People of the Congo Rainforest - the "Pygmies"
The Congo rainforest is home to some of the most famous tribal people in the world, the Pygmies. The tallest of these people is usually still less than 1.5 m in height. There are many tribes of people living in this forest. In total there are about 130,000 to 170,000 forest dwellers distributed over a large area.
These people live in groups of 15-70 depending largely on outside factors -hunting, trading, disease, and forest area. They tend to be nomadic, moving to new parts of the forest several times during the year and carrying all their things. Their nomadic lifestyle is less damaging to the rainforest environment because it allows the group to move without too much damage to the forest. Their lifestyle seems to be very harmonious with their chosen environment, the live and treat it almost as if it's a human.
When they establish a settlement, they clear undergrowth but leave the canopy-forming trees intact. By doing this, the pygmies are protected from the sun. By leaving the canopy intact, when the group leaves, the area can quickly return to normal.
Most African forest people spend much of the year near a village where they trade bush meat and honey for produce, and other goods. The forest people could stay in the village if they choose, but instead return to the forest where they have less disease, cleaner water, less work, more choices, no need for money, and less disputes. Studies have shown that African forest people have better health and diet than other populations in Sub-Sahara Africa.
The day to day life of the forest people is probably simpler than that of the villagers. The women do most of the gathering, using baskets they carry on their backs. Men hunt and collect honey, which is one of the most highly sought after forest product by forest peoples.
Traditionally forest people hold a great deal of respect for the animals they hunt and do not to over-exploit them. Unfortunately the bush meat trade has still increased beyond sustainable levelsbecause of the growing demand of expanding village populations. Also, African forest peoples are hired as trackers by ivory poachers to track down endangered forest elephants, whose tusks are very valuable .
FACTORS AFFECTING AFRICAN FOREST PEOPLES TODAY
The small remaining number of forest people are highly threatened by destruction of their homelands and official government policies to end their forest traditions. No legal land titles have been granted to African forest peoples by Central African governments. During the 1980s and f1990s, Africa lost the highest percentage of rainforest (10.5%) of any forested area, resulting in a further decline of the forest peoples.
Alot of deforestation is the result of the expansion of villages into forest areas, and logging by multinational corporations. When the villages increase in size, the village people impose their needs on the forest and this has an impact on the forest people. Logging is really bad for the forest because as well as cutting down trees, it makes the inner parts of the forest more accessible to outsiders. This has also brought in diseases such as malaria and negative trade. Instead of produce to trade with the forest people, villagers bring money, tobacco, and marijuana. The expansion of the village populations and their use of the forest land has been very damaging to the rainforest and the forest people.
Many African nations have also suffered civil war and chaos and economic problems because of this. The recent civil war in Eastern Zaire, has produced large numbers of refugees who have retreated into the rainforest. The extent of the interaction between the refugees and the natives is not known, but in some areas pygmies were having difficulty trapping sufficient amounts of meat for their needs.