Conservation Refugee - Africa

Africa

African conservation refugees, some sources numbering them somewhere around 14 million, have long been displaced due to transnational efforts to preserve select areas of biota that are believed to be critical to the historical and environmental perspective of Earth. What purpose do protected areas serve and why are they established? According to the article “Parks and Peoples: the social impact of protected areas” protected areas are a way of “seeing, understanding, and reproducing the world around us” as well as serving as a place of social interaction and production. In short protected areas are established to preserve an area in its natural state in an increasingly globalized world. Although the traditional residential grounds of millions of native peoples have existed for hundreds of years, conservation efforts continually encroach upon these areas in an effort to preserve biological diversity in both flora and fauna. On the positive side wildlife, botany, and other precious resources are being protected. The native people, unfortunately, are then expelled to live outside the border of the newly constructed Preserved Area (PA), so as not to disturb the ecological preservation. Displacement and lack of rights for displaced peoples is one of the main concerns of environmental conservation. Displaced peoples can encounter social problems such as nationalism in the location that they have moved to. Oftentimes these refugees are put in a separate underclass in their new location further separating them socially as well as physically. Sometimes people of the region that is being conserved will encounter other effects of the situation besides displacement. These include loss of jobs, loss of hunting grounds, loss of personal resources, or loss of freedom. The treatment of these peoples can also cause war among themselves or with opposing groups as well as sickness and malnutrition. Both entities behind this conflict believe that they are operating under the flag of just action, however certain elements of the arguments are inherently flawed. The conservation movement is critical to maintaining a diverse biological snapshot of Earth, but the processes behind the initiative are often founded on neglect of human rights as well as paradox. The ramifications of these processes are significant in terms of a growing number of refugees, international reactions, and culture.

Long term effects of this displacement and repurposing linger in the refugees, their families and subsequent generations, effectively reshaping the cultural and economic dynamic of an entire society. This has a ripple effect on their culture and people for generations to come. The use and conservation of a resource is a direct link to conflicts in Africa According to Abiodun Alao, author of “Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa”, natural resources can be linked to conflicts in three different ways: either a direct or remote conflict is caused by the resource, or a natural resource can fuel or sustain conflicts, and lastly when resources have been used to resolve conflicts. Often, the conservation efforts that commandeer indigenous people’s land remove the natives from a familiar social environment and transplant them into unknown quarters and customs. By doing so, traditional values such as “songs, rituals, …and stories” could be entirely lost in little more than one generation’s progression (Dowie, 2005). Economically, relocation and displacement can be devastating on a personal and communal level. Indigenous peoples of all intra-culture class types are forced to the boundaries of the new parks, stripped of their homes and status, and sometimes made to live in “shabby squatter camps…without running water or sanitation” (Dowie, 2005). This leads to even more added tension between conservation administrators and the new conservation refugees.

In order to protect the rights of indigenous people and citizens displaced as conservation refugees the Fifth World Parks Congress held a session to discuss the problem. This session recognized the connection between poverty and displacement as well as the altering land- rights and the hazardous effects on cultural and generations to come. The outcome of this session was the Durban Action Plan. This plan will insure that local people are taken care of financially before an area is acquired for conservation. There are many issues surrounding environmental conservation, protected areas, and refugees. This is one of the biggest issues Africa is facing. As human beings we need to analyze the facts and decide whether or not the sake of our environment is worth the livelihood of our fellow human beings.