![]() ![]() By chance, a passing logging truck was able to The baby died shortly afterwards,īefore his parents even had the chance to choose his name.Īround Christmas in 2015, one man was beaten so severely that he started His sleeping baby violently to the floor. Another man recounted how he wasīeaten by rangers and then watched as one of them overturned his bed, throwing He didn’t know whether she would survive. Spine and bottom with machetes. When I interviewed her father, he told me They forced her to crouch down and beat her Earlier this year, rangers tortured another Baka Have described the abuse they’ve suffered to Survival International, Scores of people in Cameroon, the Central African Republic and the Congo This abuse for well over a decade now and still have failed to stamp it out. When they merely set foot inside the conservation zones created on theirīeatings, torture and even death at the hands of rangers fundedĪnd equipped by WWF and the Wildlife Conservation Society ( WCS). They are accused of “poaching” when they hunt to feed their families, or even So too are Bayaka “Pygmies” and dozens of other rainforest peoples. In the war against poaching, the Baka are all too often caught in theĬrossfire. AnĮlderly man, Menamina, died the following morning. Niece, Mayi, died there a few nights later – she was less ten years old. Theyįled across the border and took refuge with relatives in Cameroon. With their guns, pieces of wood, their belts.”Īs night fell, the community managed to escape into the forest. Was pregnant at the time, explained: “I was crawling on all fours. “I should’ve died.” His sister-in-law, who “They took an old motorbike handlebar, placed it on my spine and pumped up andĭown, up and down,” Abouti told me. Republic of Congo was beaten in the raid, including children and the elderly. AboutiĪnd his family told me that virtually everyone in their village in the northern Whatįifteen wildlife rangers emerged, and immediately set to work. Unannounced, as well as two white cars with the WWF logo on their doors. One morning in 2011, during the wild mango season, a Baka man calledĪbouti was getting ready to bury his son. To the environment’s best allies, namely the people who have lived in theįorest for generations, conservation organisations like the World Wildlife Populations would take decades to recover. ![]() ![]() If poaching stopped today, forest elephant The number ofįorest elephants has dropped drastically over the last 15 years. The number of forest elephants has dropped drastically over the last 15 years. When and where the poachers are in the forest, but no one will listen to us,” Yams throughout the rainforest – one of the elephant’sīecause of the distances they travel and the time they spend there, theyĪre undoubtedly the eyes and ears of their lands in the Congo Basin. ByĬreating seasonal camps, they sustain a mosaic ofĭifferent types of vegetation and have spread pockets of wild They’re not: the Baka have depended on and managed them for centuries. These forests are often considered wilderness by conservationists, but Gathering trips, which sometimes take them over 150 kilometres through theįorest, the Baka make frequent use of the mokongo (the paths With elephants, like shepherds tending their flocks. When they die, their spirits travel deep into the forest and walk side by side On age, appearance, sex, temperament and magical status. They classify them into more than fifteen types, depending All rights reserved.Few people on earth have as close a relationship to the forest elephantĪs Baka “Pygmies”.
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