservation scientifique, qui est issue de ces traditions culturelles, la meilleure façon de protéger la nature consiste à séparer encore plus nettement l'homme de la nature et donc à créer des espaces naturels à l'état sauvage (Colchester, 1994)..."

Excerpt from forests.org website: "..This year has been declared by the UN the international year of ecotourism and this week, a world summit is being held...to consider the problems and potential for the fastest growing sector of the world's largest industry. According to many conservationists and tour operators, this "benign" version of tourism offers a way to fund environmental protection, stimulate the incomes of the poor and encourage cultural exchange. Ecotourists are thought to spend considerably more than mass tourists and for debt-strapped developing countries, having people visit, look at things that require minimal investment and pay lots of money for the privilege, can seem manna from heaven...Nature is a money spinner. Ecuador earns over $100m a year from 60,000 visitors to the Galapagos, for instance, and Kenya as much income from its safari holidays. But the stakes are now getting higher and the dispossession of people from their land is increasingly associated with ecotourism. The cases are widespread. In the Moulvibaza district of Bangladesh, over 1,000 families of the Khasi and Garoare indigenous groups face eviction from their ancestral lands for the development of a 1,500-acre ecopark. "We were born here and grew up here. We have been living here for hundreds of years . . . we will not leave this forest," said Khasi headman Anil Yang Yung in a public demonstration during a hunger strike in Dhaka last February. "We cannot survive if we are evicted from the forest."...

Tuesday, 30th August 1994. The Council met at 2.30 p.m. in Parliament House, Kampala. The Deputy Chairman, Mr Ekemu Joseph in the Chair.

Bills: THE UGANDA TOURIST BOARD BILL, 1994

MR TURYAHABWA: Thank you hon. Member. I think the hon. Member has emphasised is that Uganda should try to make these tourists sceneries attractive by making them accessible. Another detail to observe is that the Minister should have interest in the welfare of the people around these attractive areas especially the National Parks. Let me point out what has happened in Bwindi National Forest Park. There used to be Pygmies living in the forest and now they - after having been told that their habitat has become a National Park, they are slowly coming out of the forest and putting pressure of settlement on the ordinary land. The mixing of the pygmies with the ordinary people has not been very smooth. Let me go further and say that the Church Missionaries who are receiving these pygmies and settling them in camps. So, what I want to say is, that the Ministry of Tourism should be interested in this kind of - (Interruption)

AN HON. MEMBER: Mr Chairman, I rise on a point of order, because the hon. Member is imputing that pygmies are not human beings. Is he in order to create that impression?

MR TURYAHABWA: Thank you very much, Mr Chairman. I wanted to request the Ministry of Tourism to try and help people who may suffer from problems as a result of developments in their habitat. So, the pygmies are human beings as you all know, but the Ministry should try to resettle them, educate them, to make their lives easier as they are coming out of National Park for the good of the nation.

AN HON. MEMBER: Point of information. Hon. Members, I would like to inform the speaker that, the National Parks Authorities are not in any way chasing away the pygmies because where the National Parks have been established are the actual habitats of the pygmies and they are supposed to remain there. And, therefore, the hon. Member should tell the pygmies to go back to their habitats because the areas like Bundibugyo where the pygmies were removed from the habitats and settled and are now trying to revert back to their habitats.

MR TURYAHABWA: Another thing which I want to put forward to the Ministry of Tourism is that we should not really act without order. Once the people know that the Government is interested in what is happening around them, they give full support. I am trying to say that Ugandans are very keen to support tourism. It is only to expect rewards or some assistance from the Ministry of Tourism so that they can do their job much more effectively.

Excerpt from African International Chistian Ministry website: "..."We thank the Almighty who has allowed you to come. We thank our AICM Director, Rev Enoch Kayeeye, with your visitors. Here we are quite fine but some problems. We have about 80 pygmies but don't have anything to use on domestic equipments, no land, no education but many are Christians. They have hunger day and night, no accommodation, because one may find ten people in one hut. So they need some help from you. We wish you success the time you are here." - The Revd Enoch Bedowa.."

Excerpt from Survival International report: "...The National Parks of Mgahinga, Bwindi 'Impenetrable Forest' and Echuya are in this area, and much of the park land is actually the original territory of the Batwa. The parks were originally set up in the 1930s, but it was only when they were gazetted in 1991 that the Batwa were finally evicted. Non-Batwa farmers who had destroyed the forest to make farms received recognition of their land rights, and compensation, while the Batwa 'who had lived for generations before and after 1930 without destroying the forest or its wildlife, and even had historical claims to land rights, only received compensation if they had acted like farmers, and destroyed part of the forest to make fields.' (Lewis 2000 p 20)...Despite legal provision for Batwa to use and even live within the national parks (Ugandan Wildlife Statute, No. 14, 1996, sections 23-6) they remain excluded from them. Access to the parks is controlled by the Mgahinga and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Trust, the Non-Governmental Organization CARE and the Uganda Wildlife Trust; it is negotiated through 'multiple use committees' which include almost no Batwa representation. In 2000 the Batwa set up their own organisation UOBDU (United Organisation for Batwa Development in Uganda) since which time the attitude of these official bodies has become rather more open, but to date they have taken no actual steps to allow Batwa legal access to the forests..."

Excerpt: "...Because these communities were not located on maps when the parks were established, the pygmies were deprived of their right to the forest," says Felix Sagne, an economist at the Ministry of Forests and Fauna. Measures that have been put in place for the protection of endangered species have also had an adverse effect on pygmies, as they are sometimes in conflict with their hunting and gathering practices. Apart from failing to feature on maps, the pygmies are also a shadowy presence in other official records. "Just a short time ago, before the Cameroonian government and NGOs began formally recording them, few had an identity card and almost none was counted for official censuses and voter lists," says Calvin Oyono, a local official working in Lomie. For those pygmies who have tried to exchange their traditional lifestyle for a more modern existence, the transition has been fraught with difficulties. Their lack of education makes them vulnerable to persecution and discrimination at the hands of officials, and majority Bantus. "If they seek out the charms of neighboring villages...they risk being cheated, laughed at, or treated unjustly by local authorities," says Severin Cecil Abega, an anthropologist who teaches at the University of Yaounde I. "That's why many Baka, Bagyeli and Bakola (two other pygmy groups) remain in their forest communities and don't get involved in 'town business'..."

Excerpt from DGroups site: "...Using modern mapping techniques, satellite images have been used for forest zoning in Cameroon to determine conservation areas and regions to be opened up for industrial exploitation. These areas are all seemingly devoid of human habitation as the satellite imaging fails to register such low level human activity deep in the forest...But the Baka people are beginning to appear on the map. Through work with the Rainforest Foundation and its local partner organisation, the Centre for Environment and Development in Yaounde, local people have been trained up as cartographers. These community mappers have begun to work with their people to define significant areas, including hunting grounds, areas for gathering specific forest products, fishing and sacred sites. It is hoped that these maps will reveal the true value of the forests and that the 'official' zoning maps and plans for logging concessions can be modified to take into account the reality of the livelihoods of Baka forest people as well as Bantu farming communities..."

Excerpt from UNESCO document republished on sangonet.com website: "...Les participants sont parvenus à la conclusion que l'exercice du droit à une citoyenneté pleine et entière exige la reconnaissance du pluriculturalisme, dont la citoyenneté culturelle est un aspect essentiel, et qui déborde le cadre des modèles traditionnels du bilinguisme et du biculturalisme. Il est indispensable de renforcer le droit à la démocratie et de renforcer la participation autochtone. De l'avis général, une politique de la communication appropriée doit être mise sur pied non seulement pour permettre aux populations autochtones de communiquer entre elles en utilisant les médias modernes mais aussi pour éduquer le grand public et former les services officiels aux domaines intéressant les populations autochtones. Enfin, les organisations de populations autochtones doivent être responsabilisées pour pouvoir négocier efficacement et de façon pacifique avec les gouvernements sur des sujets fondamentaux tels que les droits de l'homme, les ressources naturelles, l'éducation, l'identité culturelle et civique et la participation politique..."

Excerpt: "...Who are the Indigenous peoples of Africa? A central issue for Indigenous peoples is recognition, and crucial to this is a common approach to identifying Indigenous groups. The broad and widely accepted working definition of “Indigenous communities, peoples and nations” produced by the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues emphasises, among other points, the importance of self-definition...The term ‘Indigenous’ is contested strongly by some parties in Africa, and this issue and that of the rights of Indigenous peoples have been the focus of much discussion...The report of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Working Group on Indigenous Populations/Communities, adopted by the Commission in 2005, discusses the problem of definition at length: “..the main argument that has always been preferred is that all Africans are indigenous to Africa. Definitely all Africans are indigenous as compared to the European colonialists who left all of black Africa in a subordinate position that was in many respects similar to the position of indigenous peoples elsewhere. However, if the concept of indigenous is exclusively linked with a colonial situation, it leaves us without a suitable concept for analysing the internal structural relationships of in equality that have persisted from colonial dominance.”

Excerpt: "...The government of Rwanda has threatened to stop any form of funding to the Batwa, including assistance provided by nongovernmental organisations, if the community continues to consider itself a separate ethnic group...The government maintains that such ethnic self-identification is unconstitutional and undermines the reconciliation process of a country that has just emerged from a period of civil strife. "Such ethnic divisions have only caused conflicts between the people of this country,” said Johnson Busingyie, secretary-general of the Rwandan Ministry of Justice. “It is now time to pass over these petty differences and pursue the goal of national unity that will benefit everyone in Rwanda."...Many human rights groups have argued that indigenous groups like the Batwa must distinguish themselves from the population at large in order to fight marginalisation by ethnic majorities and preserve their way of life. Cultural distinction is vital because the problems they face as traditional hunter-gatherers are unique. However, Busingyie said that the government’s policy of assimilation is vital to including everyone in Rwanda’s future. The integration of the Batwa into all levels of society, he said, is an inevitable process necessitated by changing times..."

Excerpt from allafrica.com website: "...Bakas and Mbororos, both indigenous people in Cameroon, have demanded representation in parliament irrespective of the government in power...Press Officer of the Mbororo Social and Cultural Development Association, MBOSCUDA, Ibrahim Njobdi, stated that the marginalised indigenous people want to be represented in parliament irrespective of the government in power as is the case in Burundi...He painted the picture of inadequate representation in parliament and municipal councils, lamenting that there is total unconcern towards the Mbororos and Bakas amongst other groups..."

Excerpt from IRIN website: "...As in most Central African countries, the Republic of Congo (ROC) is inhabited by two ethnic groups: the Bantu, which account for 90 percent of the population, and the pygmy minority. Despite evidence that pygmy groups are the indigenous, original inhabitants of the rainforest that spans most of the region, they are often forced by the Bantu majority to live on the margins of society. “Bantus despise us,” said Albert Likibi, chief of Mikamba village in Lekoumou district in the south, which is home to about 10,000 ethnic pygmies. “They think nothing of us. When they happen to give us food, they use trees leaves [so as not to touch us]. They say out loud that we smell.”... Most of the 150 residents of Mikamba work for petty wages as field hands for Bantu landowners. “When Bantus have us till their fields, they barely pay us 500 CFA [US $ 1] for a day’s work,” said Samuel Mouélé. “Even when we keep the deadlines, they don’t always pay us.” As minorities who are excluded from the legal process, the labourers can do little to address such flagrant abuse..."

Excerpt from OCDH-Rainforest Foundation U.K. field report: "....Les minorités pygmées du Congo-Brazzaville sont victimes de toutes sortes de violations des droits de l’homme de la part des populations bantous qui, se basant sur de croyances erronées et des considérations rétrogrades, considèrent les Pygmées comme des sous-hommes qui ne peuvent disposer de mêmes droits qu’eux. « C’est ainsi que les pygmées « sont traités comme des esclaves, voire des « biens » appartenant à certains individus bantous qui se considèrent propriétaires des Pygmées. »L’Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l’Homme (OCDH) a fait ce constat déplorable à l’issue de deux missions d’enquêtes menées entre juin et août 2003 à Sibiti, une ville du département de la Lékoumou et dans les localités de Ngoua II, Souangui, Dounguila et Nyanga Paysannat, situées dans le département du Niari, pour la partie nord du pays ; et dans le département de la Sangha, plus précisément dans la commune de Ouesso et les localités de Gombé, Pokola et Kabo qui sont sous le contrôle administratif du district de Mokéko, pour la partie sud..."

Excerpt from ethnonet-africa website: "...Le gouvernement ne juge pas utile d’envisager des mesures pouvant faciliter l’obtention de pièces d’état civil à cette couche minoritaire et vulnérable de congolais ou à élaborer un programme de sensibilisation pour inciter les pygmées à se faire enregistrer ou se faire délivrer des cartes nationales d’identité," a commenté Roch Euloge Nzobo, responsable du département juridique à l’OCDH. Les pièces d’état civil sont les principaux documents réunissant les éléments de la personnalité juridique, a expliqué le rapport. D'un point vue légal, ces milliers de pygmées ne sont donc pas reconnus par l’Etat congolais..."

Excerpt from UN OCHA-IRIN website: "...Very few members of his community understand the DRC’s political situation, he said. Nor did they understand that the current constitution, which was passed in a referendum in November 2005, guaranteed minority rights. Even the significance of the forthcoming national elections on 30 June is lost to them. “Not a single pygmy has shown any interest in being a candidate, because everyone knows pygmies are discriminated against by the other tribes and that the Bantus form the majority in the country,” Bopali said. According to the Congolese Ministry of Social Affairs, about 900,000 pygmies make up 1.5 percent of the nation’s 60 million population. Most live in the dense tropical rainforest....Political Pawns: Bopali said politicians had played the pygmy card in an effort to gain support, especially during the country’s civil war, in which at least 3.4 million Congolese were killed and some four million displaced...The most blatant example of using pygmies towards political ends was in 2004, when people who were allegedly close to president Joseph Kabila brought a group of pygmies before the public to declare that they had witnessed acts of cannibalism by the rebels of the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC), which is headed by current Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, who will oppose Kabila in the upcoming presidential vote. Human rights activists condemned the incident. In turn, people close to Bemba brought the very same group of pygmies – who came from Mambasa, Oriental Province – to the nation’s capital, where the group admitted to reporters that they had been bribed to make the cannibalism claims..."

Excerpt from UN OCHA Relief Web (September 2006): "...Over the years the villagers of Chombo, a Batwa village set in lush green banana groves downhill from the park, have come to know, and fear, the Interahamwe's demands for food, labour or sex...The militia came upon Chiza Mwemdena, 36, and a mother of three, when she was tilling the fields near the village in 2002. "I looked up, saw them and ran as fast I could, but they caught me," she said. "There were about 50 soldiers and I think about 30 took it in turns to rape me. It happened to all the women who were stolen." The Interahamwe kept her for two weeks before she managed to escape. When she returned to the village her husband abandoned her, ashamed of his wife's fate..."It was four years after the rape that I started to feel very strange," Mwemdena said, stroking her bony arms. "My urine was different; my stomach was very painful and I had no energy in my limbs. I used to be very big but now look at me, I am so thin."..Mwemdena was tested for HIV in 2004 by a local nongovernmental organisation, Union Pour l'Emancipation de la Femme Autochtones (UEFA). She was positive, and she is not alone. According to Salome Ndavuma, 28, four Chombo villagers have died since May, three of them women raped by the Interahamwe..."

Excerpt from Minority Rights Group website: "...The Twa, as an indigenous people in the Great Lakes region of Africa, are shunned by many other ethnic groups. If Twa communities as a whole suffer from discrimination, marginalization and extreme poverty, then Twa women suffer this and more..."

Excerpt from ethnonet-africa.org website: "...Certains bantous..profitent de leur cohabitation avec les pygmées pour abuser de leurs droits. Toutes les semaines, une femme pygmée est violée par des bantous à Ngoua 2, un village situé à 200 km de Dolisie, chef-lieu du département du Niari au sud du Congo...Ces viols fréquents se déroulent dans les champs, au village et même dans les cases de ces pygmées. Les violeurs n’hésitent pas à opérer en présence des époux de leurs victimes, a précisé le rapport..."Il y a aussi dans la localité des cas de viols collectifs aussi bien dans la forêt qu’au poste de police géré par des ex-miliciens affectés là pour y jouer le rôle d’agents de l’ordre"..

Excerpt from forests.org website: "...Yongela Bongo kept the secret from her husband for the entire seven years they were married. But when he finally discovered the truth, he kicked her out on the street - keeping their six children and all their belongings. Bongo's failing? To have been born one of the 600,000 Pygmies who live in the Central African nation of Congo. "I had managed to hide my identity for seven years, but I knew that the day my husband would discover it, it would end that way," says Bongo, who sits wrapped in a dusty cloth in an unfinished stone church..."

Excerpt: "...Liberate Nicayenzi is a Mutwa woman, and member of parliament in the Transition National Assembly of Burundi, whose legislature is ending to be replaced by an elected assembly in July 4. In addition, she is chairperson and legal representative of the NGO “Unions Nous pour la Promotion des Batwa” (UNIPROBA). Being a member of the ethnic minority, the Batwa pygmies, and a woman, Nycayenzi explains the challenges that she had to face in order to integrate at a social and political level with the rest of the Batutsi and Bahutu ethnic population..."

Excerpt from proceedings "WGIP-Item 4(b): Indigenous peoples and conflict resolution" published by UNPO. Statement of Floribert Beloko Tadanaki, Head of Projects, Sankuru Pygmies, Kinshasa:

"As I stressed last year, and I repeat it again this year, it is necessary to "first wash the hands before starting to wash the face and the rest of the body", as our Djonga forefathers in Sankuru say. This means that the Sankuru Pygmies first want to find solutions to the conflicts opposing them to their Bantu neighbours at the local level, because today's relationships with Indigenous Peoples are increasingly disgraceful between those two populations who have been long-term neighbours...When a Pygmy excels in doing a task, whatever the task, his Bantu neighbours say: "Even the Pygmy, too?” In Sankuru, up until this 21st century, dear President, the Sankuru Pygmies are still the other tribes' property. Their neighbours say "They are my grand-father's Pygmies", or, moreover, "Our Pygmies never move around without us allowing them to, they can't go without our go- ahead."..The Bantus love themselves so much that they don't even know that they smell, but they loathe the slightest Pygmy smell. This is how we hear it said that "Pygmies don't smell good". To err is human, dear President, but when it happens to a Pygmy to make a mistake on a given subject, the Bantus say "a Pygmy remains a Pygmy", implying that he remains an idiot. However, when the Bantus need the Pygmies' services for a healing or some such, the Pygmy becomes "a brother"...Regarding school, it is said that attending school is compulsory for Congolese children under fifteen years old. However, more than 80 of the Pygmy children don't have access to general training. Can we consider talking of Indigenous Peoples' rights to people who can't read or write their names? And who don't even possess a document of identification enabling them to be identified as a citizen or to be had in case of necessity? Thus, as long as their illiteracy goes on, the Sankuru Pygmies will always be a good, cheap labour force for other ethnic groups. Regarding health issues, a Pygmy woman in Sankuru no longer takes her sick child to the hospital, because not only does the health staff laugh at her because she is badly dressed, the staff also demands the child's health record as well as consultation fees...In such a context of constant dehumanisation, how can we talk of conflict resolution at the international or national level without taking into account the local situation? We stress that it is now time, dear President, to find the means and ways of enabling those most concerned to achieve the aim of being both objects and subjects of their own human, economic, social and cultural development..."

*Excerpt from Norwegian Church Aid Occasional Paper Series, The Pygmies of The Great Lakes (2004):

...“Have you ever considered how you would feel if you were a Batwa?”

This was a question raised by a Batwa to a Bantu. To the Bantu, the question was
like an awakening from a dream. It created new reflections and thoughts on how the Batwa should be treated. “I am still struggling with that question”, he said.
Putting yourself in Pygmies’ shoes and walking mile after mile with them could lead to more understanding, hence policy change and a way forward. We all need to think differently and change our minds and attitudes when we meet people who through generations have been looked down upon as social, intellectual and economical underdogs.“I have been indoctrinated with the belief that the Batwa are lowlifes and I should not sit or eat with them. That is the way of thinking we grew up with”, said the Bantu..."

Excerpt from maricopa.edu website:

"..There is a pygmy dancer by the name of Aka in an Egyptian fresco. Even today, one pygmy tribe uses the name Aka to define itself. This name, which has survived many thousands of years, quite simply means "human".