What about the alleged abuse ?? (@Mylovelygreendress )
It has been pointed out before (by a poster far more educated than I in what is happening in Congo) that this is a serious problem that involves more than Africa Parks. There is a number of wildlife charities involved, also governments (more than one country) and different groups of people.
I agree that it appears to be another form of colonisation but I don’t know enough about it to say that definitely.
From Survivors International ~
What happened with WWF?
When Survival began campaigning against WWF over conservation-related abuse, including of the Baka in Messok Dja in the Republic of Congo, they attacked, denied, tried to pass on the blame, and claimed innocence with the support of their law firm. But Survival’s campaign ensured that their responsibility for appalling conservation-related abuse of the Baka was laid bare in media reports, a UN investigation, and an excoriating US Congressional hearing.
An outcry by Survival supporters ensured that violence against Indigenous people by WWF-funded rangers has, eventually, become less widespread, at least in some areas - but in the absence of real change and a willingness to do things differently, Indigenous peoples whose forest has been taken for WWF-supported parks are still deprived of their lands, their rights, their ability to provide for themselves and their families, and are traumatized by years of violence.
As Charles is patron of WWF perhaps we should be demanding action from him too, not only his son Harry.
Also a letter to Princes William and Harry in 2018
“Dear Prince William and Prince Harry,
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My name is Charles.
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I write to you from Cameroon, a country where conservation has gone badly wrong. I want you to know, and I want the media to know, that innocent people are dying because of conservation and you need to help them.
The forests that once were the home of the Baka people have been turned into national parks, logging concessions and safari hunting zones without their consent.
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Eco-guards, I think you call them “park-rangers”, torture Baka people here and make their lives hell. They strip Baka naked and beat them, they humiliate them, forcing them to crawl on all fours and destroy their camps and possessions.
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The Baka are accused of being poachers but they are guilty of nothing except trying to live and feed their families. They are punished because outsiders don’t understand their ways of life, not because they have done anything wrong.
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Conservation is run by outsiders who know nothing about the communities that live here or our laws. Conservationists seem to think that outsiders are the only people who want to look after nature and can do it effectively but this makes no sense to me.
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Your conference on the illegal wildlife trade this month will talk a lot about how to stop poachers from killing elephants and other animals. Who wants to look after nature more than the people who call it home and depend on it for their survival?
Who understands how to care for nature more than someone who has walked through the forest every day of their lives and knows every plant, every tree, every creature?
Work with them, not against them!
The Baka are your natural allies in conservation if only conservationists would listen to them. Do not exclude Baka people from conservation and do not punish them for leading their traditional ways of life.
And please remember that no conservation projects should happen on Indigenous land unless the people agree. If this does not happen, your efforts at conservation can never succeed.
Charles Jones Nsonkal
Okani
Baka people’s community organization
This is all from Survivals International website.
People on here saying ‘what about Africa Parks?’ are using it as a ‘gotcha Harry’