Sub-theme 9. Conservation, environmental justice and the commons
Panel 9.2.
Conservation, Environmental Justice to Re-imagine the Commons in Africa
Is there anything in common between the Batwa of Kahuzi Biega National Park (Democratic Republic of Congo), the Gouros of Marahoué National Park (Ivory Coast) and the Nanguene community of Limpopo National Park (Mozambique)? These examples illustrate the opposition of local actors and civil society organizations to the negative environmental and social implications of land-use planning projects aimed at the conservation of natural areas. The demonstrators denounce the injustice of planning decisions which, at best, are supposed to improve the living conditions of local populations and serve the national interest, but which very often deprive them of decision-making power over their territory and of access to and management of their common resources. The environmental justice atlas lists numerous situations, but African research is rare, particularly in the French-speaking world. To fill this knowledge gap, we have coordinated a collective work that brings together case studies in West, Central and Southern Africa. They illustrate the disruptions to the management of the commons caused by the conservation of space, the tensions between allochthones and natives created by the non-regulation of conservation rules imposed by the State, and the degradation of the living conditions of local populations. The observation is well known, but how can we go beyond that to co-construct and to re-imagine the commons?
1. The socio-economic impacts of Natural Resource abundance in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
Independent, South Africa
The abundance of natural resources in Africa is both a blessing and a curse to many African communities. Due to existing power plays within societies it led to the exploitation, imbalances in relation to access and use of these resources. As a result, the underprivileged are victims of environmental injustice while the most privileged stand to benefit more from these resources. Such cases are common in the KwaZulu Natal province of South Africa. As a result the world has for the longest time seen a rise in environmental health issues, changes in climatic conditions as well as changes in rainfall patterns amongst other issues. This perpetuated food insecurity in many African countries and South Africa is no exception. Although there has been awareness campaigns around environmental injustice, one would consider capacity gaps in neglect around conservation and environmental justice as one of the causes of the increasing issues of natural resource conservation and environmental injustice. Therefore, instead of focusing more on conservation, pro active action should be taken, where different stakeholders in communities or society are brought in to make them understand in depth the seriousness of the issue at hand. Another intervention would be to build capacities in terms of resilience around the issues of conservation and environmental justice. Following a qualitative approach through investigative research, participants will be selected using the purposive sampling technique. Data will be collected using face to face interviews and focus group discussions . Findings will be analysed through thematic analysis.
2. Environmental justice and human well-being bundles in protected areas: Insights from Cameroon
1Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Japan, 2Green Development Advocates, Cameroon
Equity and well-being have been increasingly used as key considerations in assessing the impacts and trade-offs of protected-area conservation on local populations. In this paper we incorporate human well-being bundles to the environmental justice (EJ) framework to get a more holistic understanding of the justice impacts of conservation beyond the usual EJ’s tripartite dimensions. We ask: how does the creation of protected areas affect well-being bundles and perception of justice of local and indigenous communities? We draw our conclusions based on household surveys, FGDs and in-depth interviews across three sites adjacent to the Campo Ma’an National Park (CMNP) in Cameroon. Our (preliminary) results suggest that while provisions of some basic material (e.g. water quality, physical health) and social relationships domains are relatively high, justice domains (e.g. recognition, participation and distribution of benefits) and life satisfaction are perceived to be low. This lack of sense of justice was associated with the decrease of freedom in terms of ability to access common resources, ability to fulfill food needs, ability to perform traditional/cultural practices, and the lack of compensation and unresolved human-wildlife conflicts. Our comparative analysis reveals the variations in the well-being bundles in each of the three villages, influenced by various factors such as demography, cultural traditions, ethnicity, and other political-economic contexts. These findings highlight the need for a more integrated consideration of justice and human well-being when co-constructing and re-imagining future actions to improve the quality of life of local inhabitants alongside sustainability goals in Cameroon and beyond.
3. A call to the common approach to re-imagine environmental justice in the context of Great Green Wall initiatives in Sénégal
1CIRAD, France, 2UMR SENS, France, 3UMI UMMISCO, IRD, UCAD-ESP, 4Université de Montpellier, France, 5INRAE, France, 6Institut Agro, France, 7UMR SELMET, France, 8ISRA-CNRF, Dakar, Sénégal
In Senegal, the Great Green Wall project is mostly led by the National Agency of Reforestation of Great Green Wall (NAGGW) which belongs to the Water and Forestry Services. Natural resources management and land tenure management is entrusted by municipalities since 1964, but Water and Forestry Services still have a role in environmental policy and representatives of the state at local level, especially in the Sylvo-Pastoral Zone (ZSP), Senegal.
By an overlaying of rules, protected spaces and governance instances, sometimes contradictives between a wish to develop pastoralism and to protect environment, the State is maintaining a strong hold in these areas where pastoralism is seen as degradating environment. The State considers he must act as a guarantor and judge of the rational use of natural resources, whereas local stakeholders uphold intimately entwined relationship with nature, including trees.
The State is balanced between the obligation to involve municipalities through a decentralisation process, and the distrust of local communities with regard to their awareness of environmental issues and resources. Due to that, more or less perceptible tensions between NAGGW staff and local stakeholders are appearing, specifically about protected areas where access is strictly forbidden and fences installed.
It is thus important to understand, recognize and promote the local community perceptions, their way of using, sharing commons and land tenure management. Helped by commons approach we will try to understand how the reforestation processes implemented within the framework of the Great Green Wall have upset the socio-ecological balance within the Ferlo, but also how the new reforestation initiatives can enable a process of re-appropriation of the forests at local level.
4. Data institutions for climate-induced migration: Scanning the local data ecosystem in Lake Chad Basin
Centre d’Expertise International de Montréal en Intelligence Artificielle (CEIMIA), Canada
Climate-induced displacement is having a disproportionate effect on marginalized communities around the world. In particular, over 3.2 million people in the Lake Chad Basin region (Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon) have been displaced due to floods, droughts and farmers-herders conflicts. Many local, regional and international organizations are collecting data to better develop adaptation and mitigation strategies. The goal of this project is to explore how collaborative data institutions such as data commons could make a difference on climate-induced migration by enabling safe and equitable sharing of data and empowering individuals and communities to play an active role in the data value chain.
As a first step, we have been conducting fieldwork (october – november 2022) with Cameroon-based governmental and non-profit organizations that are collecting and stewarding data, with the support of the international organizations. During this conference, we will present and discuss our results; amongst them : the mapping of the local data ecosystem and the associated dynamics, the gaps and challenges local organisations are facing, and the opportunities to increase collaboration in the climate migration data ecosystem
