Anthropological Study of African Topical stain Forest as Hunan Habitat

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The Congo Basin is covered with one of the greatest tropical rain forests in the world. These vast forest areas have been logged at a tremendous rate during the past decades, which is threatening the life and culture of the local peoples living in the forest. There is, therefore, an urgent need for conservation of the forest which has supported the life of the local peoples. This study aims at conducting the research on the cognition and utilization of the forest environments by hunter-gatherers and shifting cultivators in Cameroon, Gabon and other areas from the viewpoints of cultural ecology, historical ecology and political ecology. Based on the findings obtained from the field research, it also analyzes the impacts of ongoing conservation projects on the local peoples and their perceptions of and reactions against the conservation projects.(1) From the research on the utilization of animal and plant resources by the Baka hunter-gatherers in Cameroon, and land use and farming system … More s of the shifting cultivators in the same area, it is suggested that, if the levels of land and natural resource uses in the years of 2002 and before are maintained, sustainable hunting-gathering and shifting cultivation systems in the area may also be maintained.(2) From the research in historical ecology, human impacts have been extensively found in the forest areas in central Africa, but they are not very destructive if the impacts remain at the levels in years 2002 and before.(3) From the study of political ecology, the life of the forest peoples has been put under increasing influences of economic globalization even in the remotest parts of the forest; in particular, consumer economy is posing a profound impact on the lifestyle of the forest peoples. The commodities obtained from the exchange of forest products have now become indispensable to their life. This leads us to reconsider the ongoing conservation project, so that it may allow forest resource uses for commercial purposes, in addition to the use for subsistence purposes.(4) In Gabon and Kenya, comparative data of forest uses and perceptions of conservation projects were obtained in the area adjacent to the protected areas.(5) Parts of these results were presented at the international symposia held in UK in 2002 and in France in 2003, as well as at several academic conferences held in Japan. Less