Majete Wildlife Reserve - The Voice of Communities

As we celebrate 20 years since African Parks signed Majete Wildlife Reserve, we listen to the voices from the local communities and hear stories about what Majete means to them.

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The Baka Few people on earth have as close a relationship to the forest as the Baka, Indigenous hunter gatherers who have lived in, protected and shaped the Congo Basin rainforest for generations. Yet they are facing human rights abuses in the name of conservation. The creation of Protected Areas on their ancestral lands, from colonial times up until today, has brought violence, land theft, dispossession and hunger to the Baka. Park rangers, funded and equipped by big conservation organizations (like WWF and African Parks), subject them to harassment, rape, beatings, torture and even death. Once their land is stolen, their sustainable ways of life are criminalized and they are pushed into “alternative livelihoods” to conform with mainstream society. Self-sufficient people are turned into landless and dependent “beneficiaries" of conservation-funded projects or into tourist attractions; while the real culprits of environmental destruction, like mining, oil, logging companies and trophy hunters are considered “partners” of conservation and allowed to carry on with business as usual. The very existence of the Baka as a people is threatened. It’s time to decolonize conservation. Survival International