Untold story of Cameroon hunters who lived in forest for 4,000 years

By Nneka Nwogwugwu

A village located in southeastern Cameroon, the Indigenous Baka of Dimgba are one of dozens of hunter-gatherer groups of the Congo basin diversifying their food sources to maintain a self-sufficient and sustainable lifestyle.

The Baka, commonly referred to as ‘the forest people’, have been living in Cameroon’s evergreen and semi-deciduous rainforests for over 4,000 years.

Around 831 species of plants including the Moabi (Baillonella toxisperma), a tree highly prized for its oil, are found in the rainforest. Researchers also estimate that it is home to more than 50 species of mammals.

The Dimgba group depended heavily on the forest and its resources to sustain their livelihood.

However, after the First World War, the French government implemented a zoning policy which forced Indigenous peoples, including the Baka in Cameroon’s rainforests, to reside in settlements along the road. The promotion of this policy continued on after Cameroon gained its independence, forcing the Baka to slowly relinquish their nomadic lifestyle.

“Despite being aware of their collective rights to forest resources, [the Baka] are now constrained by a zoning policy that establishes areas for hunting, gathering and fishing,” explains a U.N. report on the Baka food system.

Later in the 1990s, the Cameroon government established a zoning policy which further contributed to the Baka’s slow transition from a mobile lifestyle to a post-forager one.

This divided the rainforest into non-permanent forest and permanent forest, with the former constituting a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) agroforestry zone on each side of the road that passes through Gribe. The permanent forest zone was either turned into protected areas or was subject to concession areas for timber logging.

Farming is only authorized in the agroforestry zone, while subsistence fishing, hunting and gathering are allowed in both the agroforestry zone and logging zone. In the protected areas, hunting is completely banned. However, the collection of non-timber forest products is allowed if it is included in the protected area management plan.

Nevertheless, they have managed to maintain a food system predominantly based on the forest and its resources. Eighty-one percent of their food is obtained through hunting, gathering and fishing activities, according to a U.N. report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The new scientific report provides the most detailed and comprehensive account to date of the sustainable food systems of Indigenous Peoples around the world.

In an interview with Mongabay, chief of the FAO’s Indigenous Peoples Unit, Yon Fernández de Larrinoa, said that the food system of the Baka is proof that Indigenous peoples are the best protectors of biodiversity. But, as it has for many years, their food system will continue to change.

The Baka source foods from 12 food groups (seven from their fields, eight from the forest), providing substantial diversity in their diets.

According to the FAO report, the Baka rely on approximately 60 animal species, more than 83 wild edible species, at least 6 common species of fish and 32 crop species. They are known to cultivate a reasonable diversity of cultigens and cultivars, particularly for plantain, of which they eat 28 varieties, and cassava, 18 varieties.

Throughout the year, the Dimgba of Gribe undertake food generation and production activities in the village and forest. For instance, food resources are scarcer during the major dry season in Gribe as the hard ground makes it difficult to plant crops or set traps to capture wild animals. But it is the ideal weather to clear the land for their small-scale farming activities. Before embarking on this activity, however, a number of factors including soil quality, crop growth and forest vegetation are taken into consideration.

Although the Baka are successful at maintaining their food security, increasingly constrained access to the forest is threatening the group’s traditional knowledge and the resilience of their food system.

“The relationship with the forest and their neighbors provide good resilience to the Baka’s food system and great latitude to adjust to the environmental changes affecting their daily livelihood,” states the report’s authors.

“However, adaptive attempts by the Baka to the changing environment do not comprehensively solve all the problems.”

According to authors of the report, confined access to the forest is a factor seriously compromising the food security of the Baka of Gribe. Logging, intensified bushmeat trade, sport hunting, protected areas and the government zoning policy are cumulative drivers of change that constantly challenge the resilience of the Baka’s food system.

Source: Mongabay