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Fortress conservation is a conservation model based on the belief that biodiversity protection is best achieved by creating protected areas where ecosystems can function in isolation from human disturbance. [1]
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Fortress conservation is a conservation model based on the belief that biodiversity protection is best achieved by creating protected areas where ecosystems can function in isolation from human disturbance. [1]
Poaching is a billion dollar industry that is by organized criminal gangs that prey on the endangered species and, in 2018, 50 park rangers were killed globally. [2] In response, conservation charities, the biggest of which is the World Wildlife Fund, have increasingly militarized the campaign against poaching. [2] African Parks has been at the forefront of militarization with training from South African, French and Israeli military personnel. [3] Veterans from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been recruited to teach forest rangers counterinsurgency techniques and ex–special forces operatives promote their services at wildlife conferences. This has often involved recruiting paramilitary groups who are then supplied with military grade weaponry. [2]
Money generated from ecotourism has been a motivating factor driving indigenous inhabitants off the land. [4] [5] The organization African Parks, whose President is Prince Harry, has as its motto "a business approach to conservation" and had at its outset that tourism is its key in making their parks financially sustainable. [6]
Forests can be preserved for carbon offsets and credits that can be sold to companies who would need to pollute. While there are national programs for this, it can be part of a voluntary market as well such as on the international market. Indigenous groups who live in such forests, such as in Peru, have alleged that it leads to abuses against them. [7] [8] Notably, the company Blue Carbon of the UAE has bought ownership over an area equivalent to the United Kingdom to be preserved in return for carbon credits. [9]
Indigenous groups, such as the Okiek people, are often challenged as not having land rights as many do not have formal title deeds, despite having inhabited the forests for centuries. [10] The justice system can also be used against the indigenous where for example, people have been arrested for remaining on their land after it was granted to extractive companies by the government. [11]
The Convention on Biological Diversity has promoted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, an outcome of the 2022 United Nations Biodiversity Conference, arguing for the 30 by 30 initiative to designate 30% of Earth's land and ocean area as protected areas by 2030. [3]
The practice of evicting inhabitants to protect nature was referred to as the Yosemite model. [12] Famed paleontogist and conservationist Richard Leakey argued that there is no such thing as indigenous people and argued for the removal of what he referred to as “settlers” from protected areas. Steven Sanderson, who was president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, argued that the entire global conservation agenda had been “hijacked” by advocates for indigenous peoples, placing wildlife and biodiversity at peril. [13]
Others, such as indigenous rights activits, have argued that the most efficient conservation methods involve transferring rights over land from public domain to its indigenous inhabitants, who have had a stake for millennia in preserving the forests that they depend on. [14] This includes the protection of such rights entitled in existing laws, such as the Forest Rights Act in India, where concessions to land continue to go mostly to powerful companies. [14] The transferring of such rights in China, perhaps the largest land reform in modern times, has been argued to have increased forest cover. [15] [16] Granting title of the land has shown to have less clearing than state run parks, notably in the Brazilian Amazon. [16] Even while the largest cause of deforestation in the world's second largest rainforest in the Congo is smallholder agriculture and charcoal production, areas with community concessions have significantly less deforestation as communities are incentivized to manage the land sustainably, even reducing poverty. [17] Additionally, evicting inhabitants from protected areas often under the fortress conservation model often leads to more exploitation of the land as the native inhabitants then turn to work for extractive companies to survive. [15]
Up to 250,000 people worldwide have been forcibly evicted from their homes to make way for conservation projects since 1990, according to the UN special rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. [18] Another estimate put the total number of people displaced between 10.8 million and 173 million. [3]
In Botswana, many of the indigenous San people have been forcibly relocated from their land to reservations. To make them relocate, they were denied access to water on their land and faced arrest if they hunted, which was their primary source of food. [19] The government claims the relocation is to preserve the wildlife and ecosystem, even though the San people have lived sustainably on the land for millennia. [19] Additionally, their lands lie in the middle of the world's richest diamond field. On the reservations they struggle to find employment, and alcoholism is rampant. [19]
Baka people in Cameroon's Lobéké National Park have alleged abuse by park rangers funded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). [2]
In national parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, such as Kahuzi-Biéga National Park, heavily armed park rangers come into deadly conflict with the pygmy inhabitants who often cut the trees down to sell charcoal. [20] The conservation efforts of national parks in the country are often financed by international organizations such as the WWF and often involve removing native inhabitants off the land. [21]
The Indian government’s National Tiger Conservation Authority state that 56,247 families have been evicted since 1972 for tiger conservation across 50 tiger reserves. [22] [23]
Okiek communities, who lived mostly around the Mau Forest and have been subject to evictions by successive governments, are contesting land taken by the Mount Elgon National Park. In 2022, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights ruled that the Kenyan government must compensate the Okiek for decades of material and moral damages, recognize their indigeneity and help get them official titles to their ancestral lands. [24] Those of the Sengwer people living in the Embobut Forest have been attacked by the Kenya Forest Service under the pretense of conservation during a European Union funded conservation project. [25] [10]
The Tengis Shishged national reserve was established with a ban on hunting and is enforced by park rangers. Members of the Dukha, who relied on hunting in that area for centuries, are given a salary as compensation and some have been arrested for hunting. [26]
The creation of Chitwan National Park in the 1970s led to tens of thousands of indigenous Tharu people to be evicted. [2] The World Wildlife Fund has been accused of providing high-tech enforcement equipment, cash, and weapons to rangers involved torturing Tharu living near national parks such as Bardiya National Park. Nepalese law was changed to give forest rangers the power to investigate wildlife-related crimes, make arrests without a warrant, and retain immunity in cases where an officer had "no alternative" but to shoot the offender while the park's chief warden has the power to hand out 15-year prison terms by themselves. [2]
The Kichwa of Peru claim they are affected by the Cordillera Azul National Park and the Cordillera Escalera Regional Conservation Area. They claim the ban on hunting has caused hunger and carbon credits for preserving the forest do not come to them. [27] Those of mostly the rondero community have been evicted for the Alto Mayo Protection Forest, which is preserved for carbon offsets for companies such as the Walt Disney Company. [7] [8]
Forest rangers, known as ecoguards, dressed in paramilitary uniforms and heavily armed with funding from the WWF, are accused of torture, rape and murder of Baka pygmies in the proposed Messok Dja protected area as part of an effort to remove the Baka pygmies from the area. [18]
More than 150,000 Maasai people face eviction in Tanzania with moves to turn their lands into nature reserves for luxury safari tourism and for trophy hunting in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in Loliondo near the Serengeti National Park. [28] Previous attempts to forcefully evict the Maasai were alleged to have included burning their homes. [4]
In 1991, Uganda classified the land that the indigenous Batwa lived on as national parks and they claim that many have been evicted from their homes. In particular, these areas, such as the Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, are also home to the endangered Mountain gorilla. [29]
The preservation of Yosemite National Park under the advocacy of John Muir meant the expulsion of the Miwok and Paiute Native Americans. [30]
Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelt Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honour of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, because of the short bushy trees which dot the landscape.
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources is limited.
Project Tiger is a wildlife conservation movement initiated in India to protect the endangered tiger. The project was initiated in 1973 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of the Government of India. As of March 2024, there are 55 protected areas that have been designated as tiger reserves under the project. As of 2023, there were 3,682 wild tigers in India, which is almost 75% of the world's wild tiger population.
The Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is a national park in southwestern Uganda. It is part of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and is situated along the Democratic Republic of the Congo border next to the Virunga National Park and on the edge of the Albertine Rift. Composed of 321 km2 (124 sq mi) of both lowland and montane forest, it is accessible only on foot. It is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization-designated World Heritage Site.
Kanha Tiger Reserve, also known as Kanha–Kisli National Park, is one of the tiger reserves of India and the largest national park of the state of Madhya Pradesh. The present-day Kanha area is divided into two protected areas, Hallon and Banjar, of 250 and 300 km2, respectively. Kanha National Park was created on 1 June 1955 and was designated tiger reserve in 1973. Today, it encompasses an area of 940 km2 (360 sq mi) in the two districts Mandla and Balaghat.
Ngorongoro District is one of seven districts in western Arusha Region of Tanzania. The district is bordered to the north by Kenya, to the east by Monduli District, the northeast by Longido District, and to the south by the Karatu District. The western border is the Serengeti District in Mara Region. Ngorongoro District is home to the Ngorongoro Crater and was named after it. It covers an area of 14,036 km2 (5,419 sq mi). The district is comparable in size to the land area of Timor Leste. The administrative seat is the town of Loliondo. The district is home to the Ngorongoro Conservation Area which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The district is also home to the third tallest mountain in the country, Mount Loolmalasin. According to the 2002 Tanzania National Census, the population of the Ngorongoro Region was 129,776. By 2012, the population of the district was 174,278. By 2022, the population had grown to 273,549.
Mkomazi National Park is located in northeastern Tanzania on the Kenyan border, in Same District of Kilimanjaro Region and Lushoto District, with a slither of the park in Mkinga District both of Tanga Region. It was established as a game reserve in 1951 and upgraded to a national park in 2006.
Size of Wales is a climate change charity founded with the aim of conserving an area of tropical rainforest the size of Wales. The project currently supports seven forest protection projects and one tree planting project across Africa and South America. The charity focuses upon furthering the promotion of rainforest conservation as a national response to the global issue of climate change.
The Okiek, sometimes called the Ogiek or Akiek, are a Southern Nilotic ethnic group native to Tanzania and Southern Kenya, and Western Kenya. In 2019 the ethnic Okiek population was 52,596, although the number of those speaking the Akiek language was as low as 500.
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006, is a key piece of forest legislation passed in India on 18 December 2006. It has also been called the Forest Rights Act, the Tribal Rights Act, the Tribal Bill, and the Tribal Land Act. The law concerns the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and other resources, denied to them over decades as a result of the continuance of colonial forest laws in India.
Conservation refugees are people who are displaced from their native lands when conservation areas, such as parks and other protected areas, are created.
Embobut is one of the administrative wards for the Marakwet East Constituency in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. The area contains one of two major drainage basins for Elgeyo-Marakwet County, referred to locally as a "water towers". The other water tower in Elgeyo-Marakwet County is Cherangani Hills. Embobut supplies Eldoret town and its environs with water. Collectively the Embobut and Cherangani Hills water towers also supply water to the Kerio River, which flows through the Cheploch Gorge in Baringo to Lake Turkana via the Turkwel Gorge.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is a Swiss-based international non-governmental organization founded in 1961 that works in the field of wilderness preservation and the reduction of human impact on the environment. It was formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States. WWF is the world's largest conservation organization, with over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries and supporting around 3,000 conservation and environmental projects. They have invested over $1 billion in more than 12,000 conservation initiatives since 1995. WWF is a foundation with 65% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17% from government sources and 8% from corporations in 2020.
The Twa, often referred to as Batwa or Mutwa (singular), are indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of the Great Lakes Region in Central Africa, recognized as some of the earliest inhabitants of the area. Historically and academically, the term “Pygmy” has been used to describe these groups, however, it is considered derogatory, particularly by the Twa themselves. While some Batwa activists accept the term as an acknowledgement of their indigenous status, most prefer specific ethnic labels such as Bambuti, Baaka, and Bambendjelle.
The Great Lakes Twa, also known as Batwa, Abatwa or Ge-Sera, are a Bantu speaking group native to the African Great Lakes region on the border of Central and East Africa. As an indigenous pygmy people, the Twa are generally assumed to be the oldest surviving population of the Great Lakes region. Current populations of Great Lakes Twa people live in the states of Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo. In 2000 they numbered approximately 80,000 people, making them a significant minority group in these countries. The largest population of Twa is located in Burundi estimated in 2008 at 78,071 people.
Echuya Batwa, commonly known as pygmies, are an endangered group of people around Echuya Forest Reserve in Kisoro and Kabale Districts of South-Western Uganda. The Echuya is located in the Albertine Rift region recognized as an important eco-region. The Batwa are believed to have migrated from the Ituri Forest of the Democratic Republic of Congo in search of wild animals to hunt, hence the name Kisoro, literally meaning "the area occupied by wild animals". The Batwa live in small huts mainly made from sticks and grass, and number 6,700 per a 2014 estimate by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics.
The Kahuzi-Biega National Park is a protected area near Bukavu town in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is situated near the western bank of Lake Kivu and the Rwandan border.
The Sengwer people are an indigenous community who primarily live in the Embobut forest in the western highlands of Kenya and in scattered pockets across Trans Nzoia, West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties. The Sengwer are sometimes portrayed as a component of the Marakwet people but are a distinct ethnic grouping with a distinct language.
The Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary is a wildlife sanctuary located on the eastern fringe of Guwahati, Assam, India. The name Amchang is originated from the name of Arleng village named Amcheng located in the heart of the wildlife sanctuary. The sanctuary is known for hosting rare and endangered birds and animals. Amchang's habitat is dominated by tropical moist deciduous forest with semi-evergreen forest in depressions and river-valleys. It is known for its elephants which have become isolated with no movement with other elephant-populations. The first published information of these elephants was found in 1985 There were depredations in the fringe areas, which are part of Guwahati city, the capital of Assam. It was acute as the pachyderms were confined to an isolated forest not very large. Hence, a protected area was mooted. The wild elephants from Amchang often enter parts of Guwahati City but on a few occasions they travelled to the heart of the city. The sanctuary has other mammals such as Chinese pangolin, slow loris, Assamese macaque, rhesus monkey, hoolock gibbon, leopard, leopard cat, jungle cat, sambar, barking deer, red serow, Malayan giant squirrel, crestless Himalayan porcupine. However, it is the presence of an isolated population of gaur or Indian "bison" that has added significance to Amchang. This bovid is also confined to this sanctuary with no links to other areas. Amchang is an Important Bird & Biodiversity Area. The sanctuary has a diverse birdlife. Some noteworthy species found includes White-backed vulture, Slender-billed vulture, White-cheeked hill partridges, Grey peacock pheasant, Kaleej pheasant, Greater adjutant stork mostly in flight, Great pied hornbill, Oriental pied hornbill and Green imperial pigeon among many others. Prior to 2004, the area was made up of three individual reserved forests, the Amchang reserved forest, South Amchang reserved forest and Khanapara reserved forest. These three forests were combined in 2004 by the Assam government to form the sanctuary as it exists today. It is spread over in an area of 78.64 square kilometre
Southern Cardamom National Park is a national park in Cambodia. The protection was established on 9 May 2016 and covers 4,104 km2 (1,585 sq mi) in the southern parts of the Cardamom Mountains. The national park is administratively divided into three sectors; Western Sector, Central Sector and Eastern Sector.
