Outside abstract 3
Lucy Mulvagh
Lucy Mulvagh represents many issues in her article that stem from putting perimeters around forest areas despite the use of that area for commercial logging or conservation. Within the Democratic Republic of the Congo, four indigenous groups, the Bambuti, Bacwa, Western Batwa and Eastern Batwa are represented together as they are all being forced from their traditional lands and from their ways of life. Mulvagh investigates the violations of these people’s rights and the level of discrimination they face created by the presence of nature conservation plans and commercial resource exploitation.
The article expresses the amount of discrimination experienced by these people not only by their uncompensated loss of land but also by the contemporary culture with which they must now collaborate. The author explains that in order to gain subsistence it is common that work quality is that of bonded labor. Individuals are treated as childish due to a lack of formal education and that there is limited access to health care or even educational services so as to better adjust to the new way of life. These people are commonly referred to as “conservation refugees” as the areas designated as protected land, representing 15 percent of land use, have denied access. Even greater than that is 40 percent of land allocated for commercial logging. According to Mulvagh the state government making illegitimate claims of community involvement as well as the World Bank acting to quickly to support the forest sector has accomplished all of this.
This article will be beneficial to my site as it shows examples of political, cultural, and environmental issues in ill regulated forestry programs.