Abstract

 
 
 In recent years, the separation of people from their land through protected areas and conservation initiatives of local governance has been at the core of criticism in the people–park discourse. However, vital questions remain as to how people maintain cultural relations to parks and their peripheral zones. This paper explores circumstances where people are not entirely disconnected from their culture despite the state management of Mount Cameroon National Park (MCNP) in West Africa. In this example, people uphold subsistence activities and spiritual interaction with ancestors and deities steered under the umbrella of ritual beliefs. Based on an ethnographic inquiry among the Bakweri in the southwest region of Cameroon, we found that factors of remote settlement, an urge for collective assurances among people, and a sense of belonging in an ethnic group enhance a reciprocal attachment between people and place. This observation helps bridge gaps in people–park relations through cultural continuity.
 
 
Highlights
Forestlands in Africa are crucial to the livelihood of local people
For us to understand the cultural continuities among the Bakweri, we need to make a differentiation between two types of land
What do these findings imply for the broader debate about park governance? What we do know is that the people–park discourse has been critical of state-led resource management for distancing people and their cultures from protected areas (Muhumuza and Balkwill, 2013; West et al, 2006)
Summary
Forestlands in Africa are crucial to the livelihood of local people. For this reason, the 1986 African Charter on Indigenous Rights to Land protects the occupancy of ethnic groups on the land (ACHPR and IWGIA, 2005). The need to respect indigenous rights to land became critical in the 1980s when the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) realized that humans contributed to biodiversity loss. Given the importance of maintaining forestlands, African institutions continue seeking options for people to use forests in sustainable ways. In particular, adopted the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity, intending to address conservation and promote the needs of indigenous people living in and around protected areas. Important questions remain as to whether cultural practices persist regardless of this situation
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