A - HOW MANY FOREST POPULATIONS ARE THERE ?

• 1) ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE
• 2) SIZE OF INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS
• 3) CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY

But we know there are approximately 12 millions people who live in rainforest areas and whose survival is directly dependent on the forest ecosystem.

Forested areas	Total population of countries	Indigenous forest populations	%	Number of forest ethnic groups
Central Africa	54 000 000	3 000 000	5,5	~ 150
Amazon Basin*	30 400 000	700 000	2,3	234
[South America**	236 000 000		0,3]
Philippines	62 400 000	1 600 000	2,6	52
Penin. Malaysia	14 600 000	100 000	0,9	19
Indonesia***	170 700 000	4 800 000	2,8	~ 95
Borneo	12 500 000	950 000	7,6	62
New Guinea	5 400 000	1 000 000	18,5	806
TOTAL	350 000 000	12 150 000	3,5	~ 1418
[+ total for Amer.	555 600 000		2,2]

1) ETHNICITY AND LANGUAGE

The forest populations are highly diversified culturally, presenting us with a mosaic of over 1400 different populations and ethnic groups (again, this is an estimate and probably only a minimum figure).

Defining the boundaries of each group is always a difficult problem in terms of methodology. We have tried to count and draw up an inventory of ethnic groups, i.e. "groups of individuals belonging to the same culture and identifying themselves as such"[1]. In most cases, culture and language overlap neatly and this means we can rely on such sources as maps and inventories of the languages of the world, the only documents the aim of which is to be exhaustive (there is no such thing as a catalogue of the ethnic groups of the world, but there are inventories of languages ; the precious Ethnologue, languages of the world, GRIMES editor, regularly updated, is especially useful).

However, culture and language do not always fit perfectly : it is not uncommon to find two groups with different names speaking the same language, or, conversely, groups bearing a common name but speaking different languages. Another case occurs when what we call an ethnic group, speaking a common language, is split up into numerous dispersed sub-groups without central organization : the people themselves do not always recognize this artificial entity as an ethnic group to which they might belong.

Examples : the Songola in Zaire speak a common language but it is a heterogeneous group, the result of river fishing populations having incorporated a variety of other communities. The Yanomami in Venezuela are split up into numerous smaller groups.

Names : it is often difficult to know the exact name of an ethnic group. Many of the classic names one comes accross in the literature on the subject are not the names used by the people to refer to themselves, but names used by their neighbours to refer to them.

Sometimes, the name of the ethnic group is different from the name of the language. In other cases, the ethnic group has a name but the people themselves, though recognizing this common name, will prefer to use the name of a sub-group or of a lineage. In this report we have tried to be as precise as possible, using names that were the most representative for each population but without always looking for the exact name the people use themselves, for fear of being misunderstood by the readers of this report. Neither have we attempted to give a complete list of synonyms, as this would be beyond the scope of this report.

2) SIZE OF INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS

The groups for which we have an inventory show great variety in size, but most of them have less than 5000 members. They are more often small communities, sometimes living in small hamlets scattered over a vast territory.

Africa : 56% have less than 5000 members (with groups of 1000 to 250 000 people at either end of the range)

Amazon Basin : 66% have less than 2000 members (with groups of 9 individuals to 40 000 people at either end of the range !)

New Guinea : 85% have less than 5000 members (with groups of 20 individuals to 25 000 people at either end of the range)

Borneo : 50% have less than 5000 members (with groups of 200 to 200 000 people at either end of the range)

Malaysia : 69% have less than 5000 members (with groups of 100 to 20 000 people at either end of the range)

Philippines : 29% have less than 5000 members, 51% less than 10 000 (with groups of 100 to 100 000 people at either end of the range)

Indonesia : 40% have less than 5000 members, 56% less than 10 000 (with groups of 300 to 500 000 people at either end of the range)

3) CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY

A third factor of variation is the economy ; again, the different groups display great diversity, elements in their economy being both traditional and linked to the degree to which the groups have adapted to gradual change : the many different types of economies are indicators of successive stages of transformation, both at a regional level and within one ethnic group, and display varying degrees of autonomy.

Differences in terms of acculturation are linked to the size of groups and to the area they cover. In very small groups with no more than one or two hundred members, everyone has a similar life-style. On the other hand, larger groups with more than a thousand members, scattered over vast areas and divided into communities independent from each other, display many more degrees of adaptation to change.

Thus the Pygmies of Central Africa (with a total population somewhere between 60 000 and 150 000) provide examples of each different case, from camps that are turned towards hunting and gathering, to sedentary villages where they grow food plants and even cacao. Development programmes ought to take into account this diversity and concentrate first on those groups that have already chosen to change their life-style.

In the Amazon Basin, where indigenous populations live near or along rivers and streams, changes follow a dichotomy between upstream and downstream groups.

[1] According to the definition in PANOFF M. & M. PERRIN 1973, Dictionnaire d'Ethnologie, Payot, Paris.