Indigenous forest destroyers or guardians? The indigenous Batwa and their ancestral forests in Kahuzi-Biega National Park, DRC

Abstract

This paper makes a significant empirical contribution to our understanding of the complex relations between indigenous people and nature. It builds on the literature on environmental narratives to show how for some policy actors, indigenous populations are seen as ‘forest destroyers’, and for others as ‘forest guardians’. It argues that these narratives are based on ideal-type constructions, which frame indigenous agency as a central defence against or factor in environmental destruction. By doing so, they rationalize different roles for the state and indigenous peoples in conservation governance. On a surface level, the narratives appear as competing and incompatible. Yet, on closer inspection, they are stabilized within and reinforce a shared common sense: namely, that the fate of nature ultimately hinges upon indigenous peoples. Through an in-depth study of an indigenous group known as the Batwa in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Kahuzi-Biega National Park, the paper challenges this viewpoint. Using both qualitative and quantitative data, including satellite imagery, it shows how the ideal-type narratives ultimately divert attention from a broader political economy of violent resource extraction, which is fundamental. In doing so, they account for policies that fail people and nature.