‘Fortress Conservation’

The impact on indigenous peoples today

By Colin Luoma

Indigenous peoples in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are widely recognized as the country’s original inhabitants. As placed-based peoples, they possess unique ways of life formed through living in symbiosis with the biodiversity-rich forests of the Congo Basin.  For millennia, they have positively shaped these landscapes while utilizing traditional practices and sustainable resource management. At the same time, forest life has physically sustained these groups, while also serving as the centre of their intellectual, spiritual and cultural life.  As a result, indigenous peoples in the DRC derive their distinct identities from their sacred relationship with the forest.

Colonialism has repeatedly disrupted this delicate, but intimate relationship.   Many indigenous groups in the DRC have been forced off their lands in the name of development, including through industrial logging projects that have done great harm to both the forests and their original custodians. However, a principal threat to indigenous peoples comes from the conservation industry and, in particular, the proliferation of state-managed protected areas in the country.  Protected areas in the DRC– such as national parks, forest reserves, and game reserves – have been created on indigenous territories without obtaining their free, prior and informed consent, as required under international law.

This is often discussed under the banner of ‘fortress conservation’, a term increasingly used to describe approaches to nature conservation that displace indigenous peoples or other land-dependent communities from their lands and territories to establish strictly protected, state-managed protected areas which are then violently policed.  The fortress conservation model demands that huge swathes of land be designated and cordoned off for the benefit of others (Western tourists, scientists and, in some cases, extractive industries), but not the indigenous peoples who have long lived in symbiosis with their natural environments, shaping and responsibly safeguarding them for future generations. Without the right to engage in subsistence activities, including hunting, gathering and cultivating in their traditional ways, indigenous peoples become deeply impoverished and often dependent on other communities who discriminate against them.  

In the Eastern DRC, the indigenous Batwa community of the Kahuzi-Biega forest was violently and abruptly evicted from their home in the forest to pave the way for the creation of the Kahuzi-Biega National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site and tourist destination for those seeking to view the endangered Grauer’s gorillas.  These evictions were conducted without any sort of consultation, compensation or alternative arrangements.  For decades, the Batwa have lived a landless and impoverished existence in host villages on the outskirts of the park, waiting for some resolution to their long-standing exclusion from their lands and resources. When Batwa communities do seek to return to the forest to collect medicinal plants, hunt small animals, visit their sacred sites, or otherwise continue with their communal life in the forest, they are met by extreme violence by a heavily militarized unit of park guards funded, equipped and trained by Western governments and global conservation NGOs. This has resulted in egregious human rights abuses against the Batwa.

The Kahuzi-Biega National Park is just one example of a violent conservation project that has irrevocably disrupted the lives of indigenous peoples and severed their connection to their lands and cultural identities. In the DRC and across the world, fortress conservation poses an existential threat to indigenous peoples and their territories.  It causes immense human suffering, but it also consistently fails to meet environmental expectations and objectives. Indeed, ecosystems very much remain in peril – evidence that state-managed protected areas in the region are failing to meet the collective environmental challenges of our time.  To safeguard the rights of indigenous peoples and to combat the environmental crises facing our planet, we must robustly challenge the insidious idea that people are incompatible with nature and ensure that indigenous peoples are able to own, govern and control their sacred places.

About the author

Colin Luoma - is a Lecturer at Brunel Law School where his research focuses on the intersections between cultural rights, indigenous and minority rights, and environmental justice. He previously was a Legal Researcher for Minority Rights Group International where he worked on litigation, advocacy and research matters concerning biodiversity conservation and the rights of indigenous peoples under international law. He holds a PhD in Law and a Juris Doctor degree and is a qualified lawyer in the United States.