Kahuzi-Biega National Park: A review of the availability of land, forests and other natural resources in the hinterland of the high altitude section, eastern DRC
Batwa communities around Kahuzi-Biega National Park were displaced in the 1970s by the creation of the Park and have lived in a situation of landlessness and precarity ever since. For Batwa people, their ancestral lands are essential for their physical and cultural survival – they depend on natural forest resources to live and their connections with the land and forest are a central part of their cultural and spiritual lives.
Kahuzi-Biega National Park is recognised as being the customary land of the Batwa, from which they were expelled when the Park was created.
There is unversal acknowledgement of this fact, but there has never been formal acknowledgement of the injustice of their forced expulsion, nor compensation nor reparations made for that injustice. They continue to live landless, in poverty and are frequently criminalised.
Overview
- Resource Type:
- Briefing Papers
- Publication date:
- 14 May 2021
- Region:
- Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
- Programmes:
- Culture and Knowledge Territorial Governance Conservation and human rights
- Translations:
- French: Terres et communautés: Parc National de Kahuzi-Biega: Disponibilité des terres, forêts et autres ressources naturelles dans l’hinterland de la partie haute altitude du Parc National de Kahuzi Biega, à l’Est de la République Democratique du Congo