There is an orangutang in my bedroom

The video Rang-tan: The Story of Dirty Palm Oil by Greenpeace International presents the impact of deforestation from both a human and animal perspective. The child in the video sees wildlife as disrupting her home, but the wildlife see animals being forced out of their homes by humans, whose actions have a negative impact on climate change. The video suggests that anyone, including girls, can become involved in conservation.

Activity

Think about what the girl said she would do at the end of the video. Do you think you can take similar actions? Write your thoughts about this in your journal.

Case study

Conservation versus livelihoods for some women?

It is important to understand that not all women totally support the protection of natural resources and the environment or climate change mitigation actions in their communities. For example, women who live within the coastal Cantanhez Forest National Park, which is a protected area, face certain challenges in following the regulations to protect the environment and maintaining their livelihoods.

The Cantanhez Forest National Park in Guinea-Bissau, West Africa, was established in 2007 to preserve the remaining forests and endangered animal species such as chimpanzees, baboons and monkeys. No hunting is allowed in the park. The protected area also has porcupines, gazelles and antelopes.

In keeping with their culture and gender roles, the women do not participate in hunting, logging or producing cash crops. Only the men participate in those activities. The women and girls have fewer educational opportunities than boys and men, cannot inherit land and do not participate in community decision-making. They produce subsistence crops to feed the family; cultivate rice, peanuts and oranges; gather firewood; and produce some palm oils and traditional medicines from what is available in the forests.

The rainy seasons are getting shorter because of climate change and the area experiences rising sea levels to the point where sea water enters the women’s rice plots. To ensure that they could continue to plant rice, the women began slash-and-burn clearing in the forest to grow dry field rice. Rice is the basis of the Guinean diet, so the women feel threatened by malnutrition when this staple is unavailable or scarce, even though other crops such as cassava may be available.

The women who live within the national park perceived the park as being responsible for malnutrition, because their crops were either eaten or damaged by the wildlife, especially the chimpanzees. They were unwilling to participate in conservation efforts because they were dependent on the crops and forest products that were grown or available in the park. They saw the park as a threat to their welfare and survival.

There was very little infrastructure in the village, which meant limited access to health services and schools. The women had very little alternative opportunities for livelihoods. They felt that they had no choice but to break the rules for the park.

The women were also disappointed that they did not receive compensation from the government for their damaged crops.

Adapted from Costa, S., Casanova, C., & Lee, P. (2017). What does conservation mean for women? The case of the Cantanhez Forest National Park. Conservation & Society, 15(2), Special Section: The Green Economy in the South, pp. 168-178. http://www.jstor.com/stable/26393284

Note it!

The case study above shows the importance of dialogue and participation in decision-making in conservation actions. The social and economic needs of the people who are affected by conservation actions must be considered. In the case of the Cantanhez Forest National Park, if compensation and alternative livelihoods, for example, are not offered, it is possible the women and their families will continue to break the rules and the park may not be sustainable.

Note it!

Human versus wildlife conflict

Wild animals are eaten by humans worldwide, but over-hunting threatens some species with extinction and threatens many people with being denied access to a source of nutrition. Regulations that deny hunters access to wildlife can threaten livelihoods. The solutions to the human versus wildlife conflict include:

• reducing the demand for illegal wild meat in cities and towns, because research has shown that over-poaching is a result of trying to satisfy the demand from outside the Indigenous communities. Since people in cities have alternative sources of food, efforts are made to identify culturally acceptable and sustainable alternatives.
• sensitising the local, Indigenous population on the management and conservation of wildlife and vegetation.
• encouraging the participation of Indigenous people in the management and conservation actions (returning control and use of the resource to local communities and enforcing compensation).
• creating and enforcing legal and sustainable regulations for the sale of wildlife.

Adapted from O’Connell, E. (2023). How to balance the needs of both humans and wildlife. CIFOR–ICRAF Forests News. https://forestsnews.cifor.org/81237/how-to-balance-the-needs-of-both-humans-and-wildlife?fnl=

Licence: CC-BY-NC-SA4.0

Reading

Dahlin, J., & Svensson, E. (2021). Revitalizing traditional agricultural practices: Conscious efforts to create a more satisfying culture. Sustainability, 13(20), 11424. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011424

Traditional medicine. (2023, 25 December). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_medicine.

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0