Conversations in the Rainforest Culture, Values, and the Environment in Central Africa Richard B. Peterson Revised and Updated Edition Conversations in the Rainforest ___________________________________________________ Conversations in the Rainforest Culture, Values, and the Environment in Central Africa ___________________________________________________ Richard B. Peterson Revised and Updated Edition © 2017 Richard Peterson. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. In brief, this license states that users may read, copy, and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms: Attribution: Users must give appropriate credit and provide a link to the CC BY-NC- ND 4.0 license. Noncommercial: Users may not use the material for commercial purposes. No Derivatives: If users modify the material, they may not distribute the modified material. No Added Restrictions: Users may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits. Any other use of this material, or any use outside the terms described above, requires permission from the copyright holder. Cover photograph by Richard Peterson. Back cover quotations: Giles-Vernick T (2002) African Studies Review. 45:85-87 Krogman N (2002) Society & Natural Resources. 15:196-198 Flanagan R (2002) Common Ground: Electronic Environmental Studies Journal. V. 1 Iss. 1 First published in 2000 in the United States of America by Westview Press, 5500 Central Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80301-2877, and in the United Kingdom by Westview Press, 12 Hid’s Copse Road, Cumnor Hill, Oxford OX2 9JJ. 1st Edition ISBN 0-8133-3709-7 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peterson, Richard Brent. Conversations in the rainforest: culture, values, and the environment in Central Africa/ revised and updated edition/ Richard Brent Peterson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index (p. ). 1. Environmental ethics—Africa, Central. 2. Human ecology—Africa, Central. 3. Environmental protection—Africa, Central. I. Title. GE42 .P47 2017 179'.1'0967—dc21 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 To the farmers and foragers of the Ubangi and the Ituri who shared with me their lives, their knowledge, and their friendship. And in memory of Nsede Papaju, Asani Mbolé, and Jean Bosco. Contents Acronyms ix List of Illustrations xi Note on Nomenclature xiii Acknowledgments xv Preface, Revised Edition xvii 1 Introduction 1 Conservation for Whom? 2 The Limitations of Imported Knowledge, 4 Thinking About Our Thinking, 5 The Limitations of Indigenous Technical Knowledge, 6 Decolonizing the Mind: Beyond ITK Toward Afrocentricity, 8 Afrocentricity and the Environment, 9 The Tale of the Microhydro and the Mami Wata, 10 Bridge Blueprints, 13 2 Central African Land Ethics: Theoretical Questions and Research Perspectives 21 Ecology, Values, and Value Transformation, 22 Environmental Ethics in Global Perspective, 23 Environmental Ethics in Central Africa, 24 Universalism and Pluralism: The “One/Many Problem”, 26 Is Nature Normative? Premodern World Views and Postmodern Ecological Science, 29 What Is Africa? Listening to Local People’s Voices, 38 So What? Central African Environmental Ethics and Environmental Justice, 43 Repair and Reconstruction: Signs of Hope Grounded in African Soil, 46 Methods and Research Process, 47 Summary and Conclusion, 56 3 Narratives on Nature: An Opening Conversation with Ubangian Farmers 60 A Narrative Approach, 62 Loko: Amid Forest and Savanna, 63 vii viii Bogofo: An Initial Group Discussion, 68 Conclusion, 82 4 Parts of a Whole: Nature, Society, and Cosmology in the Ubangi 86 Making a Living: Implicit Means of Conservation, 87 Living with Neighbors: The Individual-Community Relationship, 106 Living with Meaning in an Interconnected World, 116 Conclusion, 141 5 Reservations About Nature Reserves: Local Voices on Conservation in the Ituri 147 Background: The Ituri Forest, 148 From Mambasa to Epulu, 151 Badengaido: Living Within the RFO, 158 Mbuti Perspectives on the Forest and the RFO, 190 The Bapukele Elders: “The Animals Have Received Their Independence and Are Destroying Our Food”, 208 The Upshot, 214 Paulin Mboya: “If Local People Don’t Support the Reserve, It Will Fail”, 217 Conclusion, 219 6 One Step Removed: The Voices of University-Educated Project Staff and Local Academics 225 Voices of Contrast, 227 Searching for Common Ground, 240 Conclusion, 250 7 Conclusion: Lessons for Environmental Practice, Theory, and Ethics 253 Loko, the CEUM, and Individual-Community Relations, 254 Epulu, the RFO, and Human-Environment Relations, 259 Conclusion, 275 Afterword, Revised Edition 279 Appendices 297 References Cited 333 Index 347 Acronyms ADFL Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire CARPE Central African Regional Program for the Environment CEFRECOF Centre de Formation et Recherche en Conservation Forestière (Center of Training and Research in Forest Conservation) CEUM Communauté Evangelique de l’Ubangi-Mongala (Evangelical Community of the Ubangi-Mongala) CF Congolese franc CoCoSi Comité de Coordination du Site (Site Coordination Committee) CODIBO Communauté pour le Développement Intégral de Bodangabo (Community for Intregral Development of Bodangabo) CPCL comités permanents de consultation locale (standing committees of local consultation) CRED Centre Régional de Développement (Regional DRC Democratic Republic of Congo DUNE Digital Online Repository of the University of New England ECC Evangelical Covenant Church GIC Gilman Investment Company GPS Global Positioning System ICCN Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (Congolese Institute for the Conservation of Nature) IES Institute for Environmental Studies ISP Institut Supérieur de Pedagogie (Institute of Teacher Education) ITK Indigenous Technical Knowledge NGOs nongovernmental organizations NYZS New York Zoological Society OCP Okapi Conservation Project PCP Paul Carlson Partnership PDC parish development committee RDDC regional development demonstration center RDC regional development committee RFO Réserve de Faune à Okapis (Okapi Wildlife Reserve) STAREC United Nations Stabilization and Reconstruction Plan for Eastern DR Congo UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization WCG Wildlife Conservation Global WCS Wildlife Conservation Society WHC World Hope Canada ix Illustrations Boxes 2.1 Focus group discussion guide 54 5.1 Notice to employees at CEFRECOF 198 Figures 1.1 Research problem: Connecting divided shores 14 1.2 Democratic Republic of Congo: Political administrative divisions and research bases 17 3.1 Northwestern Congo, Équateur Region: Ubangi and Mongala Subregions 70 5.1 Northeastern Congo, Orientale Region: Ituri Forest and surrounding area 150 AW.1 CEUM institutional development structure 284 AW.2 Size and location of conservation, agricultural, and hunting zones in the Réserve de Faune à Okapis 293 B.1 Circles of investigation 309 Photographs 1.1 The major east-west road through the Ituri Forest 2 1.2 A microhydro mill in the Ubangi Subregion 11 3.1 The savanna-forest ecotone near Loko 64 4.1 A Mbandja man gathers caterpillars in the forest near Loko 89 xi xii Illustrations 4.2 A group of women farmers plants peanuts in the Ituri 102 5.1 The okapi, a rainforest giraffe endemic to Congo and most abundant in the Ituri 149 5.2 An informational placard about the RFO at the Bronx Zoo 220 5.3 An informational placard about the RFO at the Bronx Zoo 221 6.1 A local villager hired by an Italian commercial logging company wields a chain saw on mahogany logs 235 6.2 Two men produce pit-sawn mahogany lumber in the Ituri 236 7.1 An experimental agroforestry garden at Epulu 269 7.2 Primary forest and plantain gardens intermingled in the eastern Ituri 275 Note on Nomenclature and Congo’s Changing Context It is not uncommon for many changes to take place in a country between the time of one’s research there and the time of completing one’s writing. In Congo, the scope of these changes goes beyond the ordinary to include a seven-month civil war and the installation of a new president, Laurent Kabila, in 1997. Unfortunately, Kabila has been unable to bring peace and restoration to many parts of the country. Currently, the country is in the throes of a second civil war that has escalated to the point of drawing in the forces and interests of numerous surrounding nations. Despite these tumultuous changes, many of the stories, perspectives, and conclusions recorded in this book still pertain. The forests, projects, and people I write about remain even though they are going through trying times. Several of the people whose stories I tell have died, and by most accounts current political-economic conditions in the areas of the country in which I worked are worse than they were in 1995. And although the lessons and insights I recently gained have lost some relevance given the mercurial state of affairs in Congo, the research and narratives remain pertinent and valuable. Knowing which place-names to use in this book has been a difficult decision. In 1995 when this research was carried out and when many of the experiences I record took place, the country was still named Zaire, and longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was still very much in power. Zaire is also the name people used in all of our taped conversations, many of which I quote from directly in the pages that follow. In May 1997, the Alliance of Democratic Forces for