Culture Conservation and Development in African Rain Forest

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The result of the continuous field survey are following points.In the tropical forest area of these countries, where the commercial economy has not been penetrated absolutely, various farming groups have moved and constituted mixed-group village to cultivate cash crop owing to the recent bad political situation and wide and rapid expansion of commercial timber (Republic of Central Africa), and population outflow and depopulation of farmer villages has progressed (Republic of Congo). The cohesion of ethnic groups of farmers has become weak and inter-ethnic relationship also has been transformed. The Aka, forager ethnic group, has been deprived of the forest environment which sustains their subsistence and cosmology, and has lost social and economic tie with neighboring farmer groups. Then, Aka has been changing into petty cultivators or daily laborers, while they are loosing their ethnic identity.Wild life conservation NGOs, whose supreme objective is to maintain nature reserves or parks, have close connection with timber company who have to be so considerate toward public opinion on the nature conservation in Europe and United States. Conservation NGOs encourage the timber companies and Government to regulate hunting strictly to the forest inhabitants and laborers. Timber companies and administrative office of parks The forest local habitants are obliged to accept the conception of scarcity of useful forest product, such as timber, and wild animals by timber company, nature conservation NGO and the Government without regard to their culture and interests.How "ethnic" identities and inter-group relationship is reconstructed towards economic and political pressure from outside and confusion is the next subject to be solved.