Of these various entities, the Centre of Cultural Anthropology at U.L.B. possesses the most centralised share of relevant data. Much of it was accumulated and organised in the context of another European Union DG XI financed project, Situation des Populations Indigènes des Forêts Denses Humides, referred to above. This report produced a specialised bibliography of more than 200 entries for central Africa. Researchers at the Centre of Cultural Anthropology work closely with the Paris-based LACITO and have created a specialised association, Groupe d'Etudes des Populations Forestières Equatoriales .
During our mission to central Africa various services were visited and some provided material.
Yaoundé: ECOFAC; ORSTOM (a well-furnished documentation centre); the Department of Geography at Yaoundé University; Enviro-Project (a small but specialised service on local environmental issues); United States Agency For International Development; World Wildlife Fund.
Libreville: Institut de Recherche en Sciences Humaines de l'Université Omar Bongo ; l'Association des Amis du Pangolin (identified above); French Cultural Centre; French Mission de la Coopération; Commercial Service, U.S. Embassy.
Kinshasa: Research conditions are difficult in Kinshasa for the time being. The few local research services which have remained open are operating without funds. Expatriate services are functioning with greatly reduced staffs. The official record-keeping that has not been interrupted is not published. More specialised documentation about the forest-city interface in Zaire was available in Brussels than in Kinshasa. UNIKIN library facilities are officially open but it is difficult to have access to them: moreover, they are quite poorly stocked and only sporadically updated.
Throughout the duration of our mission, researchers echoed the unanimous sentiment of enclavement. Located in the geographic epicentre of the central African forest-city interface, they remain far removed from the Western conservation research mainstream. Lack of research funds, low or unpaid salaries, poor infrastructures (paucity of material such as photocopy machines, phone and fax, computers or word processors), material difficulties in publishing research findings, different research traditions and objectives, insufficient contact with European and American colleagues are some of the factors which culminate in this all too exact sentiment of enclavement .
Notwithstanding these very real research and organisational handicaps, certain positive aspects are discernible. First and foremost is the intellectual integrity, training and research capacity of local academics. Next is the attention which some researchers have devoted to questions relating to the forest-city interface but with a dispersed, non-continuous and non-comparative approach. The clearly-expressed enthusiasm to participate in such a network is a further positive sign which is worthy of encouragement. Working with these local researchers is absolutely crucial because the use and perceptions of forest resources by city dwellers is a politically and culturally sensitive subject. Local experts alone have the finesse and experience needed to gather and analyse certain data. Their input, moreover, will be helpful in the elaboration of systems models aimed at apprehending the relationships between social scientific sub-systems within the larger forest conservation system.
The time when Western governments and international organisations
are increasingly reluctant to operate in central Africa given a very
wide series of real (but sometimes exaggerated) obstacles and handicaps
is precisely the moment when African researchers most badly need research
support. If their enclavement continues, if no research
funding is channelled to their centres, if Western researchers opt
out of Africa then an intellectual crisis (which could take decades
to redress) will present itself along with the already dramatic social
and economic crises. High calibre African research talent exists but
it needs encouragement in these hard times.