12 February 2008
John Nelson
Some people may not sit so comfortably on their patio furniture if they knew where the wood came from, argues John Nelson. In this week's Green Room, he says the demand for wood products is threatening the long-term survival of communities around the globe.
Moabi tree (Image: John Nelson/Forest Peoples Programme)Up to now, indigenous communities such as Baka have been powerless to stop logging from occurring on their landsMost DIY enthusiasts would be shocked to find that their new garden decking helped to increase the poverty of hunter-gatherer communities in the Congo Basin of Central Africa.
What about the recently purchased hardwood table and chairs? Did these come from a 300-year-old tree that, until cut down for export to Europe, supplied a hundred poor people in Cameroon with oil, protein and medicine?
Armed with this knowledge, would the customers' new furniture be quite so comfortable?
Ngola Baka typifies Pygmy hunter-gatherer communities in Cameroon; it is small, remote, cash-poor and surrounded by small fields of manioc and plantain to supplement a varied and healthy forest diet based upon meat, fish, fruits, nuts, honey, leaves and mushrooms.
Since there is no dispensary, and little money, medicines are found in the forest, in the barks, roots and leaves gathered during hunting and gathering excursions up to 20km (12 miles) away.
Diminishing returns
Forest biodiversity is at the heart of Baka community subsistence, and Congo Basin forests are widely recognised as a global asset. The UK government has committed more than £50m ($25m) towards protecting them.
The wealth of the basin's rainforests is also targeted by big business. Logging and mining companies are legally entitled to exploit millions of hectares.
Only two kilometres from Ngola Baka, for example, the community forest gives way to an industrial logging concession. The Moabi tree found there is particularly favoured by loggers for its hard, dark wood and high market price.
Community members taking a GPS reading (Image: John Nelson/Forest Peoples Programme)Cameroon law stipulates that commercial loggers must consult with local communities over their logging plans
The Moabi's fruit is also a key component of Baka subsistence, especially for the rich oil pressed from the nut. People rely upon it for their survival.
Last year, it was harvested by Baka women in a forest grove 12km from the village, in the middle of the logging concession, as has been done seasonally for years.
But those trees are now gone, cut down during 2007 and exported to Europe to make garden furniture and coffee tables. Ngola Baka is a poorer, hungrier place as a result of European tastes for luxury.
Last week I saw once again - like a scratched record repeating a verse - how the systematic exploitation of such areas by industrial loggers progressively undermines the welfare of indigenous forest communities.
New forest-use maps, created by local Baka communities with the support of the UK Forest Peoples Programme (FPP) and the Centre for Environment and Development in Cameroon (CED), illustrated the huge overlap between Baka traditional lands and the legal boundaries of neighbouring logging concessions.
We discovered that up to 40,000 hectares of forest used by Ngola Baka are now being logged. Moabi are targeted along with a host of other tree species used by Baka. The future of the community is at stake as its forest is stripped of trees. This should be stopped, but who on Earth is going to do that?
Cameroon law stipulates that commercial loggers must consult with local communities over their logging plans.
They must help local communities to document their traditional use areas, negotiate with them where overlaps are identified, and establish mechanisms to avoid conflicts with communities in areas targeted for logging.
However, there is little evidence that this occurs anywhere in Central Africa. The results are systematic, long-term degradation of forest wealth, reduced forest community welfare and increasing poverty of an indigenous population experiencing jaw-dropping rates of mortality for children aged under five.
Logging on
Up to now, indigenous communities such as Baka have been powerless to stop logging from occurring on their lands. However, with the support of a few progressive European donors, some have started to document their traditional lands.
They are entering into dialogues with government, conservation agencies and logging companies to negotiate protection for their forest rights.
Hand-held GPS
GPS helps defend forests
New GPS mapping technologies developed for use by non-literate communities such as Baka are helping forest communities to take over documentation of their traditional forest use.
They are putting themselves on the map and being given a stronger negotiating position with loggers, as well as with conservation and development agencies targeting their regions.
But these fire-fighting efforts by communities and their local supporters alone are not enough. Without significant additional support from European timber dealers - the buyers who drive the industrial wood trade - indigenous communities will remain powerless to stop their forests being destroyed by unscrupulous producers.
Their children are doomed to increasing poverty because there is too much money being made in Europe.
Most European consumers do not understand the impact on poor African communities of their timber purchases, due to the lack of information about where it comes from and how it is produced, and the impacts of its harvest on forest community welfare.
I believe that if most knew the reality, they would be far more discerning about what they bought.
The cruelty of battery poultry farming in the UK, which has received so much attention recently, pales into insignificance when compared with the logging injustices and increasing poverty of indigenous forest communities who simply want their children to survive childhood, to gain greater access to health services, and to learn to read even a little bit.
Europeans, and consumers across the globe, have the power to stop the disaster that is overwhelming forest peoples, but will they take up the challenge?
John Nelson is Africa policy adviser for the Forest Peoples Programme, a UK Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) working to support forest communities around the world to secure their lands and destinies
