Land Rights and the Forest Peoples of Africa

Land rights and the forest peoples of Africa – Part I
adversely affected by conservation developments and regulations, resettlement and
integration plans, insufficient representation in community land claims and a lack of
sufficient funding and support for indigenous organisations.
B
Forest peoples marginalised from the forest
Of the estimated 70–87,000 Batwa in the Great Lakes region, probably less than 7,000 have
direct, regular access to forest today. Forest-based Batwa refer to themselves as Impunyu. A
smaller second group of Batwa in the region are the fisherfolk who live mostly on the shores
of Lake Kivu. The third and largest group – of 60–76,000 Batwa – are referred to as ‘potters’;
for this latter group the forest has long since been destroyed and their sense of identity is
focused on their occupation as potters rather than on their identification as forest peoples. In
addition to these 60–76, 000 Batwa in the Great Lakes region, there are up to 100,000 Batwa
(or Batua) further west, mostly in DRC, whose forest has been destroyed and who are now
almost entirely dependent on their neighbours for their meagre livelihoods.
Forest-based Batwa in Rwanda
Many who no longer have access to forest remain on the farms that have taken over their
traditional land, where they are often described as squatters despite the fact that the land has
always been theirs. Other areas formerly inhabited by them have been taken over by
conservation projects, and forest administrators often see Batwa access to the forest as illegal,
despite the fact that they have lived in and relied on these forests since long before
agriculturalist and pastoralist peoples, and conservation programmes, arrived in the area. As
a result, more now ‘live on the borders of forest and agricultural areas but use the forest on a
daily basis’. 64 In Rwanda this is primarily in the north, in the areas bordering on Gishwati
forest and near the Parc des Volcans, and in Nyungwe forest in the south. There has been no
effective consideration of the needs of the Batwa in the creation of these parks and forest
reserve areas.
Forest-based Batwa in Kivu, DR Congo
Forest Batwa live in many areas of Kivu province, DRC, especially around the Kahuzi–Biega
National Park. Between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s, the roughly 3,000 Batwa living
inside the Kahuzi–Biega National Park in Kivu were expelled and have subsequently received
brutal treatment when found hunting in the park. As a consequence their way of life and
livelihoods were destroyed, and no provision was made to help them. 65
As in Rwanda and Burundi, the Batwa in Kivu, DRC, are particularly vulnerable in times of
violence because they live in the remote areas where armed groups hide out. Most Batwa here
have fled their villages, and they are caught helplessly between different armed groups, often
being forced to act as guides and trackers for one group and then having revenge wreaked
upon them by another for doing so. 66
64 J Lewis (2000) The Batwa of the Great Lakes Region, p 13.
65 A K Barume (2000) Heading towards extinction Indigenous rights in Africa: the case of the Twa of the
Kahuzi–Biega National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo, IWGIA, Copenhagen.
66 Réseau des Associations Autochtones Pygmées (2004) Erasing the board, Minority Rights Group, London.
Kidd & Kenrick 22
March 2009