7. FINDINGS

7.1 USE OF FOREST PRODUCTS

7.1.1 FUELWOOD

KINSHASA

In Kinshasa's poor districts where most of the capital's five million inhabitants live in severe poverty, traditional methods of cooking with charcoal are the norm. Electricity lines do not extend there and bottled gas or even kerosene is prohibitively expensive. In 1980 it was estimated that 70% of urban households (compared with the near totality of rural families) relied on fuelwood for cooking but also for a bit of warmth and light.²⁸ In 1986, despite the country's vast hydroelectric capacities, wood accounted for 87.7% of total energy needs.²⁹ As there is no economic alternative to charcoal use, deforestation around Kinshasa, into Bas-Zaire and Bandundu continues. Charcoal, referred to as makala in Zaire, is available in Kinshasa's markets or can be purchased by roadside vendors along roads linking city and forest. Makala's importance to Kinshasa can be deduced by the fact that a large district of the capital bears the same name. That erstwhile wooded area provided charcoal for the city. Traditional fuelwood gathering, while being a social institution, is a serious source of tree removal around Kinshasa. The forest has already receded by hundreds of kilometres from Kinshasa.³⁰
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YAOUNDE

Yaoundé is located between Kinshasa and Libreville on the economic spectrum and despite serious economic problems, not least related to the January 1994 devaluation by 50% of the CFA franc, there is relatively little domestic recourse to charcoal cooking. There is however a specialised charcoal market in the Briqueterie district and a large surface area of the Mokolo market in central Yaoundé is occupied by charcoal vendors who supply semi-permanent roadside restaurants. These small restaurant stands are nutritionally and environmentally important because food preparation in large quantities is more fuel efficient than preparation for single individuals. These latter thus find access to warm meals which are becoming rare for many of the urban poor throughout Africa.³¹

Bottled gas and electricity can be found in most households largely because the government has invested heavily in hydroelectric power and the energy sector in general. By the year 2010 Cameroon is scheduled to be an electricity exporting country.³² It will be environmentally important to monitor whether or not domestic charcoal consumption increases as Cameroon plunges deeper into recession.

LIBREVILLE

In Libreville, the wealthiest city in Africa south of the Sahara, electricity and gas are available in even poor neighbourhoods. The use of charcoal for domestic cooking is consequently rare. It is limited in large part to semi-permanent roadside restaurants (often run by Cameroonian women) or to middle class households which grill meat or fish for culinary or cultural reasons. Charcoal was not observed in any of Libreville's principal markets.

OTHER USES

Wood is also used throughout central Africa as a raw material for furniture-making or as building material. The urban poor generally construct their shanty towns with lumber sold in local specialised markets, such as Yaoundé's Mokolo market. Demographic shifts toward urban areas and population growth will increase needs for lumber.

7.1.2 BUSH MEAT

"...en ville, le problème alimentaire est avant tout un problème de revenu: Il y a ceux qui peuvent se nourrir convenablement, il y a ceux qui ne le peuvent pas, et il y a ceux qui se débrouillent..."³³

"In Africa an amazing variety of wildlife species are eaten: including all wild ungulates, primates, hyraxes, rodents, all cats, and many species of birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and mollusks."³⁴

Habitat loss and intensive (opposed to subsistence) hunting by man have both been blamed as being the major sources of decline in fauna populations. These two threats are associated with the forest-city interface because:

-habitat loss occurs as urban areas spread, due to population increase and demographic shifts or as city dwellers penetrate into surrounding areas to cultivate crops (for auto-consumption or commerce);

-intensive commercial hunting has become a common means of earning a living: profits are immediate and investment limited.

While hunting today is an activity reserved to men, women play a pivotal role in the commercialisation of game³⁵. Acting as market vendors or intermediaries, it is often these women who provide for there families, especially in the urban environment. Game is sold either whole, in parts, or cooked parts, depending on the size, cost and rarity of the species. In traditional hunting and gathering societies, while big game hunting was the monopoly of men, women could go after less noble species such as rats, monkeys or birds.

The economic crisis has had a significant impact on wildlife depletion. This is especially so in Cameroon and Gabon because large numbers of the urban un- or under-employed have taken up hunting as a means of earning a livelihood or have become involved in the commercialisation of game.³⁶ The proximity between forest and city; the existence of access roads and train services linking these zones³⁷; the possibility of acquiring (through purchase of barter) either industrial or home-made rifles; the possibility of acquiring steel wire for traps (wire loop leg hold snares); and ostensible official inability or reluctance to squelch poaching and other forms of hunting are factors which contribute to bush meat being available in the market place.

In addition to these socio-economic factors, just as important cultural factors influence bush meat consumption. It has been observed that with respect to forest dwellers "the quantity of meat eaten during a meal is relatively small compared to starches... but the taste of meat is essential if the meal is to be a success". The same author notes that in the Baka language, "scarce game" signifies "famine".³⁸ This attachment is maintained by city dwellers and is so strong that in some cases householders are willing to devote valuable financial resources for specific types or parts of bush meat in preference to less expensive sources of protein.

The desire to partake of game - despite its cost, the dubious sanitation conditions it is sold in (off the ground or street), the use of hazardous chemical preservatives such as formaldehyde - can be accounted for by taste, diet, curiosity, conviviality, tradition, status, ritual, defiance of taboos and nostalgia. It transcends social levels and ethnic origins, but not all religious divides as Muslims must respect precise injunctions before being able to eat game.

While some consumers prefer to purchase freshly-killed game because they intend to stew it according to a particular recipe or because they feel that they can control more carefully the quality of the meat, others have a clear predilection for the cured taste. Africans use varied techniques to cure meat: smoking in specially designed huts with dried wood, sun-drying, grilling with dry wood or charcoal, roasting over an open fire, etc. Depending on the animal's species and the users ethnic tradition, game can be preserved with or without fur or skin. In some cases the latter are seared off before being preserved, in others, such as the smoked monkey available in Kinshasa, the animal is smoked with both skin and fur, a method which permeates the meat with a very pronounced taste. The effect produced through these techniques is of capital research interest because it raises questions on the desire to eat bush meat per se or the desire to feel the smoked taste on the palate. The question should be addressed because if desire for the smoked taste comes first, than it may be possible to raise and process livestock for smoking: a step which could relieve the existing pressure on central Africa's wildlife.

LIBREVILLE

Of the three capitals visited during our mission, fresh bush meat is most abundantly available in Libreville. This abundance is especially interesting and somewhat paradoxical because eating habits have been justly described as being "very Western".³⁹ A report for the World Wildlife Fund estimates that four thousand tons of bush meat enter the city monthly.⁴⁰ It comes from the Wonga Wongué plain, from between the cities of Mitzic and Ndjole, around the Mokokou area and to a lesser extent from the Mondah Reserve just north of Libreville. In Gabon, there is a direct influence on hunting intensity from the logging sector. Areas previously difficult to penetrate are opened up by loggers which enables hunters to exploit rich game reserves. Much of this game is in fact consumed by the loggers themselves or the hunters' villages but some of it ends up on urban market places.

Species observed in Libreville were numerous types of monkey, mandrill, bush pig, porcupine, civet cat, antelope, water antelope, gazelle, pangolin, squirrel, various rodents, turtles, etc. This abundance can be explained by low population density; rich hunting areas; the relatively high standard of living in the Gabonese capital (people can actually afford to eat meat on a fairly regular basis unlike in so many other African cities); low government priority attached to animal husbandry (30,000 head of livestock was forecast for 1992)⁴¹; the scarcity of grazing land; trypanosomiasis; and rising costs of imported meat due to the recession and devaluation of the CFA franc.

The principal venues in Libreville where bush meat is sold include the central markets at N'Kembo, Mont Bouet, the port-side market of Oloumi and to a lesser extent along the road stretching between the city and the Mondah reserve. Other smaller markets were visited but no significant amounts of bush meat were seen in them.

The recent increase of commercial hunters who have no special affinity for the forest, or precise knowledge of urban requirements, results in overkill. Waste and discount prices entail. The distinction between commercial (modern techniques) and subsistence (traditional techniques) hunting is an issue which local governments must address not only in the definition of forest-related legislation but in its application as well.

Culinary preference is expressed for fresh meat prepared in local sauces and then for smoked and salted meat prepared in the same sauces. Bush meat consumption is clearly deep-rooted and is part of daily eating habits in Libreville. It is however clear that fish is the principal source of protein for the Gabonese in general and the Librevillois in particular. Our research has nonetheless focused on bush meat because it is the archetype of a forest product unlike fish which in senso stricto comes from the ocean or river.

YAOUNDE⁴²

Consumption of game in Yaoundé is considerably less conspicuous than in Libreville⁴³ which is somewhat of an historical irony because the then very rich and seemingly "inexhaustible" supply of wild animals in the Owendo region was one reason why its German founders selected Yaoundé for their post: it offered game from savannah and forest.⁴⁴

For most Yaoundé residents, game is consumed on special occasions, meaning for example, holidays, pay day, or welcoming a family elder or special guest. Consumption is thus rather limited, evidence confirmed in a report on global eating habits in Yaoundé. J.L. Dongmo (1990) estimated that game was present at only 2.4% of noontime or evening meals, categorising it essentially as "a special treat".⁴⁵

Consumption of game is relatively infrequent, or at least not easily visible in Yaoundé's markets, for the following reasons:

-Lower cost meat alternatives are available. Goat, sheep and pig comes from the west and sheep and cattle from the north. Beef, the most commonly consumed meat emanates from the Adamaoua Plateau.⁴⁶ The Cameroonian government has invested heavily in animal husbandry as revealed by the VI Five Year Development Plan. In 1986, national production targets for 1991 set per capita consumption of animal and animal derivative protein at 17.4 kilograms.⁴⁷ The same report estimates game consumption between 1986 and 1991 to be 2.48 kilos annually - a figure which needs to be viewed with reserve.⁴⁸ The FAO estimated game consumption to be 5 kilograms in 1988.⁴⁹

-As mentioned above, a part of the Yaoundé population traces its origins to the savannah regions in the north of the country: these northerners are not game eaters by tradition. Moreover, many of them are Muslims who are proscribed from eating meat which is not slaughtered according to specific religious injunctions.

-The Yaoundé hinterland has been hunted out and distances between the forest areas rich in game remain relatively isolated. Despite improved road and rail links between the forest areas and Yaoundé commercialisation of game continues to pose certain logistical, official, investment and organisational difficulties.

-A good part of the bush meat that does enter Yaoundé never transits through a market. The more affluent families arrange for supplies to be delivered directly at home either by "buy'em sell'em" or by the hunters (or poachers) themselves. Many part-time hunters use weapons owned by these families who consequently pay less for meat. The hunters, in exchange, can kill for themselves or for other clients.

The Mvog Mbi and Elig-Edzoa markets and central rail terminus are the main theatres for buying and selling game in Yaoundé. Fresh and smoked meat is available in the three of them.⁵⁰ Game is also found in the Mokolo, Essos, Mbankolo, Ekounou and Central Markets and around the centrally located bus depot.

Species available include, various types of primates and ungulates (antelope, bush-buck, buffalo, gazelle), boar, tiger-cat, porcupine and other rodents, pangolin, etc. Principal buyers and consumers are individual householders, hotels and small restaurants referred to locally as "chantiers" or "circuits".

Highly seasonal, game is available in greatest abundance between May and August, although some species can still be found during the other months. It is hunted and trapped in the north near Tibati and Yoko; in the south near Oveng; and the north-east near Bétaré Oya. These are names of towns along fairly well-maintained macadamised roads. Nganga-Eboko and other stations between Belaboa and Obala, on the northern rail line are also sources of and relays for game. Truck, pick-up truck, rail, bus or car, and boat or motorcycle to a lesser extent, are the means of transportation. The hunters themselves carry their prey out of the forest to transportation networks.

Hunters, sellers and re-sellers form a dynamic link between forest and Yaoundé: ethnically, they are generally Eton, Bassa, Bamileke, Bafia, Yambassa, Sanaga or Mbo. In Yaoundé, it is people with forest origins themselves who are among the principal consumers of game because of their traditional eating habits.

In addition to bush meat, other forest (and river) creatures eaten in Yaoundé are snakes, varanian and crocodile. Derivatives of all these products are a wide variety of skins, small animal tails, monkey skulls, trophies, etc. which reveal ritual, symbolic and decorative practices and attachments.

KINSHASA

In Zaire, hunting game is a widespread traditional activity providing a reported 75% of animal protein intake of the total population.⁵¹ This percentage, however, is misleading with respect to Kinshasa where residents are confronted by the compounded problem of scarcity and high cost of meat in general⁵² and bush meat in particular. Indeed many of the Kinshasa poor are seriously under-nourished, even threatened by famine.

Bush meat found in Kinshasa's markets (Marché Centrale de la Gombe, Simba Zikida, Lemba, N'Djili, etc.) emanates essentially from the dense forest areas of Haut Zaire and Equateur. Fresh bush meat is flown in but in small quantities given the restricted number of well-to-do Zairians or expatriates able to pay for such a luxury. Smoked meat is shipped down the river by barge, but throughout the journey small boats and canoes approach the barge which is transformed into a vast floating market. The journey from Kisangani can take up to three weeks and from Mbandaka from between seven and ten days. Some bush meat also comes from the savannah and forest areas of Bandundu and Bas-Zaire from where it is transported mainly by road. It has also been reported that bush meat is flown in from Angola:⁵³ a seemingly trivial detail but in fact an important point because it raises the question about the internationalisation of bush meat commerce. Despite very serious pressure from poachers and habitat loss some game can still be found in the Kinshasa region: around the Bateke Plateau, Maluku, N'sele and Mont Ngafula.⁵⁴

The type of bush meat observed almost exclusively in Kinshasa's markets was smoked monkey. It comes from the north by barge and is discharged either at Maluku and subsequently dispatched to Kinshasa by road or is discharged at the increasingly dilapidated ONATRA port facility or along the "beaches" (informal ports) of Kingabwa, Ndolo, Baramoto, Marsavco, etc.

An initial transaction takes place between the person transporting the primates (most individuals coming from the north have between one and twenty pieces for sale⁵⁵) and an intermediary buyer/seller. The subsequent transaction, generally in pieces because few householders can afford to pay for a whole smoked monkey, constitutes an interesting matrix of sociological phenomena and increased pressure on the species. In recent years more and more women, often former ndumba have been observed selling smoked monkey. Ndumba is the local appellation of semi-professional prostitutes, who given increased awareness of AIDS have changed trades either through loss of clientele or concern for their own health. The economic advantage of this newly adopted trade is threefold: cash is earned; some parts of the animal are consumed by the family providing much needed protein; and purchase of even a single monkey is a hedge against inflation as it is sold over a period of approximately one week. When inflation reaches the zenith of between 4,651% and 8,027% (1993), depending on the estimates, this hedge is not insignificant.⁵⁶

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KISANGANI

Two Zairian researchers have carried out studies and written reports relating to bush meat in and around Kisangani.⁵⁷ Working with a research programme co-ordinated by the Belgian l'Institut African/CEDAF , Kamandji Lossi has attempted to quantify the amounts of bush meat, fuel wood and other forest products brought into the city by "muscular power", meaning most notably bicycle and canoe. Malekani Mbukulirahi (1991) has produced a fairly detailed work on how game is hunted and sold in both Kinshasa and Kisangani, suggests ways of domesticating game and presents social and economic arguments why this domestication is necessary.

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7.1.3 OTHER FOREST PRODUCTS

Medicinal Plants

Vegetal medicinal substances (roots, leaves, bark) from the forest are used for a plethora of real and imagined ailments, maladies and deficiencies. Their application constitutes a time-tested approach to care, healing and prevention which Western science (especially in the pharmaceutical field) has gradually come to recognise. Due to the high costs of imported pharmaceuticals (which are often sold under the scorching sun or after dates for recommended use have expired) these plants are viable alternatives. The prescription of these plants, like certain other substances necessitates knowing how to administer them. Traditional healers (nganga in many Bantu languages) form a link between city and forest: they practice in the urban environment but go into the forest to find or buy their substances. Identification and use of these substances remains shrouded in a great deal of mystery which increases the prestige of the nganga , who use them to cure "natural" and "supernatural" maladies. A similar interaction between forest and city occurs when city dwellers return to their forest villages to consult nganga who remain forest-based. This is especially common in cases of fertility problems.

Insects⁵⁸

Caterpillars and other insect larvae are valued for their protein content and for taste. Easily transported, insects are eaten roasted, dried, fried or boiled with leaves. Numerous vendors had large quantities of live caterpillars for sale in the markets of Kinshasa.

Forest Fruits

Some fruits gathered in the forest and consumed by city dwellers are eaten for their meat, others for their seeds or kernels from which fatty oils can be extracted. Derivatives of fruits can command relatively high prices in town. Oily paste extracted from different types of wild mango is specially treated and used in preparation of sauces for example.

Leaves

Leaves have varying amounts of protein and many species are edible after having been cooked. Africans also use leaves for wrapping prepared or uncooked food or for packaging spices and herbs in the market place. Some foods are cooked in leave wrappings. Leaves are removed from both wild and cultivated plants. Manioc leaves are especially appreciated throughout central Africa. Fidèle Mialoundama (1993) has analysed the "Nutritional and Socio-Economic Value of Gnetum leaves in Central African Rain Forest" remarking that:

Gnetum leaves have been eaten for many years by the populations of central Africa. They are a source of proteins and mineral elements in appreciable quantities. The leaves are sold all year round by women in central Africa and even in some European cities... Its cultivation would integrate harmoniously into a coherent development policy of local cultivation of indigenous food plants, one of the effective methods of fighting hunger.⁵⁹
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Mushrooms

Highly seasonal, mushrooms are appreciated by city dwellers for their mineral and protein content, as well as for their taste. Mushrooms are not abundantly available in urban areas due to their short life span.

Oil Palm Products

-palm wine

Drinking palm wine is a deep-rooted social institution with important cultural implications. Unadulterated by preservatives, palm wine remains fresh for no more than a few days which means that it is not easily found far from the forest. None was observed in Kinshasa but in Yaoundé and Libreville it was common to see groups of red-eyed men in market areas or near transportation meeting points drinking it from cups made from cut off water bottles. From forest producer to urban consumer there is usually only one or two intermediaries so the socio-economic link between forest and city remains strong. The wine can be enhanced by soaking tree bark in it.

-palm oil

Palm oil is a staple in the African diet: city dwellers and peoples in the hinterland alike use it daily. It is also used in cosmetics and ointments. Commerce of palm oil is an important component of central African economies as it is a cash generating export commodity.

Trophies

The non-comestible parts of forest animals and reptiles such as skins, antlers, tusks, hands or skulls (gorilla), feet and hair (elephant) are largely exported or purchased by tourists. City dwellers, however, possess these kinds of trophies for decoration, for ritual purposes, or as status symbols.

Honey

Wild and produced honey is appreciated by city dwellers for its nutrition and taste; as a fermentation agent in home-made wine and beer; honeycomb has some petty domestic uses such as glue.

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7.2 ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERCEPTIONS⁶⁰

Forests are Gold. They are our riches to be cared for for our children. ⁶¹

An integral part of any forest conservation scheme is understanding how city dwellers perceive the forest, its people and resources and related activities. This is just as important as evaluating the socio-economic use of forest resources because perceptions influence use and use in turn leads to depletion. Analysis of perceptions thus constitutes a necessary step in the process of conceptualising action plans aimed at conservation.

Anthropologists have studied the interaction of forest people with their environment extensively but study of urban perceptions of the forest is only nascent. It is already clear however that the forest remains important to a large percentage of them even though they hold views far different from those of Europeans.⁶² Aside from socio-economic and spiritual/symbolic dimensions, songs, expressions, proverbs, fables, literature, etc. are vehicles which contribute to central Africans' continued attachment to the forest.

Identifying perceptions poses certain research difficulties because individuals are somewhat reluctant to express themselves on the subject and because relations with the forest can be contradictory. While urban masses may verbalise, and in fact feel deep respect for the forest, they proceed (perhaps unwittingly) towards its destruction. This occurs for subsistence purposes or out of ignorance. Public awareness campaigns can thus benefit from an understanding of perceptions.

Elite relations with the forest are also contradictory. Political leaders can draft legislation with ecological overtones or create reserves (often paid for by international organisations) but they continue to condone, also for economic reasons or political accommodation, non-sustainable forest exploitation. Some of these same leaders are known to be among the most destructive hunters of big game, often hunting from helicopters.

A representative idea of how city dwellers perceive the forest can be formulated by looking at a few selective themes. Attitudes surrounding these themes include respect or even veneration, fear, nostalgia, spiritual attachment, subsistence or commercial interest and in some instances indifference.

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The Forest Space

Traditionally, the forest space is perceived in a deeply spiritual way. It is a place where the visible and the invisible are in harmony, where man, ancestors and spirits communicate amongst themselves. There is evidence that these traditional perceptions are maintained by city dwellers.

It is perceived with fear: a dreadful environment where one can come into contact with the unknown; a place hardly hospitable, full of wild and dangerous beasts. It is also the realm of the dead.⁶³ People living on the outskirts of town, at the border of forest areas, remove large trees from fear of lightning and brush from fear of attracting serpents and other dangerous creatures. Other creatures which in fact pose no threats at all are also perceived in a frightful way. Owls and bats are apprehended because of their nocturnal habits. Another dimension of fear is that of encountering forest wardens in restricted areas.

The forest is considered with nostalgia. The rate of rural migration in general and forest migration in particular has led to a situation whereby the city is densely populated with individuals who spent their childhood in forest villages, or offspring of these individuals. Many city dwellers thus have warm childhood memories of hunting, fishing, making and setting traps to catch birds, gathering fruits and nuts, etc. Return visits to the forest however remain pragmatic: few urbanites are interested in going to the forest merely to walk, swim, meditate or commune with nature (which are Western uses of the forest): they go there generally to remove something.

There are however some exceptions to this last remark because city dwellers frequently return to the forest to visit family. Visits also take place in ceremonial contexts, e.g. wedding celebrations, initiation or mourning.

The forest is perceived as having therapeutic values. Despite frequent instances of drowning, swimming in its rivers purifies, keeps evil spirits at bay, cures sleep-related and psychic disturbances.

The forest is perceived as being a vast food reserve, probably the most vivid perception in the urban mind. Fish from the rivers and bush meat can be found there: there are fruits, vegetables, spices and herbs, tubers, etc. as well.

Depending on the proximity between forest and city, urban dwellers themselves have taken to weekend or afternoon cultivating in the suburban or forest areas. This is frequent around Libreville, comparatively less frequent around Yaoundé because of longer distances (but a factor facilitated now by the one shift work day) and uncommon around Kinshasa except in the not too distant savannah ecotones. Family members sometimes stay behind in these areas to tend to or protect plantations. There is a perverse logic here because city dwellers perceive the forest as offering the possibility of food purveyance, but the accuracy of this perception results in increased deforestation in the urban halo as land is swidden to make way for cultivation. (Traditional slash and burning techniques, however, do not destroy the forest in the same way.) A similar scenario applies to perceptions of the hunt. The land use subject is vast because it raises pertinent questions of ownership, usufruct and customary land rights in general.

The forest bestows social recognition. The outward signs of class and status in the forest as compared to in the city are completely different. A nganga , for example, who may be a lowly clerk in town during the week "becomes a king" in the forest thanks to his knowledge and manipulation of medicinal or ritual substances. Likewise a skilful hunter who has another job in town can be widely acclaimed in the forest if he returns to the village after a successful day of hunting.

The forest represents physical security. Increasing violence in cities due to poverty and disrupted social systems has created a generalised atmosphere of concern for self and belongings. The forest is thus perceived as a safe haven against criminality and violence. It is also, somewhat inversely, perceived as a refuge against police, the military and the administration.⁶⁴ For others it is a fortress. President Mobutu, for example, now spends most of his time deep in the forest at Gabdolite, isolated from the strife reigning in Kinshasa. It also represents material security because it offers the possibility to earn a living or at least feed one's family.

The forest is associated with boredom. Life in forest villages means hard work, drudgery and limited entertainment possibilities. (These aspects were developed in Section 6.)

Wildlife

As explained above, hunting and eating game is deep-rooted in central Africa. City dwellers accordingly perceive wildlife as a resource to be exploited commercially or for subsistence. While there is awareness that species are being depleted, the strong desire to eat game (for nutritional, economic or cultural reasons) supersedes such concern.

Wild animals are perceived in spiritual and ritual contexts.

-In Beti tradition (Cameroon), wild animals are considered to belong to spirits of the dead. Hunting these animals thus necessitates following a series of rituals in order to stay on good terms with their masters: phantoms of ancestors. A type of quantitative control entails because hunters must not take excessive game if they are to avoid the wrath of the spirits.⁶⁵ The unfastening of ritual attachment thus contributes to increased slaying which is a phenomenon exacerbated by urban influences. To the detriment of the animal kingdom, the time has long since passed when:

"Partout, considérant les animaux sauvages comme des 'partenaires', les chasseurs aménagent avec ces derniers des relations de réciprocité calquées sur le modèle des relations sociales."⁶⁶

-The Owendo of Yaoundé believe that eating monkey will give strength and ward off injuries.

-In Kinshasa, eating monkey is also perceived as giving strength, but intelligence and agility as well.

-Some Bwiti (Libreville) claim to possess totems from cats, boar, elephant, antelope and parrots. The owner of such a totem is proscribed from killing or eating meat of the same animal. Other city dwellers trace their lineage to zoomorphic ancestors: the same proscriptions apply here as well. This point is important because it reveals the endurance of spiritual links between forest and city.

Not all city dwellers respect traditional values relating to bush meat. Anonymity, modern attitudes, inter-ethnic unions, distance from paternal or clan censure incite the breaking of bush meat-related taboos. The more well-to-do can afford to purchase and eat choice cuts or parts once reserved for village elders; others give vent to their curiosity to consume meat which they were not allowed to eat in the village; and women may transgress long-standing culinary taboos out of disdain, emancipation or indifference.⁶⁷

Trees, Timber and the Environment⁶⁸

Yaoundé

There is considerable political and emotional debate surrounding forest exploitation throughout central Africa but it varies significantly from one country to another. It is most widely discussed in Cameroon where there is increasing concern about the environment. Locally produced reports in both French and English have been published (one dealing specifically with urban perceptions)⁶⁹; a Parti Ecologique is increasingly active in environmental public awareness campaigns as a political organisation; and a number of NGOs working in the area have been constituted. These include Eviron Projet , the urban-based Société des Coopératives de Développement Rural or the Service d'Appui aux Initiatives Locales de Développement. In 1985 environmental programmes were launched by UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB).

With specific reference to timber, the sector is the focus of strong government support. Indeed, "logging has now expanded to cover about half of the country's closed forest estate..."⁷⁰ The government is actively engaged in the direction of forest exploitation, trying to make logging the economy's primary activity in the next 20 years - ahead of petroleum production. Cameroon's forests cover 37.6% of the country⁷¹, a percentage surpassed only by Zaire and Gabon. There are 2.0 hectares of forest per inhabitant.⁷² As described by the Cameroonian government, the status of forest resources is as follows:

"It is estimated that deforestation activities in Cameroon now cover an area of about 80,000 to 150,000 ha per year, mainly through shifting cultivation, overgrazing, fuelwood collection, commercial and small-scale logging, road construction and increasing urbanisation. This phenomenon has disturbing ecological and economic repercussions on present and future generations. Ultimately, such deforestation helps considerably to reduce the quality of life of the people."⁷³

The report adds that "laws regarding the management and development of forest resources are still ill-suited to the country's reality".⁷⁴

While the Cameroonian government is thus conscious of the dangers of over exploitation, it is also confronted by the need to increase short-term cash earnings. Timber is perceived as being a solution, especially at time when prices of traditional sources of income such as coffee and cocoa are weak on world markets: villagers are in fact neglecting their plantations because it is more profitable for them to concentrate their efforts on food production than on export-oriented crops. The hazards of the petroleum exporting sector are not more reassuring to Cameroonian leaders which explains their desire to relegate oil to second place on the revenue earning list after timber.

This situation explains why the government passed a new law pertaining to forests, game and fishing which grants significant advantages to timber exploitation companies, many of which are foreign owned. These advantages include duration and surface area of land concessions.⁷⁵

Timber plays a special role in Yaoundé with respect to city dwellers' perceptions of the environment. As lumbering takes place in the south-east of the country, Yaoundé residents are daily spectators of flat-bed lorries, heavily laden with timber, going through the city en route to Douala for export. Other lorries deliver timber directly to the Société Anonyme de Bois, located near a rail depot in Yaoundé itself where it is semi-processed. Most is sent to Douala but scraps are sold locally for fuel wood.

Residents are consequently made more aware than in other cities that if logging continues at the present rate, Cameroon's forests will soon be decimated. Being aware of this risk however does not necessarily translate into concern. Attitudes here vary. With respect to the foreign-owned timber companies, for example, many residents perceive them as agents of neo-colonialism and exploitation, condemning them more for their profits than for the destruction they cause on the environment. With respect to commercial exploitation of the forestry sector, some claimed that everyone should be concerned, others that it was the responsibility of the government, still others believe that forest conservation is incumbent on those who live in the forest and use its products. These types of responses are largely influenced by socio-economic and educational criteria.

Libreville

The timber sector in Libreville is not so intensely felt as in Yaoundé. Libreville residents, a large percentage of whom are in fact non-Gabonese (a point to emphasise because conservation and nationalism may well be linked in central Africa), are not confronted by the daily observation of natural wealth being trucked through the centre of town. There is however a large timber transiting facility outside of Libreville in the direction of the Owendo port and logs are constantly floating along the capital's beaches.

Forest exploitation is not yet a major preoccupation because more than 85% of the country is covered by forest and because the ratio between forest and population is the densest in Africa: 19.3 hectares per inhabitant.⁷⁶ In 1992, timber exports amounted to $84.2 million, 4% of total exports⁷⁷ - well behind petroleum and mineral exports. While the Trans-Gabonese railway opened up parts of the country to logging, the possibility of increasing exports was offset by competition from Far Eastern suppliers, recession in Europe (slow growth in the building sector) and internal problems created by the Gabonese national timber company: the Société Nationale du Bois du Gabon .⁷⁸

For these geographic and economic reasons, perceptions of the timber sector are characterised by a general indifference by Librevillois.

Two precise examples of environmental concern can however be identified in the Gabonese capital. Libreville possesses a Musée de la Forêt created and run by a Gabonese national which is home to a few live birds, monkeys and turtles as well as a small sampling of inanimate forest-related objects and products. The museum is nonetheless closed to the public for lack of operating funds: paying visitors are rare and government subsidies inexistent.

The other, more successful example, is an association, Les Amis du Pangolin , which is very active in waging a public awareness campaign on environmental issues. Specific actions include publication of a newsletter, organising school conferences, participating in radio broadcasts and organising eco-tourism in Gabon's reserves. The association is supported by ECOFAC, the French Cultural Centre and the local Institut National de Pedagogie . It will be interesting to monitor the evolution of environmental perceptions and attitudes in Libreville because the association is essentially a Western initiative and because the group targeted by the association is essentially quite young. This association could serve as an example to be followed in other cities as it appears to be the only one operating in central Africa.

Kinshasa

45.1% of Zaire is covered by tropical forest⁷⁹ and the ratio of forest space to population is 3.4 hectares per inhabitant.⁸⁰ Zaire's forests are protected from logging by their inaccessibility. Even during the colonial period transporting timber down the river from the distant forest regions to Kinshasa and then re-shipping it by truck or rail to Matadi was a time-consuming and expensive operation. Decaying infrastructure and political stalemate have aggravated this difficulty. Recent statistics, which need to be viewed with scepticism like all official statistics coming from Zaire, reveal that 124,032 cubic metres of wood were exported in 1993 compared with 418,646 cubic metres in 1989.⁸¹

Dire poverty in Kinshasa has erased environmental concerns from the minds of the masses, except when they are related to what the environment can offer. Politics and the economy, in other words, have a direct influence on how the environment is perceived in Kinshasa. Open criticism of President Mobutu revealed laments how he continues to exploit the country's wealth as if it were his own, and although mineral wealth was most often emphasised, timber exploitation contributed to this bitterness.

Ignorant of official statistics, Kinshasa's poor are well aware that the timber which is visible on the ONATRA and surrounding private docks is sold for the strict benefit of the presidential entourage: the real economy of Zaire being the parallel economy.⁸²

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Forest Peoples

Three million forest people of central Africa depend directly on the forest eco-system for their daily survival.⁸³ Be they hunter-gatherers, shifting cultivators or river people⁸⁴, all have been downtrodden to varying extents. This condition is most often associated with Pygmies (specialised hunter-gathers) and the stereotype which continues to fascinate the Western mind goes as far back as Homer's Iliad. ⁸⁵ Attitudes have not changed significantly, however, as Cameroon's constitution still considers Pygmies to be "populations marginal to the national community".⁸⁶ This curiosity about the Pygmies (be it anthropological or simply stereotypical) tends to overshadow the situation of other forest peoples. Shifting cultivators in fact constitute approximately 80% of the forest population⁸⁷ so research into perceptions consequently needs to take them into account.

Post-colonial indigenous leaders having assimilated (or having been mesmerised by) French values and culture perpetuated European disdain for forest peoples. This psychological dimension of the acculturation of African elites has been cleverly developed by Basil Davidson (1992).⁸⁸ A related factor is that of monetarisation: as social status is largely perceived by elites and other city dwellers in European terms and thus in monetary terms, those forest peoples who remain outside of the cash economy are ostracised.⁸⁹

This extreme negative perception of forest peoples, adhered to by most non-forest peoples and especially by city dwellers, is curiously juxtaposed with another, positive perception: that of respect - or at least recognition of forest-related talents. These include hunting⁹⁰ and fishing techniques, capacity to identify and use endemic flora, knowledge of traditional and herbal medicine, magic and a general sense of survival capacity in a hostile environment. They are also respected for their affinities with forest spirits.

The more widespread attitude city dwellers feel concerning forest peoples is haughty indifference. Coming from the forest, or having parents or grand-parents who were born in the forest or elsewhere in the hinterland, most central African city dwellers consider themselves either superior to, or at least more lucky than those who stayed back in the village. As the urban poor and middle class alike remain preoccupied by the trials and tribulations of material survival in these times of severe economic hardship, concern for forest peoples appears to be a non-issue. While in the West it was fairly widely known that 1993 was declared Year of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations, this fact was completely ignored by our informants in central Africa.⁹¹

Outside of the inter-ethnic debate, attitudes of economic frustration exist as well. Employed city dwellers are confronted with the dubious honour of having jobs and salaries, but quite frequently, in respect of Bantu tradition, they are forced to support extended family members who stayed back home in the forest (or in the hinterland in general). Sharing scarce financial resources is an increased burden on city dwellers already preoccupied by the high cost of living.