In this series we'll hear African perspectives on conservation, colonialism, indigenous knowledge and environmental issues effecting local communities.
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with leading African conservationists about their work and the environmental issues effecting their regions and local communities. Experts from Kenya, Uganda and DRC shared innovative and traditional approaches to caring for species and habitats and discussed the wider political dynamics of colonialism that contextualises the work of black African conservationists.
A shared aim within their work is to support bio-cultural diversity, recognising the integral value of nature to cultural life and respecting indigenous communities' intimate knowledge of ecological systems and the symbiosis which sustains both biodiversity and human communities. As researchers, conservationists and educators, they share a wealth of knowledge about community based conservation drawing on the expertise of the indigenous communities that they work alongside.
We explore the damage of a continuing colonialism which affects access to funding and who gets to lead within the environmental field and imposes western models of conservation which ignores the views of indigenous and local communities and disregards traditional ecological knowledge – unless appropriated. This is a toxic 'divestment conservationism' that has led to the disenfranchisement of Africans from nature and their ancestral land, inflicting twin traumas upon forest peoples; the trauma of being separated from the land – nature is integral to life - and trauma from the manner in which people were separated from nature, through violence, deceit and disregard for the culture, livelihoods and lives of forest peoples.
A consistent theme that African environmentalists face are the obstacles created by western interests and colonial mindsets, which get in the way of caring for the environment. Conservation work is navigated through needing to advocate for a plethora of rights; land rights, human rights and indigenous rights, just to be able to reach the work of supporting biodiversity and communities.
