Cameroon:
Bagyeli severely impacted by the establishment of industrial plantations
In South-Western Cameroon, near Kribi, two giant industrial plantations
cover a total area of 62,000 hectares. One of them, HEVECAM, is
a rubber tree monoculture belonging to the Singapore-based GMG group,
while the other, SOCAPALM, is an oil palm plantation, property of
the French group Bolloré.
HEVECAM and SOCAPALM adjoin about ten communities of Bagyeli (“Pygmy”)
hunter-gatherers. The latter are traditionally characterized by
a strong dependency on forest resources and by a remarkable adaptation
to forest areas. Bagyeli camps constitute the central socioeconomic
unit from which production/consumption activities are organized,
based on hunting and gathering, but also increasingly on agriculture.
Traditionally however, their economy rests on natural reproduction
cycles (other than agricultural). A few huts (up to a dozen) comprising
a population of 15 to 70 persons form the community, whose functioning
is remarkably egalitarian. Each community presents a set of customary
rules regulating a given forested territory and particularly the
use of its natural resources. Nevertheless, these exclusive rules
are balanced by an “obligation of conviviality” based on friendship
relations with persons from outside the community.
The main problems caused by the establishment of HEVECAM and SOCAPALM
are linked with the vanishing of large areas of forest formerly
inhabited by Bagyeli. Here are two concrete cases:
-- Kilombo I is a Bagyeli village stuck between
SOCAPALM and HEVECAM. The situation of its inhabitants is particularly
difficult, due to their isolated location and to the destruction
of their forest. SOCAPALM forced them to leave their place of residence
in order to allow the establishment of the plantation and promised
them in return modern houses. But until today, no houses nor any
compensation (for example for the tombs which had been destroyed)
have been given. These Bagyeli are now surrounded by plantations,
in which they are not allowed to enter. As
a result, the population of Kilombo I has drastically decreased
since the arrival of the plantation.
-- Nyamabandé is another Bagyeli community
located between HEVECAM and the Campo-Ma’an national park, where
the two entities touch each other. The Bagyeli were little by little
forced to settle next to the Campo-Ma’an protected area in which
they only recently recovered the right to hunt and collect. On the
contrary, within the perimeter of HEVECAM, only adults are allowed
to enter and to collect snails. Additionally, the “Convention d’Etablissement”
(conditions of contract) between the government and HEVECAM (dated
15th of September 1998) does not mention a single time the interests
of the Bagyeli.
The opportunities to obtain a job in the plantations are very poor:
HEVECAM does not enrol Bagyeli workers in rubber tapping and neither
does SOCAPALM in its oil palm plantations. On the rare occasions
when SOCAPALM provides them a temporary job, the company pays them
less than Bantu workers. In the same way, HEVECAM periodically appoints
a subcontractor for the weeding of the monocultures; the latter
sometimes hires Bagyeli but underpays them in a scandalous way.
From a health perspective, Bagyeli say illnesses are less frequent
in the forest than close to the plantation. As a matter of fact,
mosquitoes proliferate in the stagnant water puddles between the
tree rows. Consequently, malaria and cholera affect today the local
populations more than before. Our Bagyeli
informants also noted that high blood pressure and depression rates
are more frequent than before. The problems linked with an unhealthy
food and with water pollution (agrochemical products, erosion) are
worsening notably through the lack of access to their traditional
pharmacopeia (frequent cases of abortion, chronic intestinal problems,
etc.). Because they are not part of the wage-earning workforce,
local Bagyeli do not have free access to the hospitals and schools
belonging to the plantation companies.
Formerly, Bagyeli used to find in the forest everything they needed
to live, but today it is only at the edges of the plantation, and
above all much deeper in the forest, that animals can still be found.
On the side of the Campo-Ma’an park, the fauna has become rare,
not only because of the plantation, but also because of the numerous
poachers living in the HEVECAM region. The protein intake of HEVECAM’s
workers still depends 75% on “bush meat”. Illegal commercial hunting
has thus considerably increased during the last few years while
in the past hunting was exclusively dedicated to local household
consumption. It is estimated that there are more than two thousands
irregular firearms in HEVECAM’s concession. This has become a major
problem for Bagyeli and it will go increasing hand in hand with
the intensification of industrial activities.
By Julien-François Gerber, e-mail :
JulienFrancois.Gerber@campus.uab.es
