The relationship between indigenous people and forests

More than 1.6 billion people around the world depend to varying degrees on forests for their livelihoods not just for food but also for fuel, for livestock grazing areas and for medicine. At least 350 million people live inside or close to dense forests, largely dependent on these areas for subsistence and income, while about 60 million indigenous people are almost wholly dependent on forests (World Bank 2006c).
ndigenous forest people use their land in many different ways for shing, hunting, shifting agriculture, the gathering of wild forest products and other activities. For them, the forest is the very basis of survival and its resources have to be harvested in a sustainable manner. But when traditional life styles change and, for example, industrial logging or mining takes place, over use of resources can lead to conict. Although indigenous people around the world often have very different sets of beliefs and traditions, a special bond with the land is a common factor. For example, the semi-nomadic Matses

 Forest concessions and protected areas, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Rainforest Protected area Forest concession Capital city County town
Mbandaka Ksangani Buluk UGANDA CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC SUDAN

CONGO

Bandundu BANDUNU PROVINCE Kahemba

Democratic Republic of the Congo

RWANDA BURUNDI

Kinshasa

TANZANIA Kananga Mbuji-Mayi

ANGOLA

ZAMBIA 0 200 400 km

Source: CBFP 2006.

people of the Peruvian Amazon call the rainforest Tit, or mother (Krogh 2006), referring to Tit as if to a person, who can be happy as well as sad, angry as well as indifferent. Tit provides the Matses with everything they need as long as they follow her rules, including never taking more from the forest than is needed and treating all things belonging to it with respect. Traditionally, the Matses perform hunting ceremonies to ask the animal spirits for permission to kill animals for food. As with the Matses, indigenous peoples ideas of territory are not only concerned with controlling a geographical area or using forest resources: territory also embodies fundamental aspects of culture and geography (Franky 2000). Indigenous forest people see themselves as inseparably linked to the forest and everything in it trees, plants, rivers, animals and mountains. It is impossible, according to community beliefs, to separate any single object or living thing in the forest such as a particular plant, animal or mineral from its symbolic position in the cosmology of the people (Olsen 2006). These ideas are expressed through mythology, religious practices, and systems of social regulation, including management of the environment and systems of production and exchange (Sanchez et al. 2000). Because of their special relationship with the land, many indigenous people

14 VITAL FOREST GRAPHICS

 Traditional activities in the village of Mpa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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Boyombe

Infrastructure Road Footpath Forest logging Forest logging area Log storage area

Traditional activities Administration Community territory Part of territory given as a forest concession Village Camp Farm Cultivated fields Water Main river Small river Stream Water source
0 1

Harvest area for non-wood forest products Fishing area Hunting area Sacred site
2 3 km

Source: After a map created by Matthieu Yela Bonketo and Barthelemy Boika Mahambi in September 2007; Cercle pour la dfense de lenvironnement (Ceden), Cenadep; Laboratoire numrique de cartographie participative, Rseau resources naturelles (RRN) and Rainforest Foundation.

cannot comprehend the idea that forests and land can be bought and sold. However this does not mean they do not have a clear notion of their rights (Odegard et al. 2006). The use of certain areas or resources may be granted based on a number of criteria, such as belonging to a particular group, tribe or clan. Land use can also be based on reciprocal agreements with neighbouring groups or individuals. In many countries, the State is the ofcial owner of most forest areas, even though some of the land may have been inhabited for generations by large numbers of people. In some cases the rights of those people are recog-

nized. In the Philippines for example, land issues in those areas are governed by the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. Unfortunately such regulations are often contravened by powerful local interests. Also, traditional tenure systems are not always recognized by governments, leaving indigenous forest people without formal rights to their territories. This violates the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous Peoples Rights (UNDIPR) as well as ILO Convention 169 both of which place a clear obligation on States to legally recognize, demarcate and effectively protect indigenous peoples territories and natural

resources. One strategy which is increasingly being used by forest people in order to defend their rights is to provide proof of their residence in, and use of, forest areas. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, indigenous groups and other forest-dependent communities are participating in the mapping of their traditional territories (FORUM 2007). Such maps are likely to be a vital tool in the future as indigenous people around the world struggle to gain formal recognition of their rights.

 See also pages 16, 52

VITAL FOREST GRAPHICS 15