KRIBI, Cameroon (ILO Online) - With no telephone connection to the outside world, and a single access road that is little more than a forest trail, the pygmy village situated two hours away from Cameroon's seaside resort Kribi might as well be placed on the other side of the earth as far as many Cameroonians are concerned.
For the pygmies, however, the position of their settlement is more ambiguous: too accessible for loggers, but too remote for the benefits of modern life to make themselves felt. For the about 40,000 indigenous pygmies living in the forests of south and east Cameroon, life is becoming more and more difficult because they predominantly live on resources from the forest.
"God has made us the guardians of this forest. It is our soul and without it, we have no life, we disappear. When we are taken out of the forest and forced to settle along the roads, next to the villages, everything changes in our community", explains a 26 year-old Bagyéli woman.
She does not like to be referred to as a "pygmy" and considers this term derogatory. Members of the "pygmy" communities prefer to be referred to by their tribal names, i.e. Baka, Bagyéli and Bedzang.
These communities are among the poorest in the country, living in isolated and sometimes inaccessible areas. They suffer from discrimination insofar as they are falsely considered as being "less developed" and "less advanced" than the other more dominant groups of society.
The tropical rain forest is increasingly being exploited by foresters and the State is establishing national parks and reserves, which means that it no longer provides enough food and medicinal plants for the pygmies. The game disappears when heavy machinery is introduced in the rain forests. Poverty ensues and the pygmies have to become farmers, facing serious problems because of the scarcity of land.
"Our neighbours have all the land. Everything is difficult for us", explains the pygmy woman. "There isn't enough food for everybody. But we are a sharing community, so we try to share everything we find."
Besides lack of suitable land and primary health care services, pygmies face a 95 per cent illiteracy rate as schools are far away from their traditional settlements and the curricula are not adapted to their way of life. The traditional way of life of hunter-gatherers known as pygmies is threatened not only by the presence of loggers but by the failure to identify them as a part of the forest ecosystem.
A recent ILO study on indigenous communities in Cameroon ( Note 1) combines analysis of government policies with information gained directly from consultation with indigenous and tribal peoples.
"The study concludes that there was little consultation of these peoples during the preparation of the national Poverty Reduction Strategy. Their aspirations and rights are taken very little into account, and there is a risk that the application of the current unitary development model will actually result in the further impoverishment of these peoples", says ILO expert Francesca Thornberry from PRO 169.
According to the Baka, Bagyéli and Mbororo peoples, an efficient poverty alleviation strategy must comprise at least certain elements relating to the recognition and respect of their customary and land rights; access to forest resources, to citizenship and justice; organisational capacity-building to ensure effective representation in decision-making processes; effective participation in the management of forest resources; equitable sharing of the benefits from forest exploitation and the conservation of biodiversity; improvement of agriculture and culturally appropriate access to basic social infrastructure and services.
In June 1995, a national workshop was hosted by the ILO to discuss the main conclusions and recommendations of the study on indigenous and tribal peoples and poverty reduction, as well as other issues of relevance to these peoples in Cameroon. The workshop was attended by representatives of indigenous and tribal peoples, government, trade unions and NGOs. Discussions centred around three themes: poverty reduction; human rights; and governance.
The recommendations from this workshop that are of direct relevance to the ILO are being followed up within the context of the current work in Cameroon of ILO PRO169 and the ILO's Sub-Regional Office for Central Africa in Yaoundé. The main focus of this work is capacity- and organization- building for all partners concerned with indigenous issues. This is with the ultimate objective of enabling indigenous peoples to participate more effectively in national and local processes affecting them, and more importantly, to represent themselves and their own concerns rather than having others represent them.
The ILO has adopted the only international legal instrument now open to ratification that pertains specifically to the 350 million indigenous and tribal peoples worldwide: the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989 (No. 169) ( Note 2). It has been ratified by 17 countries and is internationally recognized as the foremost instrument on the subject. It covers a wide range of issues, including land rights, access to natural resources, health, education, vocational training, conditions of employment and contacts across borders.
The Project to Promote ILO Policy on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (PRO 169) was launched in 1996 to protect indigenous and tribal peoples' human rights through legislative and policy development based on ILO standards, and through capacity-building for these peoples. The project is financed by Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) as well as by the EU (Birgitte supplement) and its principal geographical focus is on Africa and Asia.
Note 2 - For more information on Convention No. 169 and PRO 169: www.ilo.org/indigenous
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