Ethnoecology of hunting in an empty forest: practices, local perceptions and social change among the Baka (Cameroon) /
- Autores: Romain Duda
- Directores de la Tesis: Victòria Reyes-García (dir. tes.), Serge Bauchet (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2017
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Doyle McKey (presid.), Pablo Domínguez Gregorio (secret.), Jean-Claude García-Zamor (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientales
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Resumen
As other tropical forest areas, Central Africa shelters both a high biodiversity and many local communities who depend on it for their subsistence. However, conservation policies enforced in such contexts rarely succeed to conciliate human development and ecosystem sustainability. Conservationists consider subsistence hunting as a major hurdle to wildlife conservation, but for local populations hunting is deeply embedded in cultural identity, diet, economy, and social and symbolic practices. In this context, this thesis examines the tensions between subsistence hunting and defaunation. Defaunation of Central African forests is driven by a multiplicity of factors including the complex entanglement of wildlife in a wide range of apparently incompatible values and priorities. Beyond western concerns regarding ecosystems sustainability and the intrinsic value of animal species, defaunation also generates concerns related to food security, public health (epizootics), indigenous rights, and even national security (in relation to ivory smuggling). Despite these tensions, the understanding of the human and social dimensions of the “bushmeat crisis” remains underexplored.
This thesis explores the socio-cultural aspects of hunting and wildlife crisis through data collected during 14 months of fieldwork in two Baka villages of southeastern Cameroon. The Baka live in a context polarized by conservation measures on one side and economic incentives for bushmeat trade on the other. This thesis provides a broad view of how the Baka society reacts to a fast changing context where fauna has become a major stake. To do so, I analysed the way Baka hunt, consume, and commercialize wild meat, but also how they interpret environmental changes and their potential impacts on social structure and wellbeing. Through the different chapters of the thesis, I used an ethnoecological approach and combined data collected through qualitative and quantitative methods. Specifically, I used systematic surveys to collect data on informants’ (n=269) socio-economic characteristics, hunting outputs, hunting knowledge, status, and meat consumption. These data are associated with information from semi-structured interviews and from insights generated during long periods of participant observation.
For the Baka, the acquisition and sharing of wild meat remains a critical symbolic and social practice, although the context of hunting seems to have changed to what was previously described. Nowadays, the Baka hunt and consume mostly small mammals, notably rodents, in a landscape seemingly depleted due to past over hunting. Hunting is not equally practiced by all the Baka: while most Baka have relatively low hunting outputs, some others –pushed by economic incentives and the unregulated presence of shotguns in the area– seem to be largely involved in bushmeat trade. Variations in hunting practices relate to variations in hunting knowledge and skills, which in turn are reflected on different social status. Previous patterns of status attribution to hunters are, however, being altered arguably because of the decrease in bushmeat sharing, notably by elephant hunting specialists. Finally this thesis shed light upon Baka perceptions on wildlife changes and conservation measures, a process that is mostly negatively perceived by the Baka, who express feelings of marginalisation and fear due to the use of force and abuses from conservation agents.
This thesis is the first to provide a deep analysis of hunting in the current context of Baka populations. It highlights intracultural variations on social aspects related to hunting, such as diet, status, income, and social perceptions. At the applied level, this work suggests that current conservation policies critically need a full understanding of local people’s cosmovisions, reactions to changes, and the consequences of both defaunation and imposed conservation measures on their social, economic and cultural frameworks.
